What Jobs Are There in the Video Game Industry?

A lot of people think they can get along in the video game industry. It’s a glamorous thought – spending your days coding a masterpiece of interactive entertainment. But, if you’re anything like most people interested in the video game industry, you probably don’t know what jobs are available or how to get them.

Programming

The most common jobs in gaming are the coding and programming jobs. Someone has to sit down and write the hard code that will power the game. Coding is done in a variety of languages, so you’ll need to be familiar with things like C, C++, and XNA to be effective in this role. For the most part, programmers are encouraged to have degrees. However, not all developers require degrees if you can prove you have the skillset needed to be an asset to the company.

Art and Design

There are an equal number of designers and artists who work closely with the development team as well. These are the people who invest hours of their time into creating the game world in which players will be immersed. While the programmers are responsible for bringing it to life, artists and designers are essentially the world builders – what they create is what the consumer sees.

Writers and Systems Designers

Scripts are needed to focus a game. Not only that, but someone needs to sit down and decide how best to balance the game mechanics. If the game is multiplayer, how does each character perform? Is anyone overpowered or underpowered? These are major issues that can ruin a game experience for players – as a designer, your job will be to make sure nothing goes wrong between inception and application.

Game Tester

At the bottom of the totem pole is the game tester. These are the employees who will sit in a cubicle day in and day out and check for possible bugs, holes, or errors that will ruin the game experience for players. This job can be tedious and it can be very time intensive, especially when you approach a deadline, but it can also be very exciting as opens up a number of opportunities for advancement in the company.

No matter what role you take on in the gaming industry, prepare for a fast paced, high stress job that can be very demanding but that will also vastly reward you and your efforts for years to come.