Game Design - Choosing Specialty - Shadow Urtheart

This tutorial will show you the different areas of Computer Games Design you can get into and that the industry in recent years has had a heavy demand for.

Concept Designer

The job of designers is to come up with original and interesting game concepts, so that when the game is proposed to the publishers, they will want to pay for and publish the game. The lead designer is always a concept designer (among other things) and so this is an essential skill if you wish to head projects, and a game will usually have 3 or 4 concept designers, each of whom work on a separate aspect of the game.

They work on what is known as the design documentation, a large presentation which goes over every aspect of the game’s design, which the production team then follow when making the game.

This is the most important job in pre-production and as such, requires the most work, and is one of the hardest jobs to get because it requires an understanding of all the other aspects of pre-production as well as some of the production areas as well.

Concept Artist

This job involves good art skills, more specifically in sketching, as well as a good imagination and creativity skills. Artists work with the designers in creating the art for the game, which will include fully detailed pieces of character art (which is then usually forwarded as final art for the game if it is good enough) along with sketches and works of the levels, items, enemies, textures and profiles for models that 3D modellers will use to make the in-game avatars.

Although there is always at least one led artist, many companies hire many different artists to try and vary the art style between different series of games. However a high art quality is needed to get these jobs, as well as an understanding on what the art is used for and the types of drawing you will be requested to draw.

3D Modellers

Even in the pre-production stages, 3D Modellers are required to help with visualisation and beta examples of the game. Working with artists and designers, their min job is create visual models of levels, characters and items as an example of what they will look like within the game.

Working together with level designers, texture artists and concept designers, a few beta levels, usually imported into another engine can have the required items and characters made by a 3D modeller, as well as possibly some designed elements like castles.

3D modellers tend to specialise in the skill of modelling, however having some drawing abilities and creative flair will give you a boost in your job chances.

Texture Artists

Also adapt with 3D Modelling tools, Texture artist have the job of colouring 3D models to look detailed without adding anymore physical detail to the model. The process involves unwrapping a 3D model onto a flat plane, and then exporting it to a graphics program such as Photoshop or GIMP, and using various effects and techniques to make the desired metal, fur or material effects, which will then appear on the 3D model.

Texture artists really need a very good base in art, as a lot of attention needs to put into making the textures look realistic, but also need a good base in 3D programs, and how to use the program to the desired effects so that they can create great looking objects while using as little memory as possible. Level Designers

In pre-production, Level designers will work with existing engines, or beta engines to produce working levels of the game to explain game concepts and give developers a base on which to create the game. They work closely with the designers and use the materials supplied to them by 3D Modellers and Texture Artists to create levels as close to the final product s they can without using any development costs.

Level designers usually have a good base of schematic design and while they may not implement all their designs at the pre-production stage, they will create the basic plans for every level in the game following directions given by the designers.

While bug testing happens during the development stages, Level Designers will try to iron out any bugs with gameplay during this stage to check that the game will not have too many problems to get through during development, so traditionally the level with the most gameplay features will be created as the beta test.

Animator

Another 3D heavy area, Animators create the movement of objects and rig the characters of a 3D environment. It is rare for someone to specialise purely in animating and it will usually be combined with 3D modelling and texturing. The skills animators need to use is to not only make sure the models move without collisions, and bits of items going through walls, but also to make sure that textures don’t stretch while animating, and that the model as a whole can move smoothly from one frame to another while still looking natural.

Many people who do specialise in animation study large amounts of anatomy and movement to allow them to correctly rig a character so it moves in a way which is conceivable to be real.