Work as a game designer

I re-publish one-year-old material. Previously, I was forced to hide at the request of the company I worked for at that moment. Most of the material is still relevant, although unfortunately finding a decent job as a game designer in Russia is becoming increasingly difficult.

I’ll say right away that this post will be interesting rather to those who start working in the gaming industry or want to start.
Further posts will contain an in-depth analysis of game design, but we begin with surface information.

Today I would like to start a series of articles on game design, which may help you achieve what you wanted: to better understand the sphere of the gaming industry, and can improve any of their skills.
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Probably, many would like to develop games namely to try themselves in the field of game design. What do you have to do? The game designer comes up with every little part of the game, starting with the global “How does the gameplay look” things, ending with how the “Back” button behaves on each of the interface screens.

Unfortunately, in Russia there is no education as such, which will help you get a job, except for some schools that we will not call with prices that do not fit in this article. So, there are two ways that will help you realize yourself in this area.




The first, obviously, is to learn everything yourself. Of course, it’s very difficult to start doing something yourself, let alone learn something, if there is no one who tells you what to do. But that is what we are doing here.

When applying for a job, first of all, they will evaluate your understanding of game design as a whole and your ability to compose design documents or concepts. And the most important thing is that in order to understand what is good and what is bad, you need to be able to analyze. Analyze other games: successes, failures, consider mechanics separately and try to understand if they work, and if so, why?

In this case, finding a job without experience is quite difficult, and if it turns out that you are in the position of a junior designer, who is not in every company. This does not mean that it is impossible, many people do just that, but for this you need to first prepare and master the skills that will help you get to the interview.

The second option is a bit simpler, but probably longer. It depends on your commitment and opportunities within the company. This way is to get a tester. It may seem uninteresting to someone, but when I started, I was extremely happy even to test the games. And then we turn on our abilities again.

Do not forget that first of all, you need to show yourself as a good tester, and only after trying to figure out what is happening around you. Do not do anything to the detriment of your basic duties. And in your free time, watch what's going on in the project: how do you spell design, how does it come to life, what mistakes are made? All this will help you in the future. Be active, express your ideas, take more responsibility. In general, show that you do a good job with your work and can also cope with design tasks.

But be patient, in the most successful set of circumstances it will take six months, and in some cases it may take a year or more.

Have you made your choice? Now you need to find the right company for growth. First of all, try not to settle in small companies. As a rule, they have few employees, they rarely expand and there are few opportunities. If there is no other way, well, this is still an experience that will be useful to you in the future, do not miss this opportunity, if there is nothing better.

Looking at the current picture of game development in Russia, we can safely say that 90% of developers make mobile and social games. Many dream of making big games like World of Warcraft, Assassin's Creed, Gears of War, right? Unfortunately, in Russia there are only a few developers on the console and PC, and it will be difficult to get there. But do not worry, look at the situation from the other side.

The mobile market is now the most growing and to work in it from the very beginning is a great start for a career. It may seem to you that this is not as interesting as making real large AAA projects, and on the one hand this is true. But! In mobile development, there is much more responsibility and much depends on you. If, working in Blizzard, you will be engaged in the arrangement of barrels in locations and other minor tasks for the first 10 years, then making a small game, you will get much more interesting things. Imagine what it is like to make a game for 3 years or 5 years? But in mobile games there are no such development terms, every year (on average), you will make sequels to the same game for four years, start something new, and discover new horizons for yourself.

Let us dwell on the choice of the company and the site for job search, for those who do not know about it. And no, this is not a promotional blog, unless all companies have hired me at once.

We will not give direct links, you can find everything on the Internet using Google. Personally, I am familiar with sites such as: hh, dtf, gamedev (ru). Also, many companies are engaged in recruiting in the social network of linkedin, so do not forget to create an account there and fill out information about yourself.

What to say about the companies? RJ Games is always looking for novice designers, I don’t know where so many of them are, but the vacancy is open all the time. There are companies PlayFlock and UFS Games, which are often sought and designers, albeit with experience, as well as testers. Of course, let's not forget about mail.ru, which is actively developing the direction of the mobile market and is looking for new specialists. I do not personally know anything about the Crazy Panda, but they also often look for specialists. And also remember about the developers who release some of the most successful mobile games: Zeptolab, KamaGames and Glu Mobile. They, as a rule, do not keep vacancies on these sites, but have their own with a list of vacancies. Oh, and without Game Insight.



Let us consider in more detail what the game designer still does. Or maybe a level designer? It all starts with the concept of the game, in which you describe all the most important thing that distinguishes it from other games, but also importantly, what games does it look like, what is Emulation Target (a game that yours will orient and borrow some elements of) . In serious cases, after that, a business case is compiled, which is a developed version of the concept, with comparative metrics of other games, what do you focus on, what to expect from your game in terms of audience and profit.

Further development of the game begins, or rather, its prototyping, at this stage it is necessary to determine the entire basic design of the game, what the gameplay will look like, in general, the game should take the form of a raw but playable product that can be used to determine whether your idea will work. If this does not happen, then development is often not worth it.



During development, you will describe a variety of things:
• Tutorial (or Onboarding), i.e. first player experience
• AI (Artificial Intelligence) behavior, AI scripting capabilities
• All features of the main character (s)
• Outlines of each screen UI if you do not have a separate designer UI
• Conditions of interaction with the outside world
• Goals of the game, what the player will strive for, why he will return to your game (Retention)
• If we are talking about free 2 play, then, of course, how are we going to monetize this game, i.e. what will the player pay for and why
• Level design, if your game requires it.
• Balance of complexity and economy
• Much more ...
• And the final stage - analytics and adjustment

You can start tomorrow, see the vacancies, see the requirements, prepare yourself and go ahead! I will lead a series of articles describing each step in more detail.

Write your feedback in the comments and ask about what you would like to see in the following articles.