Job Roles in Game Development

By NIIT Editorial

Published on 05/02/2021

5 minutes

Gaming is one industry that continues to surpass expectations. Having already topped the $150 billion dollar mark in global revenues, its consumer-reach rises steadily northwards through a diversity of platforms. Take smartphones for instance. On the Apple App Store alone, through 2020, the platform offered a total of 957, 390 apps in all. Similarly, in Q3 of 2020, the Google Playstore had a total of 385, 551 apps in all. Data doesn’t lie following which we can infer that the scope and prospects for future growth are well and truly there. But often interested talented grapples with the question, how?

Therefore, we decided to share the most commonly found job roles industry-entrants can target for good!

Game Designer

You need a high-level of creative intelligence to take up this profile. The key responsibility areas entail professionals to architect gameplay sequences and gaming provisions as part of creating the structure of the game. The contours of this task include producing all the relevant documentation, narration (where needed), and complete game packaging. User interface design falls under the purview of this profile.

Gaming Artist

Their focus is primarily on the visual design of the game. Responsibilities range depending on whether the game is 2D or 3D. You can be a concept artist who produces the initial sketches of the characters on a drawing board. Moving a step further, an iteration of this role could be a textual artist, who works with design software and adds a realistic touch to the digital gaming environment. Then there are lightning artists as well who approach the visual effects with the same dexterity of making motion pictures.

Game Developer

Of course, game developers can be of varying types but considering they are employed in the gaming industry, their responsibilities could vary from graphics, sound, and gameplay to scripting, network communications, and the user interface. Nowadays, there is also a push to incorporate emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence into games. This requires not just expert skills in programming languages but also data analysis, natural language generation, speech translation to name a few skills.

Game Tester

This profile is equivalent to a quality assurance tech role in Information technology. These professionals are expected to run vigorous tests and look for logical, scientific, and programmable errors/bugs in the game. It is a critical designation as a game developer you don’t want the audience to encounter an itchy patch or something sub-standard for a quality price.

DevOps Engineer

DevOps engineers are expected to maintain a free-flow of communication from the gaming servers to the final platform being used by the end-user. Regulating the distribution of gamers at various server layers is important as an unexpected spike in the audience could cause the server load to increase beyond control and finally crash. It is a pseudo managerial role that requires individuals with excellent communication ability to ably balance the workload between the development and operations teams.

Game Critic

Only a true gamer can become a gaming critic. The cost of gaming software and equipment could feel heavy on the pocket for many. But a market for influencers exists provided you have detailed knowledge, and most important of all, an opinion on the state of things. You could use YouTube, Instagram, or other social handles to garner followers. Using this popularity, you can then partner with leading brands to promote products and gaming merchandise.