How to become a video games designer and job prospects

[Onthefarsideoftheworld]

My nephew is thinking of this as a career. Does anyone have any advice and what are the ups and downs of job prospects in the UK.

The industry is a bit of a rollercoaster and going through hard times right now but it is possible to have a good career.

What any prospective games design student needs to know is that there are way more students than there are jobs. Competition is fierce.

If he wants to do it then he needs to be totally committed and there are no guarantees.

It's estimated that 5% of games grads at the moment make it into AAA (big budget studios).

Some courses will do pure game design others will be a blend of game design and development (programming) and some may blend some game art with game design.

Not all grads will want to work in AAA. Some will look to mobile or app development.

Good courses exist at Teesside, Staffordshire, abertay Dundee, Falmouth and Hertfordshire but lots more places offer games courses and will be good too but without the shiny advertising budgets!

He needs to be clear if it is games design he wants and not game art or game development....

Happy to answer any questions if you @ me.

The majority of people in industry have a degree.

The UK has a vibrant games industry but as I say lots of layoffs happening at the moment so it is not an easy time.

Thank you… that’s all very helpful

The industry has shrunk in recent years. There is a lot of competition for jobs and hence pay is average. A more general computer science degree may give more options. Perhaps he could look at apprenticeship route? Graduates schemes are really hard to get on. Internships and work experience are the best way to improve job chances. It's really difficult. It's not like a lot of degrees. Students do have to work really hard to get a good degree.

Video gaming has long had a reputation for chewing up and spitting out young gamers. Its not a kind or well paid sector for the majority.
There are a million courses spitting out graduates, so he needs one with good industry links. And build all the soft skills -pitching, working in teams, project management etc. Many computer gaming courses are well behind the times on technical coding skills, so he'll have to do game jams and external learning to keep up to date.

I don't know where he is with it or how old but I'd recommend the Unity junior programmer course if he hasn't done it already. It's free. It will also treach him a C language if he hasn't done that before. Make sure he has a Github account and get him to put all his game development on there.

He can learn so much from youtube - DS did a tutorial on making a chess game using simple AI - it was something like 13 hours long and inspired his A-level Comp Sci NEA. He used the same method of AI on a different game and was moderated up so he got full marks for it. You can learn so much without needing to do a degree in it.

Procedural generation is also a random? thing that I'd recommend him to look into. It's an amazing tool to make large games much more easily.

I would say to do a Comp Sci degree that includes some game design rather than a straight games design degree as it just gives so many more options. I'd only do straight games design if he can get an apprenticeship in it, no idea if there are many available but definitely worth researching.

It depends what he wants though. Some of these suggestions are about being a games programmer and not a games designer. Different job.

Games designer jobs maybe even rarer than games dev roles.

There was talk about apprenticeships, but I can't find any easily beyond this one.
https://www.sumo-academy.com/game-programmer-apprenticeship

Oh all this is great info. He is just 15 and in Scotland

Will pass all this info on … very useful thanks

Some of the best game designers I know have degrees in product design rather than game design. It’s an avenue worth exploring as he would be qualified with a transferable skill.

There’s a new series on YouTube that he may find helpful too, presented by a games industry expert with bags of experience

There's a decent scene in Scotland especially Dundee.

He might find this useful https://gamescareersweek.org/

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