Video game design involves designing video games, including story, programming, level design, and other components. It has become a sought-after profession, with entire schools dedicated to it. Large companies have hundreds of people working on a single title, while small companies can still create games with just a few employees. A design document controls the aspects of a game, and iterative design is often preferred for game mechanics. Schools specializing in video game design have opened, but there are pros and cons to majoring in this field.
Video game design is the practice of designing video games, as the name implies. It involves many different facets including overall video game design, story design, programming, level design, and other components. As games have become a massive industry, video game design has become a sought-after profession despite often intense work hours, relatively mid-range pay scales, and a high burnout rate. Entire schools have opened up their focus solely on video game design, as an entire generation looks to video games as a lifelong career.
In the past, a single person used to handle all aspects of video game design because games were so much simpler. One person creates a game concept, figures out how to implement it, creates simple graphics, programs the game, and builds levels. Over time, this morphed into small teams working on games, even at larger companies. Eventually, video game design became its own thing, and people started to become known for their designs, with minor celebrities forming in the gaming world as a result of a keen sense of design.
The world of modern video game design is substantially different from this, at least at the big companies. Large video game companies can have hundreds of people working on a single title, separated into separate teams that can have very little interaction with each other. The abstract design is, in some cases, undertaken by an individual or team on their own, and then brought to life by other teams responsible for artistic design, programming, sound and voice effects design, character design, and level design. However, small companies can still create games with just a few employees, as the added complexity of video games has been largely balanced by major improvements in the tools for creating games.
The blueprint of a video game design is known as a design document, and it usually details every aspect of the game. That way, large teams have a central document to turn to whenever a question comes up, and teams working on specific projects can get an idea of what the overall scope of the game they’re working on is. Generally, a design document controls the easily predictable aspects of a game, such as the story, level design, and setting. An alternative form of design, iterative design, is often preferred for things like game mechanics as it allows the mechanics to evolve and develop as the game is being built, which is useful as the way the mechanics will actually work it can be very difficult to predict. .
In recent years, as more and more people strive to get involved in video game design, several schools have opened that specialize in the field. Many of these programs are offered online, but some traditional design schools have also opened programs in video game design. There are pros and cons to majoring in such a specific field, and there are supporters and detractors of the practice. Supporters suggest that it may be easier to get a job in the field with a specialist degree, as potential employers may assume you have a basic understanding of best practice. Detractors point out that, with the industry’s high turnover rate, it is often preferable to have a more general degree, such as one in art or computer programming, so that between video game design jobs, other jobs can be done more efficiently. ease.
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