Video Game

Video Game Designer Career Overview

Video games are no longer just child's play. Advancing technology, a growing audience, and a wide diversity of gaming consuls make now an exciting time to get into a video game design career. Video game design ranges from simple on-line computer games to intense 3-D worlds filled with detail. Behind every game are its designers.

The more complex a game and the more complex a gaming system, more people are needed to transform that game from an idea to a reality. From story development to background design to animating characters, there are various job opportunities within the video game design industry.

Video Game Design Training & Education

It is important to be a video game player and enjoy playing video games to decide to follow a career path in video game design. However, simply liking video games is not enough to be able to create a game. There are many schools and programs that teach the skills and provide the experience you will need to enter the field of video game design.

In video game design school, there are several different things you can focus your studies on based upon what specialty you wish to pursue. For example, students that plan to become a programmer should study programming languages such as C++ and java.

Students planning to focus on Character Animation should spend time in drafting and animation classes.

Throughout your training and education it is important to learn how to use different kinds of software and focus on the ones you will need most in your

specialty. There are many different options for training. Some schools offer single courses and take as few as a few weeks to complete. Other options include studying video game animation at two-year institutions or four-year degree offering institutions.

Many of the top video game designers have advanced degrees, such as Master's degrees in computer programming, drawing, or animation.

Video Game Designer Career & Salary Outlook

Video gamming is a multi-billion dollar industry that is rapidly growing. As long as the popularity and the complexity of video games continues to advance, the need for employees and designers will keep on growing.

The highest concentrations of jobs are in California, followed closely by Washington and New York. Not surprisingly, the highest paying jobs for video game designers are in California, Washington, and New York. Salaries depend on level of experience and specialty.

The average starting salary for a video game designer is around $45,000. After a few years of experiences the average salary jumps to around $56,000 and after around six years of experience, the average salary for a video game designer is around $70,000 a year. Video game engineers and programmers will make slightly more on average and video game testers will make less on average. Video game animators will earn approximately the same as average video game designers.

Career Fields/Specializations

Game Designer Career

The job description and responsibilities of a Game Designer, will vary depending on the size and specifications of the company. The video game designer is the creative force behind making video games.

They also might manage other video game designers, work on animation, or even do programming. To become a video game designer, it helps to really love video games. Designers should be great problem solver and fast workers.

Texture Mapper Career

A texture mapper does just that: maps textures. Every element included in a video game, for example the surface of a metal tank, a furry monster or even a leaky sewer system has its own unique texture. It's up to the texture mapper to recreate these different kinds of effects digitally and then apply them to video game characters, levels and backgrounds.

The better the texture mapping, the more convincing, and professional, the game looks. Additionally, a texture mapper must be adept at how fast a gaming system can process graphics and how just how complicated their images can be without slowing down the game.

Video Game Character Animator Career

Character animators envision and create video game characters appropriate for the games they work on. A strong background in graphic design in addition to highly developed skills in computer animation allow animators to construct a games characters.

Character animators should have strong drafting and drawing skills. The character animator creates how the characters look, move, and develop throughout a videogame. Some helpful skills include Maya, 3DS MAX, Softimage XSI, and working knowledge of C++. .

Game Programmer Career

Video game programming is the code, or language, that is the math and logic literally written to make a game work. To break into the field of video game programming, in addition to your love and appreciation for games, you must also be fluent in at least one http://www.guidetoonlineschools.com/video_game_design.htmlvideo game programming language. It is important to learn programming languages such as:

• Visual Basic
• Java
• MEL

Additionally, in depth ability with C++ is not only important to learn, but standard. Anyone applying for a job in video game programming must know C++ very well. Video game programmers also work with many video game designers to assist with the technical aspects of design.

Lighting and Effects Programmer Career

A Lighting and Effects Programmer specializes on seemingly small details that have the power to bring a game to life. As a lighting and effects programmer you will be responsible for specifically writing the code and language to bring the lighting and special effects in video games to existence.

Lighting and Effects programmers must be well versed in the same programming languages as a general programmer. Where the general game programmer's responsibilities are widespread, the lighting and effects programmer will focus on some of the smaller details that bring a game to life.

Level Designer Career

One thing that keeps video games interesting is the setting in which they take place. Different levels add complexity and excitement to a game. It is up to the level designer to design and create different levels in video games. The more complicated a level, the more interesting the game.

The level designer takes into account how video game characters interact with their surroundings in each level. It's important for the level designer to know about video games and more importantly, how people play them. The level designer also knows and creates how the level changes and adapts to the progression of the game's story line and the development of characters.

Game Storyboard Creator Career

The game story board creator creates the visual representations of the story and development of a video game. The game story board creator will often work as part of a creative team that comes up with the original ideas for games.

In part of the planning stages of video game design, the storyboard creator will create the visual to go along with the story or concept of the game they are working on. It is very important that the storyboard creator have strong drafting and drawing skills.