How to Become a Game Designer

Many want a career as a Game Designer, but to succeed you need a competitive edge. Gaining relevant and respected qualifications is as important as being open to opportunities to volunteer or take up an internship at an established company. Here we discuss how many have been able to start in the industry, beating significant competition.

Game Design

Game designers are not the same as game developers, though they are often confused.  Game designers and developers study, train and work differently. Game designers create novel game ideas and models along with a story. In contrast, game developers put the nuts and bolts of the game together, bringing the design to life in the same way that engineers make the cars we drive.

Game designers need to understand the role of a game developer and how their roles entwine. Most professional game designers hone their skills at college, understanding how their stories are transformed by developers so that they can provide all the documents needed to the development team to make great games published on sites like Slot Planet Casino. The newest games designs have equal optimisation allowing games to be accessed across devices.

Quality training

To be a game designer you must be able to communicate about design, both good and bad.  Whilst the worst video games are easy to pull apart, talking about games that are well designed is a critical skill needed to explain your ideas to a development team and also at interview.  

Bad design

The root cause of a bad design needs to be identified to be fixed. Proposed improvements to the design need to be practical and also take into consideration how this could affect other layers in the chain. This needs to be done for each flaw, most of which will be minor though you may find a fault that changes the game significantly.

Good design

Good design “feels right” which can make it difficult to specify exactly what is good about the design.  One way to clarify your thinking is to swap a mechanism that you think works well with another mechanism and note the changes. Questioning why a design decision has been made can also be helpful, though designers may be limited by a number of factors including finance and deadlines.

Game designer career path

The best games designers have taken many different paths to starting their career as a games designer. The most common route involves taking a college course in game design together with opportunities whilst a student to take on internships or work experience at a company that best fits your style. The hope is that this will lead you to your first post as a game designer for a reputable company, in a junior position.

Alternative routes

There are a multitude of other paths, which include business training, setting up on your own and starting your own studio. Having worked as a junior designer, career progression would usually see progression to a senior designer and then a lead designer on a project. Some designers then go on to start their own consultancy or studio, but few map out their career so far in advance, trying different routes over the years through networking, open to available opportunities.