Welcome to Desa

A virtual world with focus on creating social & economic impact.

Departments in the Game Industry

Games is our fastest growing entertainment industry. 

The industry needs a wide range of skills, ranging from art to programming.  There’s also a demand for those with skills in marketing, project management, sales and finance

  • Assistant Game Producer
  • Community Manager
  • Esports Producer
  • Games Producer
  • Games Publisher
  • Marketing Executive (Games)
  • Game Designer
  • Lead Game Designer
  • Level Designer
  • UX Designer
  • Writer (Games)
  • 3D Modelling Artist
  • Concept Artist (Games)
  • Environment Artist (Games)
  • Texturing Artist
  • Animator (Games)
  • Technical animator

 

  • Graphics Programmer
  • Technical Artist
  • Visual Effects (VFX) Artist
  • Audio programmer
  • Music Composer
  • Sound Designer (Games)
  • AI Programmer
  • Engine Programmer
  • Gameplay Programmer
  • Generalist Programmer
  • Network Programmer
  • Physic Programmer
  • Tools Engineer
  • VR Programmer
  • Game Tester
  • QA Build Engineer

Job roles in the game industry

The thing with game development is that there is always the need to organize and manage tasks as they are being done. Every task, be it the layout of a level, the scripting of a boss, or the creation of a talent tree, needs to be checked and planned out. The larger the team, the more important organization is in order to ensure that there isn’t a lot of redundant work being done, and to maximize overall productivity.

 
The creative director is in charge of all of the leads and their subteams, which means that he has to keep track of the levels, the systems, the writers, the cinematics, the combat, and all of the other major design subdivisions. This means a lot of meetings. It is usually the creative director’s job to keep everyone focused on a specific vision for the gameplay overall, and to make sure that everything is working toward that goal. Because of this, the creative director absolutely needs to maintain a “big picture” view of things.

It’s essential that creative directors have stellar communication, presentation, problem-solving and project-management skills, too. Successful creative directors have polished soft skills that enable them to inspire creativity and work well with different personality types — all while juggling various projects.

2. Gameplay Designer

Gameplay Designer takes care of the core aspects of the gameplay! This role works on game mechanics, different game modes (if the game is supposed to have them), and the player’s progression.

They’re constantly tweaking the game. Testing and checking if the mechanics they created are fun and clear enough for the player. Their goal is to make gamer’s experiences as engaging as possible.

Have a good understanding of technical implementation within games, scripting languages, syntax, and other basic programming concepts. An understanding of marketing and market research to understand what your target audience wants and how to sell it to them. Basic to advanced drawing skills to communicate ideas .
  • Creativity.
  • Artistic vision.
  • A passion for video games.
  • Storytelling ability.
  • Wide-ranging knowledge of gaming trends.
  • Strong analytical frame of mind.
  • Excellent programming skills.
  • Ability to work as part of a team.

3. Level Designer

If the gameplay designer builds mechanics, the level designer’s job is to create an “interactive playground” where they can be used.

They plan what will happen to the player during his playthrough.

Are there any encounters, puzzles? They define the goals and objectives for each stage.

They make layouts of traversable environments. They build rough mockups of terrains using simple shapes. This is called “blocking-out.” Block-out helps Level Designer check if the map is clear enough for the players (does the player know where he needs to go? Cause if he doesn’t, it’s a slight mess up, which needs to be taken care of). Is it fun enough to play?

Good level design means the player went down a certain path, or toward a direction, not because it was the correct way to go, but because something caught their interest. 

  • Creativity: come up with new challenges and missions
  • Knowledge of gameplay: imagine the game, see it visually and develop the gameplay mechanics
  • Knowledge of programming: understand programming, have some scripting language competence
  • Physics: understand how objects respond according to the laws of physics
  • Art: have a strong spatial awareness with 2D and 3D design skills
  • Communication: work with other artists and the design team and share the vision with games developers
  • Graphics software (Photoshop, Adobe After Effects, Illustrator, Dreamweaver)
  • 2D and 3D animation software (Blender, Maya, 3DS Max)
  • Game Engines (Unity, Unreal Engine)
  • Programming languages (C#, C++, Python)

4. Lead Game Designer

  • Knowledge of gameplay: imagine the best gameplay or game mechanics for the experience
  • Knowledge of game engines: understand games engines and their abilities and limitations, have some programming skills and knowledge of UX and UI
  • Communication: share the vision of the game with artists, programmers, producers and marketing staff, be persuasive with publishers
  • Knowledge of the games market: aware of industry trends, able to explain the game within that context
  • Project management: plan the creative production of the game

5. User Experience Designer

UX designers (Also known as: User interface (UI) artist, User interface (UI) designer, Visual designer) make sure a game is nice and easy to use (as distinct from being easy to win). They ensure the players get clear and effective feedback from the game. Their main concern is that players don’t get frustrated by a game being badly explained.

UI designers are concerned with the user interface; the point at which the game and the players interact. They create the look and feel of things like the heads-up display (HUD) showing the score, lives, and levels. They make sure that the menus and commands are clear.

In larger games companies the UX and UI roles are done by different people but in smaller studios, they are combined into one job. UX designers tend to focus more on the information a player needs for the game to flow well. UI designers tend to focus on how that information is communicated. They make it look good and sound great.

  • Empathy: imagine what it’s like to be a player, think about if the game is usable, champion the players always
  • Art: create things that look good at the user interface and fit the style of the game
  • Animation: design motion to enhance the UI design
  • Communication: give very clear information to players, collaborate with the rest of the design team, understanding what game designers (or programmers) want to do, communicate how you intend to solve the presentation
  • Analytical thinking: design things that can be built, know what your engine and tools can do, assess the circumstances, find the best solution
  • Scripting tools (Bash, Batch, Powershell, Perl)
  • Visual scripting tools (Bolt, Unity)
  • Animation toolsets (Jenkins, TeamCity, Chef, Puppet, Ansible)
  • Image editing software (Adobe Photoshop)

6. System Designer

A System Designer is obsessed with spreadsheets of any sort.

They balance the hell out of the game, taking care of the economy, stats, points, etc. If you’re playing the game and after 30 hours, it’s still fun – that means that System Designer did well.

7. Technical Game Designer

This role is a mix of game design and programming skills. They won’t go deep in the code as a regular game programmer would, but they’re efficient with working in a game engine, though. They’re able to apply the code that’s related directly to the gameplay.

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