What a game designer really does
You decide how a game plays, tune the numbers until it feels right, and defend your ideas to a whole team that has to build them.
FieldTech and design
Preparation (O*NET Job Zone)Considerable preparation needed
What the work involves
What fills a typical week for game designers, built from O*NET occupation data.
- Tune numbers like damage, health, costs and rewards based on playtest data and player feedback.
- Design missions, encounters and puzzles, and write them up so others can build them.
- Keep design documents, flowcharts and mockups current as the game changes.
- Run and sit in on design reviews where artists, programmers and producers give feedback.
- Watch playtests and compare what players do with what you intended.
- Negotiate scope with producers and programmers when time runs short.
- Play competing games and look at other media for ideas.
What the days are like
What people in the job know
- Long weeks are the norm in this job, and they get longer before milestones. Duration of typical work week: 100% more than 40 hours (O*NET Work Context)
- The most important task is tuning and balancing, which is mostly spreadsheets and iteration, not dreaming up big ideas. Top task: 'Balance and adjust gameplay experiences to ensure their critical and commercial success', importance 91, Core, rank 1 (O*NET Tasks)
- It is a highly competitive field. Level of competition: 60% extremely competitive (O*NET Work Context)
- You design with and for a team, every day, and your ideas get challenged constantly. Work with or contribute to a work group or team: 80% extremely important; Face-to-face discussions: 70% every day; Conflict situations: 45% once a month or more (O*NET Work Context)
- A lot of the work is repeated cycles of test, adjust and test again. Importance of repeating same tasks: 40% extremely important (O*NET Work Context)
How people get into it
Job Zone 4. In O*NET's survey 55% say a bachelor's degree is required, but 15% say a high school diploma, so a strong portfolio of designed levels, mods or small games often matters as much as the degree. Many designers start in quality assurance, level design or as junior designers on a larger team.
The Firstday trial, easy to hard
Three simulated tasks at Lanternfish Games, a fictional company, with AI coworkers who message you, react to your work and coach with questions. Nobody scores you.
What the trial can't show: The trial does not run a real game engine, so you cannot feel the moment to moment play of your changes; playtest results are prepared data and descriptions. It cannot show months of iteration, crunch before milestones, or how it feels when a feature you love is cut. Art, code and audio are not part of the trial.
Reading about it is one thing.
Find out how the work feels to you before you spend on a degree, course or job change. Your first trial is free.
Other careers you can try
Job details on this page are built from O*NET OnLine, 15-1255.01. This page includes information from the O*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA.