Gaming as a career: Jobs for video gamers
June 3, 2009 by admin
Filed under Information Technology Jobs
The video game industry is one of the fastest growing areas of entertainment, and is actually predicted to surpass revenues from box-office movies. As a quickly-growing field, the careers within the industry are rapidly changing and are becoming more specialized. Here is a guide highlighting some of the more common career paths in the industry of video games.
Game Designer
Game designers are in charge of creating the vision for unique, creative and fun games, and oversee the development of these games at each step of their progression. When choosing this career path, people typically begin as general animators, eventually progress to design positions where they work under a lead designer, and ultimately run the show as lead designer.
Game Producer
Producers are responsible for overseeing the development of each video game. If you are interested in a career as a game producer, you can choose to work either as an internal producer, taking on a hands-on position with the video game team, or as an external producer, overseeing the progression of several different video game clients at one time. In both cases, producers handle the contracts, timing and testing of video games.
Game Programmer or Engineer
If you are more interested in the actual programming of video games, a programming or engineering career path may br right for you. Programmers develop the technical aspects of the software for video games. In recent years, programming has become more and more specialized. Currently there are individual programming jobs for graphics, sounds, artificial intelligence, gameplay, etc. Some programmers specialize in only one of these areas, and continously advance to higher positions within that same specialty throughout their career. Other programmers are familiar with multiple specialties and bounce between them throughout their career.
Game Artist
There is also room for pure artists in video games these days. The visual art aspect of a video game has become a huge component of the success of the game. As a result, there are many jobs focused on each aspect of video game art. Concept artists create the overall characters and world of the game, 3D animators help bring them to life, and texture artists add detailed surface texture to graphic art. Graphic artists typically work under the direction of an art director and the game designer.
If you love video games and would like to pursue a career in gaming, this is the perfect time to do so. The industry is booming and there are many exciting job opportunities.