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Let’s discuss a Career Option where Passion Meets
Profession. Welcome to the world of Game Design…
Career in Game Design:
Many of us have spent our childhood days playing video
games and computer games such as Super Mario, Road Rash, Mortal Combat, and
Need for Speed. Kids and teenagers today are hooked onto games such as Angry
Birds, Farmville, Rock Band, Grand Theft Auto, Counter strike, and Ages of
Empires. If you are crazy about playing video games, and possess a creative and
logical flair for designing, then you may consider a career in game design.
Personality
Attributes:
Possessing strong interest and liking for video and computer games is
the first basic criteria for being a professional game designer. But that is
not all. You should be good in drawing and sketching. You need to be creative,
innovative, detail oriented, patient, and systematic in your work. A successful
game design is only possible by a combined effort of several gaming
professionals. Thus you should have the capability to work well in a team or
group setting. Other skills required are strong analytical, time management and
leadership skills. As a game designer, you should also possess good sense of
colour, size, proportion, excellent visualization power, and follow a
multidimensional approach to design. You need to follow the 3 C’s –
coordination, cooperation, and conciliation.
Scope of Opportunities:
There are several parts to designing a game. Developing the overall
theme, design, storyline, characters, animation, programming, level setup,
sound effects, background setup are some of the stages involved in game design.
Thus several people are involved in creating a game. You could be working as a
game designer, game developer, game programmer, game artist, game tester, game
script writer, game manager, network programmer or sound engineer. Game
Designer is responsible for the playability, fun factor, game level designing,
and user interface of the game. Game Developer works on software development
and deciding the rules and theme of the game. Game Artist uses his/her
creativity to create characters and animate them in 2D and 3D. Game Programmer
is involved in designing and developing the program code of the game. Game
Tester performs quality assurance and works on finding mistakes and bugs in the
game. Game Script Writer creates the story of the game, and writes dialogues
for various characters in the game. Sound Engineer is responsible for the
overall acoustics and sound effects of the game such as explosions, crowd
noises, and stormy weather conditions. Network Programmer develops the program
code for game usability on the Internet or LAN setup. Game Manager ensures that
the game is developed on time and within budget.
Education
Qualifications:
If you are looking for a job role such as game designer, developer, programmer
or engineer then you should possess strong technical background in computer
science, programming, networking, engineering, and information technology. Thus,
a graduate/postgraduate in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Computer
Applications and Information Technology would be preferred for these job roles.
If you are applying for job as a game artist, sketch artist, storyboard artist,
or script writer, then you should possess strong creative background in
animation, 3D modelling, visual communication, graphics, VFX, sketching, caricature
art, and creative writing. A graduate / postgraduate in Animation, VFX, Fine
Arts, Game Art, and Digital Media would be preferred for these job roles. With
growing interest in the field of game designing, many institutes are now
offering courses with a specific focus on game art, game development, and game
design.
Pros and Cons:
Pros: First of
all, career in game design provides you a platform where your profession and
passion are the same. If you are skilled in your work, you can get a good
salary. Since this field requires you to be creative and logical, you get 360° knowledge of both the fields
of Arts and Information Technology.
Cons: This career requires a detail oriented
approach. You will be following tight schedules, and you should possess the
ability to work in stress and pressure situations. Also, working hours can stretch
to 10-15 hours a day. Since this is an evolving career in India, there are
limited job opportunities. However, the scope of growth of gaming industry is
very high.
For all your career queries, reach out to me on
farzad.damania@gmail.com or 9833971773.
