Which Game Job Is Right for You? 30 Interviews with Pro Game Devs
There are dozens of careers to choose from in the video game industry. But which one is right for you? Which job is the best fit your own unique interests and personality?
To find out if you’d make a good game artist, designer, programmer, or tester, there’s no better way than to find someone who’s already doing the job, and ask them to tell you all about it. Unfortunately, if you’re like most people, you probably don’t know any professional game developers who you could ask.
That’s why I did it for you! I interviewed over 30 professional game developers to find out all about their daily jobs. I asked them what they do, how they got started, and what they like (and don’t like) about their jobs making games. And, most importantly, I asked for their very best advice on how a new person (someone like YOU) can get started in the career.
So read these interviews with professional game developers to find out what each job is, what it takes to succeed, and how you can start preparing for your own game career today.
Interviews with Game Developers
- Game Design careers
- Game Production careers
- Game Writing careers
- Game Art careers
- Game Programming careers
- Game Audio careers
- Game Testing (QA) careers
- Community Management careers
- Game Recruiter careers
Game Designers can hold the high-level vision for the game, but they also craft the game levels, design the in-game interactions, tune the game worlds, and write documentation to communicate the game plan to the team.
- Game Designer – with Kelly Toyama
- Level Designer – with Mandi Burley
- Systems Designer
- Content Designer
A game’s production team guides and focuses the game team, manages the schedule and deliverables, keeps the project moving forward smoothly, and can shepherd the overall vision for the game.
- Game Company CEO – with Eric Jordan
- Game Producer – with Frank Rogan
- Associate Producer – with Merric Shank
- Product Manager – with Diana Hsu
- UX Researcher – with Lauryl Zenobi
- VR Community Builder – with Sonya Haskins
Writing careers in the game industry can be on a game team as the writer of the history, characters, and dialog. Or they can be writing about video games as a blogger or journalist.
- Game Writer – with Darby McDevitt
- Game Journalist – with Nicole Tanner
- Game Translator/Localizer – Damien Yoccoz
- Writing for Video Games – with John Dennis
There are many art careers in the game industry, from designing the initial art style; to creating the landscapes and architecture of the game world; to modeling and animating the characters; to designing the user interface and in-game HUD, and more.
- Concept Artist – with Tyler Finney
- Character Modeler – with Darran Hurlbut
- Environment Artist – with Caleb Parrish
- Character Animator – with Tony Ravo
- Special Effects Artist – with Nathaniel Hubbell
- User Interface (UI) Artist – with Tamara Knoss
- 2D Artist/Animator – with Rich Werner
- Technical Artist – with Patrick Connole
Game Programmers write the source code that brings the game’s design, art, and audio to life. Whether they’re building the game play, the user interaction, or creating the game engine itself, programmers are always in demand.
- Game Programmer – with Dan Posluns
- Systems Programmer – with David C. Galloway
- Tools and Pipeline Programmer– with Brian Gish
- Graphics Programmer – with Brandon Fogerty
- Artificial Intelligence (AI) Programmer
- Server Engineer – with Elvir Bahtijaragic
- Mobile Game Developer – with Jeremy Newton
- Game App Developer – with Uri Marchand
The quality of a game’s music and audio effects can be the difference between a “meh” gaming experience, and a game that takes true immersion to a higher level.
- Music Composer – with Brian Schmidt
- Sound Designer – with Jaclyn Shumate
- Audio Implementer – with Chase Thompson
- Audio Freelancer – with Ted Wennerström
The unsung heroes of the game industry, testers make sure the game is not only fun – but also fast, stable, and bug-free. They’re the checks and balances of the game team, ensuring that your gaming experience is top-notch.
- QA Tester – with Bill Schneider
- Software Development Engineer in Test (SDET)
Modern games are about more than just gameplay—they’re about the community. Community builders and managers advocate for games, players, and industries. They make sure the community grows in a healthy and inclusive way for all to enjoy.
