Raphael B. Nemenzo
Being a Game Designer
As a college student, I have a dream of becoming a designer; you may wonder what type of designer I would like to be and I choose to become a video game designer. Since I was a child, I love playing video games and it became a passion in my life. I am more determined to work if I really love the job I am with like being a game designer which fits one of my passions in life which is playing video games.
Video Game Designers don’t create games. They create detailed design documents. A design document contain descriptions of all aspects of an electronic game - mission, plot, rules, flow charts, sound, artwork, and special features. The design document is the blueprint used by graphic artists, sound designers, and programmers to create the software that results in the video game. Video game designer is not an entry-level job. You have to know how video game design and development works, and experience as a programmer, artist, or producer help. Most video game designers have bachelor’s degrees in English, art, computer science, or related areas. Skills in collaboration and negotiation help you make sure the final product is created true to your original vision.
There are many different things that have to do with video game design including art, music, computer programming and playing games of course. When people think about video games they think about how hard it is or how cool that level was, but there is a whole lot more that goes along with games. Art and music are two very big things that are included with video game design but are not thought of that much because people think they are not important. They are wrong art and music can be the most important part of the game to some people who take their games seriously. Art and music can be very important in game design but they don’t even compare to the coding itself. Coding is where the design part of the game takes shape, it is where it happens. Although music, art, and coding are very important you need a good combination of all three to make a great game.
If you go out and ask people what music has to do with video games they probably wouldn’t have a clue, but if you keep asking you might find a real gamer and he would tell you that it sets the mood for the whole game. Without the right music games would be nothing but button pressing, reading, and ice to put on your fingers to cool them down after a good game of button mashing. Music is what people can hum when they resting or in the shower, it is what hooks people to the game and makes them want to play it over and over again. Music is what connects the player to game. Now there are two types of music that are put into the game. The first type of music is called “real music”. “Real music” is music or tunes that are played by bands, singers, or other musicians and inserted into the game. Real music is a very hard thing to place into the game because you have to choose just the right time to start playing it. You would want to put a slow songs played with violins, pianos, and other musical instruments at a slow part of the game where there might be a cinematic or a plot turn. You can put a slow quite song that might turn really loud and fast paced when something is getting revealed or shown, but you have to be sure to play “real” music at just the right time or it can ruin what you are trying to set up for a intense moment in the game. The second type of music is called “digital”. Digital music is music that is made with a “music looper” or other programs that you can mix different sounds together and make one big musical track. Digital music is the most common in games nowadays because “real” music costs too much and is too tricky to place. Music is the nicotine of the games; it’s what makes the player come back for more and more.
There are many things about video game creation and design that people don’t know of. The vast amount of jobs, how well they can get paid, how relaxing it can be at some times, and other advantages they get for creating a game that turns into a hit. Music and art is the unseen hero’s of video game design, and are not usually seen as anything important. There are a lot of different things out there for someone who wants to get into video game design and all they have to do is work hard and know how to play their cards before they can become a very rich person. Video game design is a complicated field of work that demands perfection and a creative mind.
There are many other jobs that have to with video game creation. There is the marketing team that decides how they are going to advertise the game and all the other things that have to do with advertisements. If you are a smooth talker they might put you on the sales team. They take care of where it is going to be sold, how many copies are going where, and the release date of the game. They also help with the advertising of the game. Game testers are what every little kid wants to be and there is actually a high demand for them in certain parts of the world. If you are good at English, like writing essays, this would be a great job for you. But being a Tester requires a massive knowledge about video games and the observations regarding them. Tester is one of the most common jobs about video games as they can be seen in the Playstation Network series called “The Tester”.
Being a video game designer is fun and doesn’t require a lot of physical aspects to work on but uses the mental aspects instead. As far as what a video game designer has to offer, I am still looking forward to the salary I can get with it, and based on my research you can earn by the average of $60,000 a year which really fits my whole needs. I hope that someday, I can be a game designer to help my family in earning and to be a successful person in my life.
WORKS CITED
Biagi, Shirley. Media/impact: An Introduction to Mass Media, 2009 Update. Boston, MA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2009. Print.
Schell, Jesse. The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses. Amsterdam: Elsevier/Morgan Kaufmann, 2008. Print.
Heller, Steven, and David Womack. Becoming a Digital Designer: A Guide to Careers in Web, Video, Broadcast, Game, + Animation Design. Hoboken, N.J: John Wiley & Sons, 2008. Print.
Edery, David, David Edery, and Ethan Mollick. Changing the Game: How Video Games Are Transforming the Future of Business. Upper Saddle River, N.J: FT Press, 2009. Print.
Prensky, Marc. "don't Bother Me Mom, I'm Learning!": How Computer and Video Games Are Preparing Your Kids for Twenty-First Century Success and How You Can Help!St. Paul, Minn: Paragon House, 2006. Print.
http://www.allartschools.com/art-careers/game-design/video-game-designer-interview - John Mckenny 06/08/07
http://www.gamedesignersalarydata.com/ - 04/05/08
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