A revealing guide to a career as a video game designer written by acclaimed journalist Daniel Noah Halpern and based on the real-life experiences of legendary designer Tom Cadwell of Riot Games—required reading for anyone considering a path to this profession. Becoming a Video Game Designer takes you behind the scenes to find out what it’s really like, and what it really takes, to become a video game designer. Gaming is a $138 billion-dollar entertainment industry, and designers are the beating heart. Long-form journalist Daniel Noah Halpern shadows top video game designer Tom Cadwell to show how this dream job becomes a reality. Cadwell is head of design at Riot Games, the company behind award-winning blockbuster games like League of Legends, which has an active user base of 111 million players. Creating a massive multiplayer online game takes years of visionary R&D—it is a blend of art and science. It is also big business. Learn the ins and the outs of the job from Cadwell as well as other designers, including Brendon Chung, acclaimed founder of Blendo Games. Successful designers must be creative decision makers and also engineers and collaborators. Gain professional wisdom by following Tom’s path to prominence, from his start as a passionate gamer to becoming one of the most revered designers in the business.

Become a Player in the Business of Video Game Art Every year video games generate billions of dollars and some of the most dynamic and engaging artwork today. It’s an ever-growing field that holds great professional opportunity, but you need the right skills and savvy if you want to stake your claim. In How to Become a Video Game Artist, veteran video game designer Sam R. Kennedy provides the inside track on everything you need to forge a career in the world of video game art. Starting with the basics of game creation and a look at the artistic skills necessary to get started, Kennedy spotlights specific, key roles for creators—from concept artists to character animators to marketing artists and beyond. Each chapter features screenshots from popular video games like Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon and World of Warcraft; interviews with video game art professionals who’ve worked for top gaming companies like BioWare, Blizzard, and Ubisoft; step-by-step examples of actual game art; and detailed breakdowns of the training and portfolio samples you’ll need to make these jobs your own. For anyone who wants to go from gamer to game designer, this book contains all the secrets you’ll need to rise to the top of one of the most exciting industries of our time.

The game industry continues to grow and evolve as the years pass. Despite this growth, the competition in obtaining a career in video games remains as arduous as ever. Becoming a Video Game Artist helps guide readers from their first steps of making a portfolio, to acing the job interview and beyond. John Pearl explores the different art related jobs and their responsibilities. Questions are posed to industry professionals throughout each chapter to help with the reader’s growth and understanding. Becoming a Video Game Artist is the ultimate roadmap in navigating a career in video games by teaching how to make your portfolio shine, what expect once hired, and how to make the best decisions to help flourish your talents and cultivate an exciting career.

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 Someone who loves games and plays them. Someone who can’t help but think about how games work. Someone who wants to know how things work as systems. #2 Cadwell was born in St. Louis, and as a child he spent a lot of time playing video games. He became interested in the patterns and systems of video games, and as he got older, he began to figure out how to apply those systems to other areas of his life. #3 Cadwell was eventually kicked off the servers of a MUD game for being too materialistic while playing a Paladin. He then went on to concentrate in computer science at MIT. He also discovered a new game: StarCraft, which had come out in 1998. #4 Cadwell ended up working for Blizzard Entertainment, a company that created Warcraft and StarCraft games. He was hired as the lead play-balance designer. While working there, he realized that game design was what he wanted to do.

The Craft and Science of Game Design: A Video Game Designer’s Manual goes into the nuts and bolts of video game development from the perspective of a veteran designer with more than 20 years of experience in the industry. It covers the psychology and biology of why people play games and goes in depth on the techniques and tricks professional game designers use to be successful in game development. If you are looking to make a career in video games, or are already in the industry, the insights and hard-earned lessons contained in this book are sure to be useful at all levels of the profession. Originally from Canada, Phil O’Connor has been making video games all over the world since 1997. Phil has worked at some of the industry’s largest studios on some of the biggest projects, including Far Cry 3 and Rainbow Six Siege. With credits on nearly 20 games, Phil has shared in this book some of the less-known details of being a game designer in today’s video game industry, along with a breakdown of some of the skills to help professional designers shine.

Ferguson's Careers in Focus books are a valuable career exploration tool for libraries and career centers. Written in an easy-to-understand yet informative style, this series surveys a wide array of commonly held jobs and is arranged into volumes organized by specific industries and interests. Each of these informative books is loaded with up-to-date career information presented in a featured industry article and a selection of detailed professions articles. The information here has been researched, vetted, and analyzed by Ferguson's editors, drawing from government and industry sources, professional groups, news reports, career and job-search resources, and a variety of other sources. For readers making career choices, these books offer a wealth of helpful information and resources.

In the general mass of digital content, the «Games» segment brings the maximum revenue and has long been ahead of others: video, music and e-books. And if in 2015, predicted the approximation of the revenue figures from video games to revenues from the sports industry, then in 2018 all analysts unanimously concluded: beyond this segment – the future.

Video Game Design is a visual introduction to integrating core design essentials, such as critical analysis, mechanics and aesthetics, prototyping, level design, into game design. Using a raft of examples from a diverse range of leading international creatives and award-winning studios, this is a must-have guide for budding game designers. Industry perspectives from game industry professionals provide fascinating insights into this creative field, and each chapter concludes with a workshop project to help you put what you've learnt into practice to plan and develop your own games. With over 200 images from some of the best-selling, most creative games of the last 30 years, this is an essential introduction to industry practice, helping readers develop practical skills for video game creation. This book is for those seeking a career making video games as part of a studio, small team or as an independent creator. It will guide you from understanding how games engage, entertain and communicate with their audience and take you on a journey as a designer towards creating your own video game experiences. Interviewees include: James Portnow, CEO at Rainmaker Games Brandon Sheffield, Gamasutra.com/Game Developer magazine Steve Gaynor, co-founder The Fullbright Company (Gone Home) Kate Craig, Environment Artist. The Fullbright Company (Gone Home) Adam Saltsman, creator of Canabalt & Gravity Hook Jake Elliott & Tamas Kemenczy, Cardboard Computer (Kentucky Route Zero) Tyson Steele, User Interface Designer, Epic Games Tom Francis, Game Designer, Gunpoint & Floating Point Kareem Ettouney, Art Director, Media Molecule. Little Big Planet 1 & 2, Tearaway. Kenneth Young, Head of Audio, Media Molecule Rex Crowle, Creative Lead, Media Molecule

If playing video games is so much fun, how much fun would it be to make them? Designing video games is a very demanding career, but it is also incredibly exhilarating. From the necessary education to the daily routines, take a detailed look inside what it takes to win as a video game designer.

Many aspiring game designers have crippling misconceptions about the process involved in creating a game from scratch, believing a "big idea" is all that is needed to get started. But game design requires action as well as thought, and proper training and practice to do so skillfully. In this indispensible guide, a published commercial game designer and longtime teacher offers practical instruction in the art of video and tabletop game design. The topics explored include the varying types of games, vital preliminaries of making a game, the nuts and bolts of devising a game, creating a prototype, testing, designing levels, technical aspects, and assessing nature of the audience. With practice challenges, a list of resources for further exploration, and a glossary of industry terms, this manual is essential for the nascent game designer and offers food for thought for even the most experienced professional.