Game and Art Design and other Video Game Careers

In the terrible economic conditions, the video game industry continues to do well. In fact, the well-known retailer, Gamestop, is forecasting double digits growth on sales for 2009 (source: Marketwatch). That's great news if you're someone who is looking for a career in the video game field.

But what kind of job would you want in the video game industry? Can you be in game art design? Can you be a video game programmer? Hey, how about becoming a video game tester? What type of video game jobs are out there and what do you do?

The answer is there are a lot of different jobs in the video game industry and, of course, each job requires a different skillset, training, and schooling. Below is just a small sample:

* Videogame testers - Many who aspire to work in the video game industry already know about this job. The responsibility is a little more than the title led some to believe. In other software industry, this job is usually called Quality Assurance. Those who work as video game testers are the ones who stress test the games, find bugs, and record them. They also give feedback on playability and anything else the developers and producers ask of them to watch out for.

* 2-D concept artists - These guys almost always have an arts degree or a strong portfolio of making creative images, whether digital or not. They are artists and they flesh out ideas on screen or paper before any real work takes place.

* 3-D character builders - These jobs require someone having experience with rendering software. They get the experience from hands on training or formal education, like going to school for game and art design. They put together how characters will look such as facial expressions, action poses, and, of course, costumes. Video game character designers are the ones responsible for bringing about the coolness of HALO's SPARTAN armors and Lara Craft's ultra sexy figure.

* Background artist - When walking around Raccoon City, did that creep you out (Resident Evil)? And when running around the Flayer Jungle on your way to Mephisto (Diablo 2), did you feel the mugginess of steamy tropical jungle? Well, the job of background artists is to immerse the gamer in a new world that is experienced from a computer screen. It requires a lot of creativity and imagination. This job typically requires someone with an art degree or a strong portfolio in creative digital images. Some schools call their programs game art design degrees.

The list above is just a small group of jobs requiring creativity and love for video games. In some of the above jobs, the skills necessary can be gotten through hands-on training, but many video game companies require a degree in game art and design or something similar. Researching the position that you want will help you a lot because it may have different requirements.

The author is a web producer and writes freelance on various topics such as "geeky" interests in cool Marvel statues and career tips on game and art design.