Back to School, and focused on Gaming Careers

(Paper on Gaming Jobs and Careers:)

My Two Career Interests
Taking a very serious look at what the future has in store for me, I asked myself, “what were the two main focused paths in the career that I was going to school for?” Thinking about it, I replied instantly with “Gaming Design, and Gaming Arts”. These are both very fun and unique fields that focus on my passion for video games.

What are the differences?

Well, let me explain. Gaming Design covers the overall design of the game itself. From beginning to end, the structures, character ideas, scripts ideas,… all of it. But it does not go into all of the small divisions that are there to make the game. Such as being the programmer for the level designs in the game, or the music that will be composed. The Game Designer is more of a manager that says yes or no to what is going into the project being worked on. Although, some game designers do tend to lean towards just the artwork and ideas, and have a team of game designers for one project. I found some great sites, that delt with the ideas and resources for not only becoming a game designer, but gave great resources for one to use getting in contact with people that are already in the business. Here are a few and what they point towards:

1. http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_113/1385-How-to-Become-a-Game-Designer
This is in fact a wonderful article, on what to expect getting into the industry, along with some great sites to go to as examples. They follow up with a link to one of the companies that they work with, including the fact that the place was indeed hiring for several of the positions that would be of interest. http://www.38studios.com/
2. http://www.nerfbat.com/
This is a forum that is very helpful for finding contacts in the business, software, and people’s portfolios.

3. I also found two other articles with links that may be helpful, and teach what to expect getting into the professional world of gaming.
http://www.adigitaldreamer.com/articles/becomeavideogamedesigner.htm
http://www.gamespot.com/features/6129276/index.html

4. Now get ready to laugh my friends … this one is a funny demo of BAD video game design! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWE3AN7ym-g&feature=related Ah yes, youtube has some great tutorials, and interviews like this one that helps a lot! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2JVd_bDD30
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZk94q2UiTI&feature=related



The second part of the gaming industry that I really wanted to latch onto, was the middle man part of the whole gaming design, that is character and creature design. Others call it being a gaming artist. Usually they are responsible for things such as the color theme of a game, weapons, clothing, backgrounds, textures, movement, layout and mapping, and my favorite… monsters! I found a few links that seemed helpful for those wanting to focus only on the art part of gaming, and sharing forums that gave tutorials on programs, ideas, and networks for jobs.

http://www.game-artist.net/forums/
http://www.animationarena.com/game-design-artist.html



I also wanted to look into the job part of the industry. How much it paid, what was local and available, along with ideas for internship. I was quite surprised to see that down here in Texas, there were many jobs for the field I was looking for!! I also learned that the average pay for jobs like the ones I would be interested in range from 50k-200k a year!

Job sites search:
http://www.job-search-engine.com/keyword/games-design/texas/
http://jobs.myspace.com/a/ms-jobs/list/q-Game+Design+Intern

Choosing this field, I know will be a safe move being that this is nothing new as far as the entertainment world goes. Video games make more money than the movie industry, and the potential for growth is limitless!! Getting into the industry however is not easy. It takes a passion for games, a creative mind, and a will to learn. Finding the right schools is really the first step for getting into a career such as Gaming Arts, but….ummm, I won’t go there on that subject.

~ Because I already found mine. (AIO)

In conclusion: I know that it will take more than 2 years for me to find a way into this market. Ideally because I will not have been graduated from this online school, due to my limit on classes. I hope to maybe have some way of getting my foot in the door, with contacts that I already know in the business, and will network at conventions, and whatever it takes to get a job doing this. I really love and have passion for creating the next best video game, and hope to make a footprint in the future doing so.