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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.