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Video Game Designers

It's a bright outlook for

This career will grow rapidly in the next few years.

Learn more about what they do.

Design core features of video games. Specify innovative game and role-play mechanics, story lines, and character biographies. Create and maintain design documentation. Guide and collaborate with production staff to produce games as designed.

Related: Graphic Designers Software Developers Special Effects Artists & Animators Web & Digital Interface Designers Web Developers

Industries: Professional, Science, & Technical Media & Communication

Summary
Details

Document all aspects of formal game design, using mock-up screenshots, sample menu layouts, gameplay flowcharts, and other graphical devices.
Devise missions, challenges, or puzzles to be encountered in game play.
Consult with multiple stakeholders to define requirements and implement online features.
Create and manage documentation, production schedules, prototyping goals, and communication plans in collaboration with production staff.
Create gameplay prototypes for presentation to creative and technical staff and management.
Oversee gameplay testing to ensure intended gaming experience and game adherence to original vision.
Solicit, obtain, and integrate feedback from design and technical staff into original game design.
Create core game features, including storylines, role-play mechanics, and character biographies for a new video game or game franchise.
Present new game design concepts to management and technical colleagues, including artists, animators, and programmers.
Review or evaluate competitive products, film, music, television, and other art forms to generate new game design ideas.
Write or supervise the writing of game text and dialogue.
Balance and adjust gameplay experiences to ensure the critical and commercial success of the product.
Provide feedback to production staff regarding technical game qualities or adherence to original design.
Keep abreast of game design technology and techniques, industry trends, or audience interests, reactions, and needs by reviewing current literature, talking with colleagues, participating in educational programs, attending meetings or workshops, or participating in professional organizations or conferences.
Provide test specifications to quality assurance staff.
Write or supervise the writing of game text and dialogue.
Prepare and revise initial game sketches using two- and three-dimensional graphical design software.
Determine supplementary virtual features, such as currency, item catalog, menu design, and audio direction.
Develop and maintain design level documentation, including mechanics, guidelines, and mission outlines.
Create gameplay test plans for internal and external test groups.
Create and manage documentation, production schedules, prototyping goals, and communication plans in collaboration with production staff.
Guide design discussions between development teams.
Prepare two-dimensional concept layouts or three-dimensional mock-ups.
Collaborate with artists to achieve appropriate visual style.
Provide feedback to designers and other colleagues regarding game design features.
Develop and maintain design level documentation, including mechanics, guidelines, and mission outlines.
Conduct regular design reviews throughout the game development process.

Complex Problem Solving
- Noticing a problem and figuring out the best way to solve it.
Learning Strategies
- Using the best training or teaching strategies for learning new things.
Management of Material Resources
- Managing equipment and materials.
Programming
- Writing computer programs.
Coordination
- Changing what is done based on other people's actions.
Instructing
- Teaching people how to do something.
Operation and Control
- Using equipment or systems.
Mathematics
- Using math to solve problems.
Technology Design
- Making equipment and technology useful for customers.
Speaking
- Talking to others.
Systems Analysis
- Figuring out how a system should work and how changes in the future will affect it.
Equipment Selection
- Deciding what kind of tools and equipment are needed to do a job.
Systems Evaluation
- Measuring how well a system is working and how to improve it.
Installation
- Installing equipment, machines, wiring, or computer programs.
Judgment and Decision Making
- Thinking about the pros and cons of different options and picking the best one.
Management of Financial Resources
- Making spending decisions and keeping track of what is spent.
Repairing
- Repairing machines or systems using the right tools.
Critical Thinking
- Thinking about the pros and cons of different ways to solve a problem.
Operations Monitoring
- Watching gauges, dials, or display screens to make sure a machine is working.
Service Orientation
- Looking for ways to help people.
Social Perceptiveness
- Understanding people's reactions.
Active Learning
- Figuring out how to use new ideas or things.
Negotiation
- Bringing people together to solve differences.
Quality Control Analysis
- Testing how well a product or service works.
Time Management
- Managing your time and the time of other people.
Equipment Maintenance
- Planning and doing the basic maintenance on equipment.
Writing
- Writing things for co-workers or customers.
Management of Personnel Resources
- Selecting and managing the best workers for a job.
Monitoring
- Keeping track of how well people and/or groups are doing in order to make improvements.
Active Listening
- Listening to others, not interrupting, and asking good questions.
Reading Comprehension
- Reading work-related information.
Troubleshooting
- Figuring out what is causing equipment, machines, wiring, or computer programs to not work.
Science
- Using scientific rules and strategies to solve problems.
Operations Analysis
- Figuring out what a product or service needs to be able to do.
Persuasion
- Talking people into changing their minds or their behavior.