- Community Manager – with Jason Van Beveren
- Virtual Reality Community Builder – with Sonya Haskins
Games don’t get made without a team. Recruiters search far and wide for the best candidates, and help hiring managers make strong staffing decisions that result in winning game teams.
- Game Recruiter – Podcast episode #44
If you work in the game industry and would like me to interview you for this series, please get in touch!
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You should add Sound Programmer in the Programming Careers Section. And Physics Programmer also.
Sound Programmer and Physics Programmer are not normal jobs in the game industry. Usually any sound-specific programming is done by a generalist programmer, and game studios don’t generally have a dedicated physics programmer because most game engines use licensed physics engines these days.
I’m interested in both game programming and general game design, my talents lying mostly with programming. Do game programmers often get much input in the game design outside of simply how the game functions? I assume this would largely depend on the size of the team. But I’m just wondering if it’s likely I’ll get to participate in both areas.
(Sorry if my question is a little vague :P)
Thanks in advance for answering, if you can.
You’re right that it depends on the size of the team. If you want to have a lot of input as a programmer, try working with a smaller team (like 4 to 20 people). However, programmers could have a lot of input on the design of bigger games, if they’re gameplay programmers. For example, if you’re the combat programmer on a fighting game, you may have a lot of control over the fine-tuning and overall “feel” of the combat, even if it’s a large team. Some of the best designers I know started out as programmers.
BTW, I answered your question in more depth on this week’s podcast. Listen here: Do video game programmers get to contribute to the game design?
I am pretty good at writing, at least for my age group. I want to write the scripts for games but I don’t know what qualifications I would need for such a career. Obviously I would need experience in writing, but is there anything else I should have before trying for a job?
Hi Hunter, you should check out my article on how to get started as a game writer, I think it will answer your questions.
I’ve always been interested in playing video games in general but now that I’ve graduated from high school I want to look into a possible career path. Obviously we all know it’s very difficult to get into a career where all you do is play games. So realistically I would look into something like environmental art or character artist but how exactly do you even look for a career or college classes for character artist or environmental artist it’s a pain and I’ve been looking for weeks
Hi Joe, most game-art programs are traditional art schools where you can do an emphasis on games and interactive media. But there are a few dedicated game art schools, for example Full Sail (https://www.fullsail.edu/) and DigiPen (https://www.digipen.edu/) have both been around for many years. There’s a list of traditional schools that offer art degrees here.
Hi ! Is there any chances of me becoming a game tester or pro-gamer after the age of 23 . Cause i have no idea about entering into gaming field . Can u suggest an idea for me?
There aren’t any restrictions on how old you can be to change careers – most people change careers several times in their life. I share some ideas for how to do a career change into games, in this article on Breaking Into Video Games.
Hi I’m Caleb, I was looking at different careers for quite a while and I started looking at different gaming careers because I love to play games and possibly give some ideas of what the company can do to make the games better, maybe a game tester or something and I know that I would have to have experience for it and I I would love to have some advice of what I should do to join a gaming career? Thanks
Hi Caleb, game testing is a pretty good way to start out in the industry if you’re not sure where you want to start. As you can see from this article, there are many different kinds of jobs in the game industry, so you’ll need to do some exploration to find out whether you’re more interested in programming, or art, or game design, or something else. I suggest you read through some of the interviews in the above article, and see if any sound particularly interesting for you. It’s worth the time, this is your future career!
Hi! So what is the exact difference between a gameplay developer and software engineer? To me both seem to be the same, I can’t identify the exact difference
Great question. “Software engineer” is a general term for anyone who codes in a programming language to build software. “Gameplay developer” is a specialized type of software engineer who writes code for video games. The “gameplay” part usually means they’re writing code that is game-specific (as opposed to general code that could be used for lots of games, such as physics, rendering, audio engine, etc.). I hope that clears it up!