2 answers
blake
Student
Sedro-Woolley, Washington
1
Question
Asked
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Do you enjoy youre job as a game designer?
i'm a student and right now i'm wanting to go into game design, but im not sure it'll either be fun or rewarding or hard. so do u enjoy it? #game-design #video-games #video-game-design #computer-games
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2 answers
Joshua Zollinger
technical writer
5
Answers
Frisco, Texas
Updated
Joshua’s Answer
Not a game designer but went to school for a very similar degree... Seems like a lot of fun but it is an incredible amount of work. You have to consider every aspect of your creation, plan everything, test everything, is very competitive, and requires working around the clock. This seems bad but everyone in this field or similar always seems very happy, excited, and friendly, or they quit and move on.
Andrew Houghton
Software Engineer
1
Answer
Mountain View, California
Updated
Andrew’s Answer
Obligatory: I'm not a game designer, nor have I ever been, but I've known lots of them.
You've got a couple of competing concepts in your question -- "fun" and "rewarding" seem clear, but it's not clear if "hard" is a good thing or a bad thing for you. It's also not clear if you're thinking of game design in the sense of a single person or small team, or if you're thinking in the sense of being a developer in a large team at a studio.
There are lots and lots of articles about game design studios and crunch time and difficulties and reward. I'd recommend reading this as a starter: https://kotaku.com/as-naughty-dog-crunches-on-the-last-of-us-ii-developer-1842289962
.. the thing to take away is that, like _every other job_, there are high-stress, high-reward moments, and high-stress moments that will break you. There are absolutely 100% exciting and creative and wonderful jobs in game development -- you shouldn't worry. Finding them may be more difficult, since as another answer points out, there are lots of people who want to work in the industry.
Figure out what kind of games you like to design / develop, and find which companies make those games. Reach out to them.
You've got a couple of competing concepts in your question -- "fun" and "rewarding" seem clear, but it's not clear if "hard" is a good thing or a bad thing for you. It's also not clear if you're thinking of game design in the sense of a single person or small team, or if you're thinking in the sense of being a developer in a large team at a studio.
There are lots and lots of articles about game design studios and crunch time and difficulties and reward. I'd recommend reading this as a starter: https://kotaku.com/as-naughty-dog-crunches-on-the-last-of-us-ii-developer-1842289962
.. the thing to take away is that, like _every other job_, there are high-stress, high-reward moments, and high-stress moments that will break you. There are absolutely 100% exciting and creative and wonderful jobs in game development -- you shouldn't worry. Finding them may be more difficult, since as another answer points out, there are lots of people who want to work in the industry.
Andrew recommends the following next steps: