If you’re considering kickstarting your career in the gaming industry, you’ve come to the right place! The industry itself is vast and offers a whole host of different career opportunities: whether that’s working in triple-A game production houses or supporting an indie app developer, there’s a job in this exciting tech industry that is perfect for you and your career ambitions.
Navigating the Gaming Industry
What was once considered a niche activity just a few decades ago, gaming in the 21st century is a thoroughly mainstream pursuit. Globally, the industry generates around $155 million in revenues per year, and the business ecosystem encompasses every type of organization from global multinationals to sole trader designers.
Being such a vast industry, however, it can be difficult to decide what roles would be most suited to your skillset and ambitions, as well as which sector of the industry to go into. In this article, we’ll be discussing two of the core markets in the gaming industry, as well as the roles that you can expect to find in each.
The iGaming Market
The iGaming market is a dynamic, rapidly expanding sector offering exciting career opportunities. In the US alone, there are over 1 million people working in the market, which is more than the three powerhouse gaming companies of Apple, Google, and Microsoft combined can claim.
Gaming is itself a cutting edge industry, but the iGaming sector has come to be the epitome of cutting edge development, both in terms of the gaming tech it produces and when it comes to employment. iGaming companies are known for providing a variety of engaging online experiences to consumers, but they also offer an exciting environment in which to work.
iGaming, which includes an online casino and poker gaming as well as sports betting, is the market for you if you’re looking to work in a fast-paced sector that rewards hard work and provides plenty of opportunities for growth and development.
As well as the roles described above, in the iGaming sector, it’s also possible to start a career in other exciting and challenging areas like customer service, product management, marketing and acquisitions, and compliance.
The Video Gaming Market
If you’re already a fan of playing video games, you’ll naturally be drawn towards the video gaming market when it comes to starting your new career.
If you’ve done any research on the industry, though, you’ll probably have discovered that there are an almost overwhelming number of career possibilities. However, even though there seem to be dozens of different job roles in gaming, they typically fall under the category of designer, quality assurance tester, programmer, animator, audio engineer, and producer.
Game Designer
If you want to become a game designer, you need to have a deep love for and curiosity about video games. While technical skills can be learned, either through a course of education or during on-the-job training, if you’re not passionate about video games you aren’t going to thrive in this type of role.
The job duties of a game designer typically include things like:
- Designing game levels and gameplay mechanics
- Writing GDDs (game design documents)
- Using software packages (XML Editor, Microsoft Excel) or custom-built tools to create numeric data
- Playing build versions of games as part of implementation processes
- Conducting competitor research by playing and analyzing their games
Quality Assurance Tester
QA Testers are a vital part of the game development team, and whilst their role may seem like it revolves around playing games all day, it’s actually their job to spot any defects and ensure that the quality of the game is maintained throughout.
The job duties of a QA Tester typically include things like:
- Playing build versions of games to look for defects and ensure game quality
- Reproducing the process of any potential defects
- Submitting issue reports about defects and describing steps to reproduce them into bug tracker software
- Assisting game development teams with fixing bugs and defects
Video Game Programmer
The role of video game programmer is a technically demanding one. A good understanding of programming languages like C++ and Java and their role in developing gaming experiences is fundamental in this particular career.
The job duties of a Video Game Programmer typically include things like:
- Understanding the purpose of game features (how they need to work in the game)
- Planning out game coding with team members and other programmers
- Using Integrated Development Environments to create source code
- Running games to search for initial stage errors in programming
- Fixing defective games
- Debugging systems and optimizing performance across the game
Game Animators/Artists
There’s a diverse array of arts jobs available in the video game industry, with many opportunities to specialize in areas like concept art, animation, visual effects, and character modeling.
Depending on the specific role, the job duties of a Game Animator or Artist include things like:
- Creating landscapes and building architecture
- Creating 3D models of game chaarcers
- Creating animations based on character models
- Planning and designing the gaming world
- Designing and creating User Interface elements such as menus and navigation
Audio Engineer
If you’ve ever played a video game before you’ll know that games don’t just comprise of striking visuals and good game mechanics. The soundscape of a game is just as important to its success as a compelling storyline. As with art jobs in gaming, there are several routes that audio engineers can take in the industry, including specialized job roles such as music composter, generalist audio engineer, Foley engineer, etc.
The job duties of an Audio Engineer include things like:
- Researching sounds and recording new sound effects to use as source material
- Using specialized software and hardware to record and create soundtracks and sound effects
- Using custom editors and software to integrate sounds into a game
Video Game Producer
If you’ve got exceptional planning skills and are great at scheduling and organizing workflow, a role as a producer in video gaming could be your next career move.
Behind every great design team is a skilled producer, they’re responsible for the day-to-day planning and management of game development projects.
- The job duties of a Video Game Producer include things like:
- Meeting with development team/s to plan and schedule workflows
- Communicating with stakeholders like studio directors, marketing team members, publishers, etc.
- Negotiating contracts and managing development budgets
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