1.2 Jobs

Task 1.2 – Jobs within Games Development

Jobs within Games Development – List areas of Games Development which interest you as a potential career.
Find relevant entry-level jobs, Apprenticeships and internships for your chosen career area. (The jobs I like and research are in pink)
Using the website ScreenSkills, I began researching what job I want in the future, and there are many.

Production – The reason I would like to go down this route is because I would love to watch the game come together from the start to the finish, and I would love to lead people on this journey, update them on the journey, I feel like this role would be good for me because I have good leadership skills, I love being a leader of any project, and talking to people!
The pros of this job is that it’s all up to you! You get to see everything happen and you run it all, but the cons is the same as the pros, everything is pretty much up to you so you have a lot on your shoulders.

Delving more into the production route, these are the different roles within them:

Games Producer – The reason why I like this route is because there is a lot of responsibility involved in it, the games producers are responsible for raising money, hiring talented staff and making sure the best possible game is made.
The reason I feel like I’ll be good at this is because I have good leadership skills, and I would love the challenge of having to work with lots of different people, work with a budget and working with publishers.
The pros of this job is that it pays well, you’ll meet lots of people and hire lots of people, in some cases you’ll fire them too, so you’re really taking on a leader task.
The cons of this job is the amount of responsibilities you have, you’ll be reliable for the marketing, the rights and licensing, the budget, the management of the game etc.

Assistant Games Producer – The reason why I like this job is that it’s a lot like the Games Producer job, but you’re working more with the team, and your job is always changing, so you’re never stuck doing the same thing over and over, you’re also responsible for making sure deadlines are met and filling and archiving games assets needed for marketing and press releases, and making sure the game is adapted right for localisation.
The pros of this is that it’s like the games producer job, but easier, and you’ll always be communicating with all the staff.
And the cons of this is that you’ll be working directly below the games producer so you have to make sure you’re doing everything right and everyone is working or else any faults will get you in trouble.

Marketing Executive – The reason why I like this job is that you’re in charge of hyping up the game! Bringing in fans which will want to buy the game, using social media, events, online communities, websites and lots more to advertise the upcoming game, they make updates on the features of the game and they coordinate the design of in-game screenshots and all media used during advertisement and marketing of the upcoming game.
The pros of this is that you get to see the fan base, which you helped gather, grow and hype the game, you also get to communicate with lots of different people to try and see if they’re interested in joining the fandom for the game.
The cons of this job would be that you may be pressured to get lots of people to like the game in a short amount of time.

Community Manager – The reason why I like this job is that it is very hands-on and you’ll be communicating with the actual fans of the game a lot more, this means that you’ll be promoting on social media, wearing promotion t-shirts, writing newsletters, setting up live-streams, and finding the best way to deal with criticism too, they communicate with the game designers with how the game can be improved through their feedback which they get.
The reason I feel like I’m suitable for this job is that I feel like I’m good at communicating and organizing.
The pros of this job is that you’ll always be communicating back and forth between people about the game.
The cons of the job is that, as you’re a representative, you have to always be cheery and happy, and not set a negative impression.

---

Design – The reason why I like the design route is that I really like art and design, making things look nice, which is why I think I would do well down this route, the only things I think that would hold me back would be the fact that getting into a design/art or any creative job in this day and age is very hard since lots of people want to do it, but if I could do it, then I would love to go down the design route.

Gameplay Designer – The reason why I like this job is because it’s a mix of technicality and art, which is what I like, and, you’re responsible with how the game plays, how fast the characters run, how you gain points, how high the player jumps, all of the rules are up to the Gameplay Designer, the reason I feel like this job would be suitable for me is because I love both technical and art, so I feel like this job is right up my lane.
The pros of this job is that there is lots of collaboration and communication within the job, if something doesn’t sit right as the game is being played the Gameplay Designer interferes.
The cons of this job is you have to have lots of knowledge and a good idea of how to make an innovative game with it being playable, you have to make up the best gameplay, otherwise the whole game would be unplayable.

Level Designer – The reason why I like this job is that it’s a good mixture of technical and artistic skills, they make the levels of the game in great detail, what event would happen where, what the player would experience and how they should see it, I feel like it would be a suitable job for me since I like technical and art routes.
The pros of this job is that it’s very creative, you’re responsible for a detailed chunk of the game.
The cons of this job is it may get repetitive, you’ll always have to find new ideas to put into the level and not use the same thing over and over again.

