In the terrible economic conditions, the video game industry continues to do well. In fact, the well-known retailer, Gamestop, is forecasting double digits growth on sales for 2009 (source: Marketwatch). That’s great news if you’re someone who is looking for a career in the video game field.
But what would you do in the video game industry? What career path? Want to be in game art design? How about video game programming? Hey, want to be a video game tester?
Making a video game today is kinda like making a movie. In fact, some video games have budgets that are as a big or bigger than movies. Popular games like Halo or Star Wars take a couple of years to make and require budgets in the millions of dollars. But that’s ok because they return back ten times more.
What do video game makers spend their money on? Well, in a movie, for example, actors, directors, camera crew, make-up artists, wardrobe consultants, sound specialists, and other production personnel are hired. Video games are the same, except they hire people with very different and specialized talent.
What are the video game jobs?
When it comes to choosing a career, it is good to find out as much as you can about it before diving in. In the video game industry, there are various positions that are needed in order to create a finished product. Below are just some of them:
VIDEO GAME TESTERS – Many who aspire to work in the video game industry already know about this job. The responsibility is a little more than the title led some to believe. In other software industry, this job is usually called Quality Assurance. Those who work as video game testers are the ones who stress test the games, find bugs, and record them. They also give feedback on playability and anything else the developers and producers ask of them to watch out for.
2-D CONCEPT ARTISTS – These guys almost always have an arts degree or a strong portfolio of making creative images, whether digital or not. They are artists and they flesh out ideas on screen or paper before any real work takes place.
3-D CHARACTER DESIGNERS – These are the guys who made Master Chief come alive. They take the character design on paper and translate it to the computer. They make sure that the character’s look is consistent as a gamer pans 360 degrees.
3-D OBJECT MODELERS – Do you like how that Brute Plasma Rifle look (Halo 2)? How about the sharp new Manslayer of the Qiraji two-handed sword (World of Warcraft)? The ones to thank for these cool things that we can get in the games are object modelers. They design the things we interact with in a video game world. To get a job as a 3D object modeler, you must have strong education or experience with software rendering programs.
INTERACTIVITY DESIGNERS – In any video game, there is always a way to reward the gamer. Whether it’s killing the dragon, vanquishing evil demons, or defeating an invading horde of orcs, a gamer has to do something to beat the game. Even in open-ended games like World of Warcraft, a quest has a reward at the end. Interactive game designers are the ones responsible for setting up the game play rules so that the experience is challenging and cool.
BACKGROUND ARTISTS – The job of background artists is to transform the experience of the gamer into a new world that they can only see through a computer screen. There’s a lot of creativity and imagination involved. This job typically requires someone with an art degree or a strong portfolio in creative digital images. Some schools call their programs game art and design degrees.
The list above is just a small group of jobs requiring creativity and love for video games. For some of these jobs, the skills necessary can be obtained through experience, but many of the companies who hire for the position requires a degree in game art design or something similar. Researching the position that you want will help you a lot because it may have different requirements.
Lastly, whether or not video games have recession proof careers is still a matter of opinion. The trends certainly favors it. And time will tell.
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