How to Become a Game Designer Step By Step

If you have a unique view of games and enjoy playing them, becoming a game designer must suit you well. There are a lot of magnificent looking games these days and many people are hooked on games, though it's not good. However, games really accompany people during their spare time. If you have good conceptions about game designing and design it successfully, you may make a name for you.

Before you choose your career as a game designer, you need to think it over. Below are some important steps for you to follow.

Step 1: Understand Game Designer descriptions and responsibilities.

Game designers often work as part of a team to create games. They come up with the games' concepts, characters, setting, story, and game play. They must work with artists and programmers to create the scripting language and artistic vision for a game. Besides working in video games designing, designers can pick a specific career path such as lead designers, content designers, level designers.

Game designers are responsible for different visual aspects, puzzles, quests (their design), and so on. Thus, decent programming knowledge is essential for them.

Step 2: Think before you do: whether is it worth to be a Game designer

An advantage of being a game designer for many people is the ability to do what you love. Working in this industry creates the subjects of their passion. They can also conduct games testing which enables game designers to find bugs, issues and inconsistencies in the flow of the game. This work provides you challenges every day which is exciting for game lovers.

Besides, you can easily make a name for yourself compared to other fields as long as you design a great game.

Though there are many pros which is fascinating, cons are also noteworthy. Before making decisions you should deliberate on them.

Long working hours is normal for game designers as they usually need to add the last touches to the game before it is released. Spending a great amount of time in front of a computer can have negative effects on the eyes and back.

Being a game designer is also very stressful. Spending long hours and keeping thinking are very grinding.

When choosing a career, you must consider pros and cons. If you think pros outweigh cons, it is sensible to take it.

Step 3: Research Best colleges and universities for game designer

1. University of Southern California: USC offers programs for game designers through several schools and colleges, including the Viterbi School of Engineering and the School of Cinematic Arts.

2. DigiPen Institute of Technology: The school offers 10 undergraduate and graduate programs in Art, Design, and Computer Science. The Department of Game Software Design and Production prepares graduates for careers as software architects, gameplay programmers, artificial intelligence programmers, and more.

3. Carnegie Mellon University: The Integrative Design, Arts and Technology (IDeATe) Network connects strengths across the university to advance research, education, and creative practice.

4. Rochester Institute of Technology

5. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

6. University of Utah

7. Michigan State University

8. New York University

9. Georgia Institute of Technology

10. Savannah College of Art and Design

11. The New School

12. University of California – Santa Cruz

13. DePaul University

14. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

15. Ringling College of Art and Design

16. University of Central Florida

17. Northeastern University

18. Full Sail University

19. Champlain College

20. Drexel University

Step 4: Go through College

A bachelor's degree is curial if you want to broaden your career path as a game designer. The most popular route that people take is that they finish high school and go to take their bachelor's degree in computer science, software development, or even game design itself. "Even" indicates that not all universities and colleges offer to teach people specific game designer skills – a lot of them are acquired through learning some other related specialty.

The game design degree includes these common courses: mechanics, game logic, storyboarding, structure of design, how to produce all the documentation that the design team will require of you. If you major in computer science, you must learn operating systems, programming methodologies, algorithms and input/output.

As game designers will work in a specific field, you'd better get access to more subjects and develop your own interests. For example, if you like music, you can take a formal composition course and learn how to write music – games always need soundtracks, and being able to advice on this element will make you a more valuable game designer.

It's important to play games for game designers. Thus, you will be very glad to play games at college when you're free. You can also join a game design club. Some schools have a club designed for students who wish to develop and discuss games outside of the classroom.

Step 5: Internship Opportunity

Internships may feature lower pay and fewer hours, but they are a great way to earn applicable related experience. During your internship, you will be surprised to see that you are not only more mature to being human. Stepping out of the college's ivory tower, you can learn many professional skills and get access to new horizons. Your world can be broadened.

There are many channels to obtain a great internship. You can find much information from loads of websites, from the bottom with Craig's List all the way up to purpose-built job-hunting sites. What's more, colleges can usually provide you with valuable internships. You can also ask your relatives, teachers, classmates and so on.

One of the most important aspects of your job interview is going to be your portfolio. You can improve your portfolio much in internship period. Honestly, it might even be the deciding factor between you getting the job and being shown the door, so to speak.

Step 6: Prepare relevant skills for game designer

1. Creativity

Game designers need to flex your creativity. Making the game more interesting and more exquisite is their goal which can also have a great impact on their careers.

2. Artistic vision

Game designers need aesthetic to design games. Designing style has a direct effect on people's feeling and this can also determine the quality of a game.

3. A passion for video games

Nearly all game designers like playing games. Only by personal experience can a game designer get progress. And if there is no passion, there won't be lasting enthusiasm towards work, especially in game designing field-a competitive one.

Step 7: Find relevant game designer jobs, and apply it.

Though depressing, the truth is that even after completing the required education, getting a job with a game studio can be difficult. The field is competitive and having a lot of talents.

To find a job successfully, the first thing is enhancing your resume. Your resume should include a brief overview of your professional and academic background, and leave the interviewer wanting to read your cover letter. And when you are having an interview, pay attention to being brief but being passionate, showing your enthusiasm and your understanding of the industry.

You may receive a lot of rejection letters when applying for jobs first. Unfortunately, this is all part of the process. Just keep trying and don't give up.

Important Tools for a successful game designer

Tools are indispensable for a successful game designer. Here lists some game designing tools: GameMaker: Studio, Unity, Stencyl, Construct 2, Cocos2D, PlayCanvas, RPG Maker, Marmalade.

Develop your career path

A game designer salary is something that motivates a ton of people to find out how to become a game designer. If you are competent enough, you can earn a large amount of money.

While the position that all game designers aspire to be is the lead designer, before being given the reins over his or her own project a game designer must work in any number of other capacities while bringing games imagined by others to life.