How to become a video game designer

February 21, 2006 3:26 PM

How do you become a video game designer?

My friend would like to become a video game designer. Currently, he has a degree in English and lots of roleplaying game (the *shake, shake, roll the dice sort*) design experience. He would like to design video games professionally though. He's open to going back to school but isn't certain what sort of degree to pursue. If more schooling is required, would he need a bachelor's or associates? What sorts of things could he do to make himself more appealing to video game companies?

posted by dial-tone to work & money (16 comments total)

If he likes to program get a CS degree. If he is more artistic any or no(shutter) degree in any art related major would be fine. The big thing is passion and experience. Download Blender and start to learn 3D modeling and read up about game engines. I work closely with a game studio and their guys run the gambit. They even had a 16 year old kid in here doing a lot of stuff at one point. Just be agressive with trying to learn and trying to get hired.
posted by blueplasticfish at 3:40 PM on February 21, 2006

There are also programs in digital media, like the one at the University of Central Florida, which was developed partly in response to companies like Electronic Arts moving to town. Schools like Full Sail also specialize in both digital arts and design as well as game development. The nice thing about Full Sail is that once you've graduated, you can go back and take classes in new technologies for free.
posted by ThatSomething at 3:51 PM on February 21, 2006

The best, possibly only, way into the business is to start designing games. Many commercial games (eg Unreal Tournament) have incredibly active 'mod' communities and provide the authoring tools to the communities for free. I've personally built a few Unreal Tournament levels from scratch using UnrealEd. Epic Games, who own UT, have been running an annual community competition called 'Make Something Unreal' which basically rewards the best user Mods, maps, skins, mutators, and total conversions with substantial amounts of cash and, more importantly, recognition.

Many people who now work for Epic came up through the UT community (eg Hourences, Dr SiN).

The key thing is to build up a portfolio of stuff you've designed and/or coded. Game design is now very specialized... one person will do Bot AI, another will do netcode, another will do level design, other people will do the 3D work, others the 2D work... you will be expected to be familiar with the appropriate tools etc etc etc.

You can probably go to school to learn some of this but getting involved in an active and professionally run mod team is much more like real game work.

The good news is that most mod teams are desperate for help. The bad news is that it can be tricky to work out which ones have the leadership to get to release.

I recommend Unreal/Epic because they are probably the most friendly company to the community.

Make Something Unreal

Red Orchestra, one of the winners of the Make Something Unreal contest. A community mod which went pro.

Your friend should also register with Gamasutra, which is an insider's website for the gaming industry, and has some excellent articles on getting into the industry, eg

How to Get Started in the
Game Industry: Part 1

How to Get Started in the
Game Industry: Part 2

Email me if you want me to send copies of those articles (behind a login).
posted by unSane at 3:53 PM on February 21, 2006 [1 favorite]

Starting out targeting a design role is probably not realistic. When there is a position of designer or whatever, it's very much a leadership role. Mostly designers have other roles on the team and spend nearly all of their time doing non-design stuff.
posted by joegester at 4:03 PM on February 21, 2006

It's next-to-impossible to get a game design job solely on the basis of being a good designer. As unSane states above, secondary skills are a must, and proving oneself through one's own projects is the best way to get noticed.

If he's interested in casual gaming, then doing projects in Flash or any cell phone language (Java or J2ME, I think) is the way to go.

If he's interested in console design, 3D skills are a must. Learning 3D Studio Max or Maya is pretty much a requirement of designers. And I also second joining the Mod world. Learning Lithtech, Doom3 Engine, or the Half-Life 2 engine are other good places to start besides Unreal (though Unreal is probably the most widely used).

You can also work your way up through the industry into production by starting out doing QA. Having gone this route myself, though, I don't reccomend it unless he's willing to forego his entire life for a couple years and face all the worst aspects of the industry.

Sloperama also offers useful advice, and I second getting a gamasutra account, if for nothing else than the job listings.
posted by Durhey at 4:11 PM on February 21, 2006 [1 favorite]

The best way is probably to rase money yourself and pay developers, etc, to work on it.
posted by delmoi at 5:03 PM on February 21, 2006

Also, keep in mind that from a programming perspective, Game development is the most difficult, and lowest played field.

A game code will be writing physics simulators, hardcore optimized graphics routines, etc, and making $50k/year, and some J2EE coder can make $70-$100k/year knocking out business logic code (code so simple you could do it in your head) and standard forms
posted by delmoi at 5:05 PM on February 21, 2006

Writing is also an important skill to cultivate... most high-level designers I know come from a writing background.
posted by dentata at 5:28 PM on February 21, 2006

If dial-tone's friend has an English degree, I'm guessing he doesn't want to go the programming route.

Design is probably the hardest job in the industry to get into, and the industry is very hard to get into to begin with. There isn't a particular degree or course study that says "hire me!", but a well-rounded education helps. The most impressive thing one can do is actually make a game, or at least create some impressive mods. Find some friends who will do the parts he can't (programming, art, etc).