Fluency of Ideas
- Coming up with lots of ideas.
Selective Attention
- Paying attention to something without being distracted.
Information Ordering
- Ordering or arranging things.
Dynamic Strength
- Exercising for a long time without your muscles getting tired.
Oral Expression
- Communicating by speaking.
Night Vision
- Seeing at night or under low light.
Gross Body Coordination
- Moving your arms, legs, and mid-section together while your whole body is moving.
Number Facility
- Adding, subtracting, multiplying, or dividing.
Rate Control
- Changing when and how fast you move based on how something else is moving.
Hearing Sensitivity
- Telling the difference between sounds.
Mathematical Reasoning
- Choosing the right type of math to solve a problem.
Spatial Orientation
- Knowing where things are around you.
Perceptual Speed
- Quickly comparing groups of letters, numbers, pictures, or other things.
Trunk Strength
- Using your lower back and stomach.
Stamina
- Exercising for a long time without getting out of breath.
Arm-Hand Steadiness
- Keeping your arm or hand steady.
Flexibility of Closure
- Seeing hidden patterns.
Gross Body Equilibrium
- Keeping your balance or staying upright.
Response Orientation
- Quickly deciding if you should move your hand, foot, or other body part.
Memorization
- Remembering words, numbers, pictures, or steps.
Visualization
- Imagining how something will look after it is moved around or changed.
Problem Sensitivity
- Noticing when problems happen.
Far Vision
- Seeing details that are far away.
Wrist-Finger Speed
- Making fast, simple, repeated movements of your fingers, hands, and wrists.
Depth Perception
- Deciding which thing is closer or farther away from you, or deciding how far away it is from you.
Inductive Reasoning
- Making general rules or coming up with answers from lots of detailed information.
Finger Dexterity
- Putting together small parts with your fingers.
Multilimb Coordination
- Using your arms and/or legs together while sitting, standing, or lying down.
Explosive Strength
- Jumping, sprinting, or throwing something.
Speech Clarity
- Speaking clearly.
Oral Comprehension
- Listening and understanding what people say.
Speed of Limb Movement
- Quickly moving your arms and legs.
Control Precision
- Quickly changing the controls of a machine, car, truck or boat.
Deductive Reasoning
- Using rules to solve problems.
Near Vision
- Seeing details up close.
Peripheral Vision
- Seeing something to your side when your are looking ahead.
Time Sharing
- Doing two or more things at the same time.
Visual Color Discrimination
- Noticing the difference between colors, including shades and brightness.
Speed of Closure
- Quickly knowing what you are looking at.
Written Expression
- Communicating by writing.
Dynamic Flexibility
- Quickly and repeatedly bending, stretching, twisting, or reaching out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
Reaction Time
- Quickly moving your hand, finger, or foot based on a sound, light, picture or other command.
Originality
- Creating new and original ideas.
Auditory Attention
- Paying attention to one sound while there are other distracting sounds.
Static Strength
- Lifting, pushing, pulling, or carrying.
Extent Flexibility
- Bending, stretching, twisting, or reaching with your body, arms, and/or legs.
Category Flexibility
- Grouping things in different ways.
Written Comprehension
- Reading and understanding what is written.
Sound Localization
- Noticing the direction that a sound came from.
Speech Recognition
- Recognizing spoken words.
Glare Sensitivity
- Seeing something even if there is a glare or very bright light.
Manual Dexterity
- Holding or moving items with your hands.

