Game design is a young profession, and therefore, to start a career in this area, you do not need to spend years studying. There are many examples of how people from other fields of activity and without higher education became successful game designers.
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What does it take to start a successful career in game design? Experts are sure that there is not much. It is extremely important to have a rich gaming experience: you cannot focus only on your favorite genres or specific games, you should get acquainted with a lot of things – even those that you don’t like, because everything can be useful in your work. It is equally important to be widely read and read: games, of course, are important, but inspiration can be found in films, books and TV shows.
Solid Snake, for example, appeared thanks to the movie Escape from New York, where the main character was named Snake Pliskin.
A game designer, by virtue of his profession, must write a lot, so good knowledge of Russian and English languages will be useful. For the same reason, you need to be able to speak well and clearly: a game designer is in many ways a leader, and a poorly set task can lead to problems in the final product.
Perhaps, these skills can be called key for a future game designer. Knowledge in related areas will also not interfere: for example, basic drawing skills will help you visualize an idea faster, and knowledge of programming languages will allow you to build communication with developers more efficiently, and when evaluating work, you will also make minor edits if necessary.
Separately, I would like to remind you that for all its attractiveness, game design remains work – often monotonous and painstaking, for which you also need to be mentally prepared. And if this does not scare you, and all the above skills are already there (or you are ready to improve them), perhaps you are exactly the one the gaming industry needs.
Often a designer’s job looks like this. This is, for example, calculating the balance of cities in Sim City. Source: twitter.com/StoneLibrande
There are not so few vacancies for game designers: many even large studios continue to expand their staff, besides, almost any company is ready to open a new position for a truly talented person. Salary levels also make the destination attractive: recent large survey showedthat a game designer in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus earns an average of $ 1,200 per month, which is quite a decent figure, especially given the problems associated with the coronavirus. The only drawback is that almost always a potential employer is looking for an employee with relevant experience. But how do you become a game designer if everyone is expecting work experience from you?
There are several ways to solve the problem. The first one is to join some indie team and start working with it. A major disadvantage of this approach is that many such studios, created with sheer enthusiasm, do not bring their games to release, plus they almost never get paid to work on such projects.
The second way is similar to the first, with the only difference that you can try to create the game yourself. The pitfalls are about the same: you have to play the game in your free time from work (or study), moreover, in the process you can easily “burn out”. Or make money trying to bring the project to perfection: for example, Eric Baron, the creator of Stardew Valley, spent five years on a dream game and all this time he lived at the expense of his girlfriend. In the end it paid off, but is everyone ready for such adventures?
Stardew valley
Finally, the game design courses that can be taken online seem to be the safest option. For example, Skillbox is currently recruiting for a training course from scratch. Within its framework, professional game designers will use real examples to tell you how the industry really works, explain the subtleties of development, and give advice on balancing and monetizing your future games.
More importantly, during your studies, you will be able to create five full-fledged games that you can add to your resume, and course graduates will receive professional advice and assistance in finding a job. A nice bonus is the fact that the courses are easily combined with work, study and other activities. For those who doubt, Skillbox offers favorable conditions: course can be purchased by installments with a 40% discount, the monthly payment will be only ₽3 968. Cybersport.ru readers can do get a 50% discount with the cybersport promo code – it must be called to the manager in a telephone conversation.
It is not so difficult to become a part of the gaming industry, and in a pandemic, when we all began to be almost always at home, this dream has become even more accessible. If you love games as much as we do, maybe it’s time to take this chance?
