How would you determine if you are interested in the game design industry?

Hello there! I wouldn't worry if you can't get a video game internship as a high school student. You have plenty of time to figure things out!

I'm not sure there are must-have, "essential" character traits to be a game designer since there are a few different areas of game design (such as writing, economy tuning/balancing, designing levels, designing game mechanics, and so on). The biggest thing, obviously, is that you're passionate about video games. If you live and breathe games, it'll help you tremendously as a designer. This is especially true if you're passionate about how games work and curious enough to even try building your own games.

Other important traits for game designers are problem-solving, thinking outside of the box, people who enjoy story-telling/crafting experiences, being extremely detail-oriented, someone who's a self-starter, and a tinkerer who likes to figure out how things work. Also, someone who's interested in human behavior (social psychology, psychology, sociology) is a great fit for video games. Bonus points if you are interested in software programming. I have seen several software developers go on to become great game designers because they have the fundamental knowledge of what can and cannot be done with software (plus they can build stuff by themselves!).

Is game design comparable to any other profession? Yes and no. A lot of the traits above are probably true for other professions, but game design is a pretty specialized field. I would not suggest becoming a game designer if you're on the fence. There are other areas, even in the game industry, that would be more comparable to other professions. Examples are Software Developers, Product Managers, Project Managers, and UI/UX Designers.

Hey Walner! Its great to see you consider Game Design as a possible career path. Personally, I have enjoyed my career 4 year career of a Game Designer. For me, designing video games and entertaining players the way I was entertained, playing video games as a child, was a childhood ambition.

I think it would be great for you to have a quick introspection before finally deriving to a conclusion. Let's try answering a few questions to get you started.
1. Do you feel an excitement when you tell yourself, that you want to entertain people... Lots of people with a video game you made for them?
2. Do you feel an excitement at the idea that players would celebrate and rejoice upon winning or feel just as disappointed upon losing, playing your game?
3. Do you still feel that excitement if the video games are on a platform, which you least prefer playing on, yourself? (Eg. you may love playing games on a video game console. But on your job, you'd be required to make games on web/ mobile which may happen to be your least favourite)
4. Do you feel that you would feel this passion to entertain players, even if you were put to design a game that was not quite a game you'd likely play or enjoy yourself?

The answers to these questions are certainly not the absolute determining factor to your question. However, they will definitely help you understand if you are interested in being a Game Designer at a basic level. If you feel a strong inclination and hear a passionate 'YES!' call from within, when you read and answer these questions above, I feel Game Design might be a profession you'd want to explore.

I hope this helps! All the very best, Walner! :)

You can also look at colleges that have game design majors. Universities such as UCF and SMU have game design and development majors.

If you're wondering if you have a passion for game design many tools and tutorials are available to help anyone create a game. If you want to explore your interest game development there's a lot you can do on your own:

• GameMaker is a great tool to start writing games with and has been used to release many popular games (Spelunky, Gunpoint, Dust Force).


• Several tutorials are available to help you get started.

Good luck!