Administrative
- Knowledge of administrative and office procedures and systems such as word processing, managing files and records, stenography and transcription, designing forms, and workplace terminology.
Law and Government
- Knowledge of laws, legal codes, court procedures, precedents, government regulations, executive orders, agency rules, and the democratic political process.
Medicine and Dentistry
- Knowledge of the information and techniques needed to diagnose and treat human injuries, diseases, and deformities. This includes symptoms, treatment alternatives, drug properties and interactions, and preventive health-care measures.
History and Archeology
- Knowledge of historical events and their causes, indicators, and effects on civilizations and cultures.
Philosophy and Theology
- Knowledge of different philosophical systems and religions. This includes their basic principles, values, ethics, ways of thinking, customs, practices, and their impact on human culture.
Mechanical
- Knowledge of machines and tools, including their designs, uses, repair, and maintenance.
Mathematics
- Knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, statistics, and their applications.
Sociology and Anthropology
- Knowledge of group behavior and dynamics, societal trends and influences, human migrations, ethnicity, cultures, and their history and origins.
Production and Processing
- Knowledge of raw materials, production processes, quality control, costs, and other techniques for maximizing the effective manufacture and distribution of goods.
Personnel and Human Resources
- Knowledge of principles and procedures for personnel recruitment, selection, training, compensation and benefits, labor relations and negotiation, and personnel information systems.
Economics and Accounting
- Knowledge of economic and accounting principles and practices, the financial markets, banking, and the analysis and reporting of financial data.
Administration and Management
- Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
Telecommunications
- Knowledge of transmission, broadcasting, switching, control, and operation of telecommunications systems.
Communications and Media
- Knowledge of media production, communication, and dissemination techniques and methods. This includes alternative ways to inform and entertain via written, oral, and visual media.
Customer and Personal Service
- Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
Therapy and Counseling
- Knowledge of principles, methods, and procedures for diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of physical and mental dysfunctions, and for career counseling and guidance.
Education and Training
- Knowledge of principles and methods for curriculum and training design, teaching and instruction for individuals and groups, and the measurement of training effects.
Food Production
- Knowledge of techniques and equipment for planting, growing, and harvesting food products (both plant and animal) for consumption, including storage/handling techniques.
English Language
- Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
Foreign Language
- Knowledge of the structure and content of a foreign (non-English) language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition and grammar, and pronunciation.
Fine Arts
- Knowledge of the theory and techniques required to compose, produce, and perform works of music, dance, visual arts, drama, and sculpture.
Public Safety and Security
- Knowledge of relevant equipment, policies, procedures, and strategies to promote effective local, state, or national security operations for the protection of people, data, property, and institutions.
Computers and Electronics
- Knowledge of circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming.
Engineering and Technology
- Knowledge of the practical application of engineering science and technology. This includes applying principles, techniques, procedures, and equipment to the design and production of various goods and services.
Building and Construction
- Knowledge of materials, methods, and the tools involved in the construction or repair of houses, buildings, or other structures such as highways and roads.
Chemistry
- Knowledge of the chemical composition, structure, and properties of substances and of the chemical processes and transformations that they undergo. This includes uses of chemicals and their interactions, danger signs, production techniques, and disposal methods.
Biology
- Knowledge of plant and animal organisms, their tissues, cells, functions, interdependencies, and interactions with each other and the environment.
Design
- Knowledge of design techniques, tools, and principles involved in production of precision technical plans, blueprints, drawings, and models.
Physics
- Knowledge and prediction of physical principles, laws, their interrelationships, and applications to understanding fluid, material, and atmospheric dynamics, and mechanical, electrical, atomic and sub-atomic structures and processes.
Psychology
- Knowledge of human behavior and performance; individual differences in ability, personality, and interests; learning and motivation; psychological research methods; and the assessment and treatment of behavioral and affective disorders.
Sales and Marketing
- Knowledge of principles and methods for showing, promoting, and selling products or services. This includes marketing strategy and tactics, product demonstration, sales techniques, and sales control systems.
Transportation
- Knowledge of principles and methods for moving people or goods by air, rail, sea, or road, including the relative costs and benefits.
Geography
- Knowledge of principles and methods for describing the features of land, sea, and air masses, including their physical characteristics, locations, interrelationships, and distribution of plant, animal, and human life.

Education

Bachelor's degree

Work Experience

No work experience

Training

No on-the-job training

Education and Training Opportunities

Washington Annual Salary

126960/yr

Washington Hourly Wage

61.04/hr

Currently Employed

138,800

Yearly Projected Openings

9900

Artistic: People interested in this work like activities that include creating, designing, and making your own rules. They do well at jobs that need:

Adaptability/Flexibility
Cooperation
Attention to Detail
Initiative
Achievement/Effort
Persistence

Audioconferencing systems
Desktop computers
Fixed computer gaming console
Mobile phones
Notebook computers
Personal computers
Scanners
Tablet computers

Analytical or scientific software
Configuration management software
Data base management system software
Data base user interface and query software
Development environment software
Device drivers or system software
Electronic mail software
Enterprise application integration software
Graphical user interface development software
Graphics or photo imaging software
Metadata management software
Object or component oriented development software
Office suite software
Operating system software
Presentation software
Process mapping and design software
Project management software
Spreadsheet software
Video creation and editing software
Web platform development software
Word processing software

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