Gaming Professions

The game designer creates the game, but they do so only in their head, while the actual implementation falls to other specialists. They must share their ideas with the rest of the development team, describing the game’s concept down to the smallest detail in a design document.

A game designer can be compared to a film director; his ideas and instructions for other participants become the basis of the game.

It’s the most coveted, but also the most demanding, profession in the industry. Few people know the leading programmers and artists involved in game development, but renowned game designers are household names.

(In Russian-speaking companies, the role of the main “inventor” is performed by the producer, and the game designer is merely the one who formalizes his ideas into a technically competent form).

– Design of game balance;

– Creation of images of game characters;

– Planning the gameplay throughout the game;

– Writing a design document for the game;

– Adjusting the game concept during the development process

A game designer must, first and foremost, be a wise person, knowledgeable in a wide range of fields: history, geography, biology, literature, philosophy, and psychology. After all, they must essentially invent a whole new world, but in a way that is believable and partially reminiscent of the real world.

Moreover, a game designer must have at least a basic understanding of all the specifics of game development processes: genres, game mechanics, map design, and graphic editors. After all, they must assign specific tasks to the developers, and they will fail if they assign tasks that are technically impossible to complete.

Programmers create the core mechanics of games. Their work determines the features a game will feature and how smoothly it will run from a technical standpoint.

The quality of programmers’ work directly impacts the performance of other employees, so they form the core of the team; the entire game development process revolves around them.

– Writing and finalizing program code;

– Creation of game objects, describing their characteristics;

– Creation of basic game mechanics;

– Maintaining the file architecture of the entire project;

– Compilation of the results of all other specialists into the program

A strong technical education is desirable. However, historically, the best programmers are developed through self-study. Universities teach only the basic principles. Practical programming skills can only be acquired through actual work.

The best option is distance learning. However, you’ll need to have good self-discipline to spend your free time on self-study rather than on entertainment.

For amateur games, a game designer and programmer team is sufficient. Artists are most often hired for much larger projects. Therefore, artists tend to specialize greatly. Some focus solely on set design, others on textures, others on modeling, others on animation, and still others on interface design. A generalist artist isn’t needed for large projects. Each area of ​​work requires its own specific practical skills.

– Creation of art based on the game designer’s descriptions;

– Creation of textures, 3D models, graphic special effects, animations;

– Game interface design

A game designer only develops the structure and envisions the game in general terms. Writers only write the story and plot events. The bulk of the actual implementation of the game world is left to the map designers.

– Creation of level landscapes;

– Creation, thinking through the characters’ paths of movement;

– Arrangement of ready-made game objects;

– Creation and arrangement of plot events on levels

If you’re going to study somewhere, it’s best to become a programmer. It will make it easier to understand game scripts. But no one will teach you the basic skills of professional level design anywhere.

The most accessible position for newcomers is a tester. This is a manual laborer who tests games and requires no special skills.

But in our country, it’s not common to have individual people on teams for testing, so it’s better to immediately focus on foreign companies and learn foreign languages.

– Use all game features and their combinations;

– Find and document bugs found during the game

Properly marketing your game is just as important as creating it. In a crowded gaming market, people don’t play what’s best, but what’s already known and familiar.

– Write advertising texts about the game’s features;

– Create and distribute images from the game, videos;

– Communicate with advertising platforms, agree on events;

– Conduct exhibitions and presentations

While each specialist sits in their own corner, focusing on a specific area of ​​work, the manager must see the entire situation as a whole. The producer oversees the entire project, the technical director manages the programmers, the art director oversees the artists, and the financial director oversees the material resources. All are primarily responsible for the end result and must therefore constantly steer the work in the right direction, resolve disagreements, and solve other organizational problems.

– Distribute responsibilities between participants;

– Set precise deadlines and conditions for implementation;

– Motivate and encourage other specialists;

– Plan the consumption of material resources;

– Prevent and eliminate possible problems in the process