Game designers are the developers and designers of specialized software. A career as a Game Designer includes visualizing, planning, and also designing computer and video games. They work with a team of professionals that helps in managing budget, project timelines, and work schedules. Game designers have to design levels, puzzles, characters, storylines, animation, and art. They also use computer programming languages to write codes.
Gaming has become an important division in the social and economic world of the modern age. Like the other hobbies, the youth of today considers gaming as an essential hobby and also recreational activity. Many of them invest a major part of their day in gaming wanting to take it up as a profession. The gaming industry has been flourishing all across the globe with an increasing number of students who wish to pursue a career in game designing after their 12th. Looking at the tremendous growth in the entertainment industry there have been a lot of colleges and also universities offering exceptional prospects for students to find their skill and creativity in gaming.
Though the terms “video game design” and “video game development” are often used interchangeably—especially by those outside the industry—they mean very different things. If you’re trying to establish a career in the video game industry, it’s important to have a clear understanding of what these differences are.
Game designing includes defining the structure, maps, stages, characters, and also vehicles in a game. Including the interface and the modes on how the role of the game would work. Aspects like which age group is the game applicable to, how to make it accessible and user friendly, understanding the market demands and also incorporating it, adding challenges, and making it graphically stimulating are aspects that are taken into consideration by game designers.
Emerging Trends in the Game Designing Industry
Jobs that could be pulled off in the gaming industry are endless. From game conceptualization, environment designing, coding, character design, and also enhancing graphics there is a little something for all the students who would want to pursue their career in designing and programming games. There have been new trends in gaming coming up to the light, which means developers would have to adapt them to succeed.
In the current scenario, there has been a ‘Greater Shift’ to streaming games with faster connections like 4G and 5G along with games moving to cloud computing. As 5G is the newest upcoming trend mobile connection speed rates are going to shoot the roof. Through which there’ll be an ability for users to stream games online and them.
Latest News on Game Designing
We can take the instance of Apple in September 2019, where they had launched a new subscription in gaming services. As a part of this Apple is teaming up with both indie developers and big-name companies in the game designing industry. They would launch exclusive and new games every week or every month for the users. For 2020 – 2021 this would mean there would be a huge demand for game designers and also developers with whom apple would want to team up. They would meet their guidelines for the development of new games specifically for Apple Arcade.
Moving forward as years have passed gaming has evolved from 2D to 3D to High-resolution graphics to what comes next is virtual reality and also augmented reality. These are two technologies that recently have become the lifeline for game development as they’re highly appreciated by the users as well. AR and VR reality are billion-dollar industries that will bring a lot of earnings to users all across the world. PS4 was one of the consoles which have introduced VR gaming and also made millions as its games kept the users engaged and merged the games socially. There is a lot of scope in VR game designing and the industry is going to expand.
Game Designing Courses after 12th Grade
Game designing has emerged as a career a lot of people are inclined to and is an area people are pursuing higher studies in. Universities across the world are providing diplomas, certificate courses, undergraduate and graduate degrees in game design. These are available in both an online and an offline manner.
Certificate level courses
- Certificate course in Gaming
- Game Art and Game designing
Diploma courses
- Game designing
- Diploma in Game Design and Integration
- Professional Diploma in Game Art
- The diploma in Animation, Gaming, and special effects
- Advanced diploma in game programming
- Diploma/Advanced diploma in game design and development application
- Diploma/Advanced diploma in 3D Game Content creation
- Diploma in game development
- Diploma in Amination and special effects
Bachelor’s degrees
- B.A. in digital filmmaking and animation/Animation and Computer graphics/
- B.A. (Hons) Computer game designing
- B.Sc. in Graphics/Gaming/Animation and Gaming/Graphics animation and Gaming/Animation game design and development
- B.Tech in computer science and game development
- Bachelor’s of Information technology/Art- User experience design
Master’s Degree
- M.Sc. in gaming/game designing and development/multimedia and animation/
- Master in Computer Graphics and Virtual Reality
There are many colleges in India like National Institute of Design; Bhartiya Vidyapeeth, Pune; Zee Institute of Creative Arts, Bangalore; Pixio Animation College, Bangalore; Lovely Professional University; Academy of Animation and Gaming, Noida that are popular for these courses. Some internationally acclaimed colleges for game designing courses are New York University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, The Art Institute of California, University of Southampton, University of Arts, London, Glasgow Caledonian University, University of Toronto, etc.
