Video Game Designers are people who make video games on a computer.  Video Game Designing is the activity of making video games.

Some of the first video games were Pong, Spacewar, Pinball, and Computer Space.  When some of the first video game companies started they didn’t have many employees either. Sometimes people even worked by themselves to make video games. It took a long time to make a video game back then.

Some careers that are related to video game designing are Computer Programming, where people create programs on a computer; Computer Animating, where someone animates pictures on a computer with tiny squares called pixels; and Web Design, where people design a web page using a computer.

Some parts of video game designing are thinking up what your video game is going to be, getting ready to create your video game, and creating your video game.  First of all, you have to think of the main idea for your video game. You can get the idea for the game from nightmares you have, real events, or some crazy idea like nothing else that pops into your head all of a sudden.  After you have the idea, you write out the story of the video game.  What will happen to the character(s)?  If there are enemies, what do they do?  What is the goal of the character(s)? When you are done writing the story, you start storyboarding.  Storyboarding is making pictures of all the levels and other things and putting them on a poster.  Now that you are done with writing the story and making a storyboard, you actually create the game.   You have to animate good pictures and graphics and put in sound effects.   Then you need to program all that into the game on a computer.

Some training you need in school for video game designing is taking art class, computer programming, and drama.  Some things you could do outside of school are observing real things like mountains, flowers trees and grass.  You could also improve your drawing just a little bit.

Most of the time, video game designers work in companies in populated cities.  Other times they work in small towns.  But, there are usually couches where they work because they sometimes work 24-48 hours at a time!  

Today, we have a lot more employees working in the video game companies.  We have a lot more technology so video game designing takes less time and is easier than it was in the past.

Some good things about video game designing are we have good technology.   We have good computers and tools for designing video games.  But some bad things about video game designing are that it takes a lot of time.  It also requires a lot of responsibility.  It’s not as easy as it looks.

Some kinds of video games are twitch games, in which the character shoots at certain objects, and the side-scroller, where the background slides as the character moves.  Some people in a video game designing group are the Animator, the Artist, the Musician, and the Author.  

Video game designers usually earn a lot of money.  They earn from $30,000-$70,000.
A few tools video game designers use are computers, lights, and cameras.  But they also used pencils, pens, scissors, and paper at the beginning.

The biggest thing in video game designing is your job responsibility.  It’s what the employees have a lot of.  You’re working when you’re on the computer, you’re working when you’re not on the computer, and you’re working when you’re at home.  When you’re on the computer you’re supposed to make sound effects like rustling, voices and animal sounds.  You’re also supposed to create pictures and write.  When you’re not on the computer, you could practice drawing and create models of characters and places.  You can also do anything else that will help you.  When you’re at home you’re supposed to get some rest and think up ideas.

The future will have a lot more video games than we do right now.  Designing games will be easier and faster.  There will be fewer problems and more accomplishments.  There will be more employees and they would probably be hired faster.  There will be better graphics and fewer glitches.  The future will probably be a dreamland for video game designers.
 
Video game designing is a new career that has only been around for about 40 years.   Designers work as part of a team.  They usually make a good income.  It is a challenging but enjoyable job for people with good training.   

Who I Interviewed And What I Learned I interviewed Jennifer Fward by phone on January 18, 2005, at DigiPen Institute of Technology to find out more about video game designers and how they do they do their job.   Since she has been involved with video game designing for 13 years, she knew a lot about this career.  She said some major problems today facing video game designing is that it’s really expensive. I also learned that video game designing started in the 1950’s.  Back then they had simple graphics like black and white screens and triangles and squares for objects. She told me that some people who were most important in the past were Ernest Adams, Sid Meier, and Arawaka. Jennifer also said that in the future, there would be more games, better technology, and smarter characters.  She said she was interested in video game designing because she played video games a lot and she liked computers and telling stories.  The training she needed was taking art classes, drama, physics, and computer programming.  Jen said it wasn’t easy to make a video game.  She said it was like you had to take a video and a VCR apart and putting them back together again every time you wanted to watch a movie. I just want to thank Jennifer for allowing me to interview her and giving me some great information. Thanks!

Bibliography   Cosgrove, Holli R. (Editor). “Video Game Designers.” Career Discovery Encyclopedia. Encyclopedia of Careers and Vocational Guidance. 2000. Morkes, Andrew(Editor). Careers in Focus.  Chicago, Illinoise: Ferguson Publishing Co.,2002. pp. 20-29. O’Donnell, Annie. Computer Animator.  New York City, New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc., 2000. pp. 15-17, 22-26, 34-37. Olesky, Walter.  Video Game Designer.  New York City, New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc., 2000. pp. 12-15. Souter, Gary, Janet, and Allison. Bringing Photos, Music, and Video Into Your Web Page.  Berkeley Heights, New Jersey: Enslow Publishers, Inc.,2003. pp. 1-15.

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