There is a small but growing need for writers in the industry (again, I'm assuming the English degree implies a strong writing background). Typically they're hired by big-name studios that make role-playing or adventure games. Your friend also might be able to get in that way.

Gamasutra is a must-read, and an excellent place for game job listings. Lost Garden is a superb blog about game design, though it assumes you're already in the business.

Good luck to your friend!
posted by Sibrax at 7:09 PM on February 21, 2006 [1 favorite]

Working in t he game industry is also a killer. Your friend probably thinks that it's all fun and games and thinking of cool ideas. But it's not. It's tons and tons of work. Grunt work. Months (maybe years) of grunt work. 80, 90, 100 hours per week of grunt work.

The average tenure of someone in the gaming industry is 5ish years. Everrybody gets burned out. And by the time they're any good, they leave the industry. Just another perspective, even if it's not a real answer to your question.
posted by zpousman at 7:18 PM on February 21, 2006

Yes, I second the reality check of what the industry is actually like. Reading Gamasutra, it sounds horrific.
posted by unSane at 7:54 PM on February 21, 2006

An english degree will actually be useful in game design, being able to write is very important. There are lots of different types of game design jobs, from the very technical and hands-on (as a level designer) - where you do things like script AI and behavior, place enemies, etc., which is usually the entry level job for game designers. There's also the aspect of writing story lines, coming up with game mechanics, structure and user interface, etc.

There are game design programs at lots of schools now, as others have noted in their posts, but so far, I haven't seen many folks get into the industry that way outside of level design. I think as these programs gain more legitimacy, that will change.

Right now the standard route to a game design job is to start at some other discipline and work your way in. Most will suggest starting in QA and working your way up from there, particularly while focusing on level design with editors for games which have released their toolset (like Unreal, as was mentioned before).

A big thing for your friend to focus on with regard to video game design is to focus on the type of games he would like to create. It sounds like he's into RPGs, which is a good thing, there's lots of MMORPGs out there which have HUGE production and QA teams, and they also rely heavily on their community. They also have wildly active community members with lots of opinions and game design aspirations, though, so that's something to be aware of.

Good luck to your friend!
posted by pazazygeek at 8:20 PM on February 21, 2006

A friend of mine who has his philosophy degree and has role playing game experience was looking at getting into BioWare. As I understand it, a part of their recruiting process is to have the applicant create a module for Neverwinter Nights.

Even if your friend wouldn't be interested in a position with BioWare, that game might be worth checking out as apparently it's a very versatile game-story creation tool.
posted by ODiV at 9:15 PM on February 21, 2006 [1 favorite]

I know a handful of people in the industry and every one of them started designing games of their own long before they actually 'got a gig' in the industry. For all of them, it was the strength of these early projects that landed them their jobs.

One of them made a proof of concept Flash piece that someone else saw and said 'Wow, that's cool!'. A few emails later and there was a job offer.

Just start making stuff. Post it out on the web for people to see and possibly play with. School is nice, but a decent portfolio of work can open a lot of doors.
posted by Rubber Soul at 10:55 PM on February 21, 2006 [1 favorite]

Just as a counterpoint to the doom-and-gloom perspective on the video game industry, my experience in the casual games sector has not been quite so sweatshop-like. Much of the meat grinder nature of the industry comes out of companies like EA, MS, and other first- and third-party AAA console producers. While these are the most high-profile places to work, they're not the only ones by any means.

I got into the industry the "classic" way, by working QA for a few years and looking for any avenue to promote my other skills to employers. The benefit of working in QA is that you learn a whole lot about how video games come together (and, often, what it looks like when they don't). The downside is that your friend will be like 500 other people trying to work their way up. It can be competitive.

Working on mods is a great way to gain experience. It has the beneficial side effect of creating a demo reel that shows off one's ability to envision and execute a project. The industry rewards people who can follow through; having a few finished modules provides that impression. I also recommend playing every and any game he can get his hands on, with analysis in mind. Having a broad range of knowledge about why some games work and others don't is crucial to design.

Full disclosure: I have an English degree, I play lots of RPGs, and I currently design and program casual games. Good luck to your friend.
posted by Errant at 12:30 PM on February 22, 2006 [1 favorite]

The Driver's ED Teacher at my old high school, her husband works for EA Games part time. He's has a masters in computer science and has worked on games like The Sims 2 and NFSMW. He just recently started getting paid for his work. According to him, you pretty much work free for 2 - 3 years at the beginning of your career until they decide if you're good enough at what you do to pay you full time. It's a LOT of grunt work, it's a lot of FREE work, and it's hard as hell to get in.

Good luck to your friend, I hope he makes it.
posted by Hexidecimal at 1:34 PM on February 22, 2006