Duties and responsibilities of a video game designer

• The video game designer has set of role and responsibilities that are to be performed while working for industry that develops games.
• They need to create the story of the game and explain the game concept to the development team and gather feedback from them.
• They create the document related to the game that comprises the rules of the game, flow charts, game objectives, path, sound and characters etc.
• They even set the technical and commercial goals for the production of games.
• They determine the technical components required to develop the game.
• They need to create characters and write a storyline related to the video game.
• They need to collaborate with graphic designers and graphic artists to develop the game as per the client specifications.
• They make several marketing strategies to promote the game in o the market.
• They need to manager an participate in every phase of the game development that includes requirement gathering , designing, coding, integrating, testing and delivering it to the stakeholders.
• He has to look after the design of obstacles and puzzles in the game and design clues that help the player in difficult situations.
• The need to make sure that the games are developed as per the state gaming laws and don’t violate them.
• The video game designers must make sure that the game that is to be developed is licensed, registered and copy rights are with the company head.
• They need to monitor the functions performed by the entire development team and submit the performance report to the company head.
• They need to train the newly recruited game designers and explain them about the company policies that they follow in game designing.
• He needs to identify the dysfunctional parts in the game.
• On identifying the problem, the need to make necessary modification and make the game error free.

Skills required for the video game designer:

• The video game designer must possess good creativity to design the games in new fashion and it should not resemble any of the old games present in the market.
• Possess good programming knowledge and must be expert in languages like C, C++.
• Possess strong people skills to confer with the game development team and to meet professional in various fields like graphic artists, storyboard writer etc.
• Possess good problem solving skills and interpersonal skills.
• The videogame designer must be able to find out the bugs during testing and fix them.
• Possess good instructing skills to explain the game design and specification to the development team.
• They must have good comprehension skills to understand the concepts given by the clients.
• They must be capable to work on different operating systems.
• Manage time effectively to complete the project or game within the stipulated time and motivates others to meet their goals.

About video game designer:

The video game designer is an IT professional who writes code in order to design the game. They design the complete features of the games like number of cars, bounce level etc. They work along with staff in all other departments like artists, level designers and testers. It is the responsibility of the video game designer to set the rules related to the game and make it in such a way that people such find easy to play. The game designer gathers specification from the client and develops the game as per the requirements. It is the responsibility of the video game designer to develop games that run smoothly on all the types of computers, playstations, Game Boy and Xbox. The video game designers need to have good knowledge about the internal mechanism of all these platforms. They even design the characters, game story, dialogues, background, scene narrations and hints that are given in between the game if needed.

Video gaming is an emerging career and the video game designer uses their creativity in designing and developing the games and help people to recreate them self by playing the games. Some of the popular video games that are played across the world are grand theft auto, mid night race, counter strike and halo etc. They even formulate the outlook and structure of the game. The demand for the video game designer is at highest peaks due to the uncontrollable followers and lover of video games in the present world. The video game designer needs to work on several animations of software like computer aided drafting and design. They design their ideas on the paper and gathers feedback from the staff in development team to proceed further in developing the game or not. The video game designers after developing the game identifies the problems and trouble shoot them by making modifications to the code of the game.

Educational requirements needed for a video game designer

• The video game designer must be well qualified to understand the technical terms related to the gaming field.
• The candidate must have strong desire to develop games and passionate about playing games.
• They interested candidates willing to build up career in gaming industry must possess graduation in art or graphic designing.
• The individual needs to complete the bachelor’s degree in computer science with specialization in engineering, graphic work and mathematical field.
• Some companies even demand for the 3 years degree certificate from any recognized institution with specialization in the game and simulation programming.
• The game developing companies especially hire the candidates with minimum of 5 years experience in the combating gaming field.
• They should have some good idea about the programming languages.
• The candidate seeking associate degree from any college can even take additional training in story board development and using the software Computer Aid Drafting and Design (CADD).
• Video game designer is not an entry level position they need some experience in making graphic work or animations.
• The candidate with master’s degree in computer science has more probability to become video game designer.
• They must have participated actively in open source software development.

How much does a video game designer earn?

The mean salary of the video game designer is $69,000 per annum. The salary of the video game designer alters with the experience, employer type, industry type, location and specialization that they possess in the field.

Years of Experience

• The candidate with less than one year experience can make salary range between $ 29,000 and $ 67,500 per annum and the salary on the hourly basis is between $ 9.34 and $ 15.90.
• For the candidates with one to four years of practical experience, the salary range varies from $ 33,203 and $ 69,129 per annum and the hourly basis salary range is between $ 15.28 and $ 33.20.
• For the video game designer with five to nine years of real time experience, the salary range changes between $ 48,022 and $ 80,275 per annum and the salary range on hourly basis is between $ 18.52 and $ 45.00.
• The individual with ten to nineteen years of practical experience can make salary range between $ 51,521 and $ 92,343 per year and the hourly salary range   between $ 33.92 and $ 53.20.
• The video game designer with real time more than twenty years of experiment can get salary in the range between $ 61,121 and $ 98,122 per annum and the hourly wage range is between $ 38.51 and $ 58.50.

Industry

• Video game designer working in entertainment or game software industry earn an annual salary range between $ 32,973 and $ 67,160.
• The Video game designer working for an industry audio or video or entertainment production industry earns an annual salary range between $ 34,616 and $ 74,427.
• The Video game designer working an industry that manufactures gaming machines earns an annual salary range between $ 36,351 and $ 95,717.
• The Video game designer working in a software development company earns an annual salary range between $ 38,627 and $ 74,217.
• Video game designer working for a company that develops gaming products like play stations etc earns an annual salary range between $ 33,394 and $ 74,359.
• Video game designer working in company that design and manufactures slot machines can typically earn an annual salary range between $ 48,045 and $ 79,920.

Employer Type

• A video game designer when recruited by a company can make and annual salary range in between $ 39,686 and $ 82,997.
• A video game designer when hired by a private or firm practice earns an annual salary in the range between $ 39,382 and $ 83,825.
• A video game designer when he is recruited by a non-profit organization earns an annual salary in the range between $ 46,573 and $ 78,423.
• A video game designer when work independently by establishing his own business can typically make annual salary in the range between $ 39,493 and $ 90,000.
• A video game designer when he signs a contract with a company to complete the project or develop game earns an annual salary in the range between $ 48,400 and $ 80,000.
• A video game designer when he is employed by a college or university earns salary in the range between $ 38,971 and $ 77,957.
• A video game designer when employed by a company that is operated by the government either state or local can earn an annual salary in the range between $ 42,034 and $ 78,816.

Skills and Speciality

• The video game designer when gets mastered in graphic design amongst his other qualifications the annual salary range is between $ 45,329 and $ 81,262.
• The video game designer when he has idea about the Adobe Photoshop apart from his other educational qualifications, the annual salary range is between $ 45,483 and $ 82,504.
• A video game designer specialized in Autodesk Maya along with his other educational qualifications can make annual salary in the range between $ 39,328 and $ 80,879.
• A video game designer when becomes familiar with the programming languages like C, C++can make an annual salary in the range between $ 38,222 and $ 81,205.
• A video game designer when idea about basic concepts of Object Oriented Programming (OOP) amongst his other qualifications the annual salary range is between $ 38,660 and $ 62,272.

The ratio of the male to female video game designers employed in various game production industries is 67% to 33%.