What are the skills required for a career in game design?
1. Conceptualizing Projects
All video games are born from a concept. If you choose to work as a self-employed designer, you should be able to develop your concepts. If you work at a studio, you’ll be working with a team of other designers. The idea of a game is more than just a vague story idea; it includes gameplay, layout, storylines, characters, scenarios, maps, difficulty levels, and many other details.
A game designer needs to have an eye for detail to conceptualize and incorporate the intricacy that games demand. For example, designers will have to decide small details like how fast characters can move and how high they can jump as well as make complex decisions like how powerful a character can be.
2. Bringing Concepts to Life
A competent game designer can express his/her concepts and communicate those with others involved in bringing the game to life. The characters, maps, and layout need to be communicated clearly to the rest of the team. This is done with computerized drawings, created by using both 2D and 3D graphic design software.
After the designer has thoroughly set up the concept with drawings, other members of the team can do their part. The game artists create images that will appear in the finished game, and the programmers bring these ideas on-screen with their code.
A common stereotype about game designing is that they are entirely creative and not at all analytical, which couldn’t be further from the truth.
Game designers need to use math and logic to figure out how different parts of the game can be brought out appealingly. Although they might not need quite as much math as a programmer. They frequently call upon algebraic formulas when deciding how different parts of a game should work.
What are the skills you will develop as you go deeper into game design?
Learning on the job is a part of every career. After you have all the prerequisites of becoming a game designer, you will learn many valuable lessons with each experience.
1. Teamwork: A game has many facets, and it doesn’t attain perfection unless different people lend a hand. If you want your concept to come out as its best version, you will need to be able to work with a team.
2. Creativity: As you become a more experienced designer, you will gain in-depth knowledge of the industry and will be able to think in a unique way that gives you an edge over others.
3. Effective Communication: The need to communicate your concept in the most effective way will help you improve your communication skills and help you express yourself more tangibly.
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Top Reasons to Consider a Video Game Design Career
Here are some reasons why it might be a good idea to consider a video game design career:
1. Enjoy job security. Given the public’s seemingly insatiable thirst for gaming and the video game industry’s annual earnings of tens of billions of dollars, a video game design career is a pretty safe bet when it comes to continuous employment.
2. Create art. Video game design careers have evolved in recent years. A far cry from the early days of “Pac-Man,” many of today’s video games rival feature-length films in terms of the artistry involved. As Alex Pham notes in his LA Times article, today’s video game designers “invent characters, write dialogue, compose music, create digital scenes and write the software that rules these fantasy worlds.”
3. Work in a casual environment. As you’d probably guess, your video game design career won’t require you to have many three-piece suits in your closet. In a blog post for the website Gamasutra, game designer Anthony Hart-Jones writes of enjoying “company-sponsored paint-balling and karting…and even paid sick leave if you happen to do something stupid like break your coccyx falling down the stairs.”
4. Choose the job that suits your talent. As video games become ever more complex, there’s room for more specialization when it comes to your video game design career. Whether you’re drawn to writing narratives, creating graphics, producing sound effects, or doing the actual coding that allows games to run, you’ll likely be able to focus mainly on the parts of video game design you like best.
Conclusion
The career scope in game design is immense. After pursuing some educational qualification or gaining technical experience in the domain, students can work in a wide variety of areas. These job roles can be 2D-3D designers, game programmers, systems designers, character artists, writers, story writers, graphic directors, game testing, quality control, animators, graphic designers, etc. Companies like Microsoft Xbox, King, Ubisoft, Sony Computer Entertainment, and also Tencent games are considered a few of the best in the world.
The future of game design looks bright, pursuing it in today’s era looks like a golden opportunity and interested individuals should look forward to pursuing a career in the industry!