UX & UI Designer – The reason why I like this job is that I’ve always wanted a job like this, since UI is super important in games, another reason is that it’s a mixture of both art and technical, UX is also super important as it’s the users experience, how they’re meant to experience the game.
I feel like this job would be perfect for me, I have always wanted a job similar to this as it’s doing everything I like and more.
The pros of this job is that it’s important, it helps the game become easier to understand for the player.
The cons of this job is that if it’s for a big game company, you will most likely be doing it in a smaller studio with different people combined into one job.

Technical Art – The reason why I like the technical art route is because it’s a mixture of both art and programming, which is what I like, in the games industry, they’re lacking technical artists since not many programmers like art, and vice versa, and a technical artist is a mix of the two, helping around the studio both the artists and programmers, the reason why I don’t think this route would be a good idea for me is because it may get hard at times, but since it’s a job in demand, I would be happy to try my best to get a position in the technical art route.

Technical artist – The reason why I like this job is because you’ll always be helping out with both the programmers, artists and 3D modelers – it’s quite an authoritative role, and I feel as if I would be good at it because I have good leadership skills, the thing with being a technical artist though, is you would need to know everything to do with all the paths to ensure you would be the best help, the job can most likely get hard at times. The pros of this job is that it’s a job which is high in demand, lots of places need a technical artist as there isn’t many, so if you manage to learn a lot, you have yourself a stable job, the cons is that it’s a hard job, every job is hard, but this job is to do with fixing problems and doing all the small parts which people don’t understand how to do, so it comes along with teaching other people as well.

Graphics Programmer – The reason why I think this would be a good job for me is that it’s technical and also artistic, and from this job, you could go into many other jobs, you would work alongside the technical artist, and your job is to make sure the game doesn’t run slow, you make sure it preforms good.

Programming – I think the programming route would be ideal for me if I wanted to get a well paid job, since lots of people need programmers to make games work, even programmers for other things not involving games, I quite like programming, as you feel like you’ve really achieved something great when you manage to get something working, and I feel, if I go into a university and focus just on programming, I can probably get myself quite far as art is something I can teach myself, I would have both programming and art on my back.

Generalist Programmer – I feel as if this job would be a good job for me because it involves cleaning up code, debugging code, making sure everything is working correctly and as it should be, and doing that sounds fun, I quite like debugging code as you get a sense of achievement when you finally fix it and see it working, and I feel debugging code is a great way to learn, the pros of this job is that you will get paid well and it will be a stable job which you will keep throughout the entirety of the games development, unlike concept artists and such which are only hired on contracts.
The cons of this job is that it may be hard to get into, you need to prove yourself to be the best of the best.

Gameplay programmer – I feel as if this job would be good for me since I love making code for games as I love watching it come together and start working, I would be working alongside a group of people and getting stuff like combat, running and animations to work, and I think that job would be really fun! And it pays well! it’s the same as the Generalist Programmer except you’re making the code and make it fun to play.
The pros of this job is that it pays well, and you will get yourself a good stable job.
The cons of this job is that it may be hard to get into and you really need to prove your worth as you will be heavily relied on.

Tools Engineer – I feel as if this job would be good for me as I would be working close with all of the members, making sure they have the right tools to do the jobs which they need to do, I feel like this would be a good idea for me since I would be getting to know a lot of people along the way to I can build my status and get a better job.
The pros of this job is that you will be closely working with talented people
The cons of this job is that it would probably get boring and repetitive pretty quickly.

Quality Assurance – I feel like this route would be ideal for me since I would be testing out the game and giving out critique on how the game can be improved, and I feel as if I would be good at giving out critique on the game as I wouldn’t be bias and I would be honest on what I feel could change.

Games tester – I feel like this would be a good job for me to do since I would be testing the game for bugs and glitches, making sure everything works as it should, this means I will be in contact with the people who work on the game which would be an entry point into me getting into the games industry, I’m good at writing critique and long amounts of text so I can always write out and communicate with the people working on the game what is wrong, and how things can be fixed.
The pros of this job is that it is entry level, I will start making contacts with people and get myself into the industry.
The cons of this job is that it may get repetitive, meaning I would need to test a level over and over and over to make sure everything is working as it should.