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Researched by Joseph R.
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Research Summary
A video game designer is someone who invents or creates a new video game.
Good aspects about being a video game designer are you get an average salary of about $55,000 with most designers earning between $45,000-$75,000 a year. A bad aspect about being a video game designer is that you sometimes have to work 24-48 hours at a time. Since you work so long, some employers have couches or a lounge in their work area.
When you grow up you have several choices of video game designing. A person can be a programmer, a creator, or a test engineer. When they are on the job making video games, designers are either in an office or at their house. Video game designers use many tools: Computers, Graphic tablets, scanners, and many more tools. Two totally different kinds of video creators are the programmer and the designer. The programmer writes the computer code for the game and the designer thinks up the game and what it will look like.
Designing takes a lot of work. First you have to brainstorm the story line ideas. When and where does the action take place? Next you have to plan the levels. Then you have to draw and animate the characters. Next sound and music is added. Then you need to fix the problems, test it over and over again until it’s perfect. Finally the company will manufacture the video game so many other people can enjoy it.
To be a video game designer you must be a smart “high tech” person with lots of computer skills. You need a good imagination.
The first video games were invented in the 1970’s. Those games were “Pong”, “Pac-man”, and “Tetris”. Steve Russell was perhaps the very first game designer. In 1962 when he was in college he invented a simple game called “Space War”.
Nolan Bushnell played “Space War” in college. In 1972 he put the first game in an arcade. It was a game very similar to “Space War”, but he named it “Computer Space”. However people found it difficult to play so, it wasn’t a success. Later, Bushnell created “Pong”. It was a simple game and the first big “hit” in arcades. Later Bushnell started the Atari Company.
In the 1970’s there were very few video game companies. People use to do the work from start to finish all by themselves. As games became more complex, the designers needed to work as teams, so that’s what happened. Finally musicians and animators were hired to help the team with special aspects.
If you want to play a video game you often must use one of these: Joy
sticks, controllers, steering wheels, buttons, light guns, track balls,
etc.
To be a video game designer you don’t have to have a degree from college.
You don’t have to have a license either. You probably need to take an art
class. You also need to communicate your ideas very well.
Most game companies are located in Illinois, California, Washington, Texas, Maryland, and Massachusetts.
Nintendo and Sega are both game companies and Japanese names.
The computer and video game industry is growing quickly so more people
will be needed in these jobs in the next ten years.
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