How to Become a Pro Video Game Designer: Learn Video Game Design the Smart Way

You want to learn how to become a game designer?

Please don’t read that with a derisive tone; you really want to design games, and you’re going to get there, with time.

This guide is designed to help you make informed decisionsabout your education and career, on the path to becoming a video game designer.

You’ll Learn About:

The differences between game design and game development
The career path
Your education
Work experience
The hiring process
Promotions & career advancement

This guide can be read from start to finish, or you can dip in and out to what seems most relevant to you.

Designing Games is Awesome – But It’s Competitive

Video game design is a competitive business, and in order to secure a position as a junior designer, you’ll need to put yourself above the rest.

Check out the sections on work experience and education to find out how to give your resume an edge, and then read about the hiring process to find out exactly what you can expect on your way to landing your first job.

Game design might seem like a hard business to get into, and it can be, but with the right edge, you’ll have no problem outshining the competition.

So let’s get right into it!

How do you become a video game designer? Follow these six steps:

Get more familiar with Game Design
Get an Education (find quality training. Check TechCreek they have courses on Game Design at an affordable price).
Start building your game design portfolio
Land a game design internship (or volunteer)
Apply for game design jobs
Crush the hiring process (screenings & interviews)

Video Game Design vs Game Development

game designers and developers

First of all, we need to talk about the difference between game design and game development.

The two are often used interchangeably, but they are two distinct career paths.

Game design often includes the creation of:

new game concepts
mechanics
storylines

Game development tends to refer to the making of games, from the animation through to engine programming.

It’s a bit like the difference between the driver of a car, and the engineer who builds the car.

Designers and Developers Need Each Other

Without each other, the tasks are useless (what’s the point in being able to drive if no one is making cars), so you need both to make a functional vehicle.

In this example, the driver would be the designer, and the engineer would be the developer.

The driver/designer’s job is pointless if there’s no one to engineer the car or develop the game.

And there is no point in the developer/engineer building something that no one is going to use.

You should always bear in mind that both are equally importantin the overall process of making games.

However, whilst the two roles are distinct career paths, they feed into each other continuously.

The designer gives input and direction to the developer, and the developer feeds back with their improvements to the game.

They both need each other to develop the best game possible. And for that reason, it’s good to have a strong understanding of the other career path to the one you choose.

Is a Career in Video Games for You?

Paths Into The Gaming Industry

So you can see the two differ in subtle ways, but are in fact two distinct paths through the games industry.

What you decide to make the focus of your career will depend on your talents and interests, but you still need a good understanding of what the other career path does in order to be the best you can be.

This guide is about the game design though, so let’s get to it.

Keep working up the chain, ironing out kinks, until you think you’ve ‘fixed’ the game into a more acceptable state. Then, after making note of what you changed and why work out what else needs fixing.

Sometimes it’s more about small changes than big ones and experiment with both little changes and literal game-changers.

Talking About Good Design

Good design is often harder to talk about because it’s much harder to identify why you like something than to identify what gets on your nerves.

Thinking about good design often starts with a feeling; I like this game, I love this character, this mechanic works well.

Then, once you’ve begun to pinpoint what makes a good game great, you can begin to dig deeper.

Take mechanics for example – if you think a particular mechanic works well, why does it work well?

Perhaps you’re drawing a blank, but it’s easier to think about a change again – what would happen if you changed it for another mechanic?

This should help you identify what goes into making a game good.

But why did they do that?

Whether or not you think a design choice is good or bad, it helps to think about why the designer made that choice.

This is especially important for bad design choices – why did the designer not make a better choice?

Perhaps it was a limitation, perhaps they thought it was a good idea given other constraints.

This will help you talk about why designers made those choices and what you would do differently, but it will also give you insights into what it’ll be like when you yourself become a game designer.

Career Path Overview

Game Designer's Career Path
I would be lying if I said there was one way into the industry as a game designer because there are so many ways to do it I couldn’t even count them all.

There are more common ways to get to be a game designer and more obscure roots.

For example, I got to be a designer by:

Completing a degree in Artificial Intelligence (think robots tryna ing to read and understand, that was my dissertation project),
Doing business training
Starting my own studio

I am now a consultant designer.

Other people take a more traditional route, by studying game design-related courses at college and taking internships by the bucketful, before securing a position as a junior designer for a big game company.

By far the most common route involves:

Game design-related courses and specializations at college
Taking internships and work experience
Securing a role in a large, established company (before moving on with their career)

The game designer career progression past junior game designer includes:

Becoming a senior designer
Becoming a lead designer on a project
Starting your own consultancy (where you help other companies by helping them with the design elements)
Or starting your own studio!

If the end result for you is game design, there are a number of ways to get here.

This guide covers the most common route, but remember to network and try other avenues because you never know exactly what’s around each corner.

Getting a Great Education

It cannot be stressed enough that getting into the best college you can definitely help your career; more established colleges often have:

More links to industry
More networking opportunities
May even be able to set you up with an internship or two

You don’t need to be in an Ivy League school, but if you’re stuck for a choice over two-game design schools, go with the one with the better reputation.
four year design colleges