Assuming you’ve already finished the necessary courses and built up some references from freelance work, you may now be ready for a full time job with one of the large players. Be warned though, it’s not all sunshine and roses. Here are some things to be prepared for with a full-time video game industry position.

1. Game Ideas Are A Dime A Dozen

Whatever you do, don’t expect to get any respect for your “game ideas”. Large video game design houses already have all the ideas they need for new titles. The only thing they really need is people who can bring those ideas to life. That’s why programmers and those who can design computer graphics and animations are in such high demand.

On the other hand, if you can come up with ways for your company to bring a game from idea to market faster, cheaper or more profitably, you’ll find that your employers will be all ears. After all, even the the video game industry, profit is still the bottom line.

2. Game Design And Development Takes Time

If you’re the kind of person who likes to see quick results once a project starts, you’re going to be in for another surprise. Game development is a slow and tedious process with most games taking anywhere from 6 months to several years before they are ready to be released.

To make things even less rewarding, most companies will have several games in development at the same time. That’s because they know that most of the games they produce won’t be top-sellers and they want to lessen their risk. You have to be ready to handle months or more trying to make your title the best even while knowing your company has likely spread its bets around.

3. You Need To Be A Team Player

Even if the game you worked on turns out to be a hit, you’re probably not going to get all the recognition you feel you deserve. That’s because most projects in the game industry will require you to work as part of a large team. Different members of the team will be responsible for different aspects of game development.

In fact, you may not even see those working on other parts of the game during development, as there maybe another person or group of people responsible for pulling all of the pieces together. If you’re not a person who can appreciate the inner-satisfaction of a job well done along with your paycheck, this can be a real downside to working full time for a big name in this industry.

4. Bonus Tip: Don’t be too discouraged though. There are still other jobs in the video game industry that can be very rewarding both personally and financially, such as being a freelance video game tester. In fact, you can find many of these types of testing opportunities by visiting this link right now.

Any of these are good reasons to consider the industry, so where do you go for video game design career information? You’ll need to be proactive, getting out there and putting forth the effort to make the most of your interest. Here’s how to start.

First off is schooling.

For any video game design career, you’ll need to get a two to four year degree in the field you’re interested in first. Devry, ITT Technical Institute, and many of the Art Institutes all offer programs that will prepare you for the video game design field as well as offering you tons of video game design career information through their programs.

There are other more traditional schools, such as The Digital Media Arts College in Florida, which offers extensive Bachelors Degree programs in video game design, as well as Collins College in Arizona. Almost anywhere in the nation though you’ll find a program that will help you get the video game design career information you need.

Know The Industry

But, just getting a degree is not necessarily enough. Many careers require some level of experience or knowledge of the industry, possibly even just a few contacts from within. Regardless, you should be familiar with the various game design companies.

Not only should you know which companies you’d like to work with when it comes time to apply for jobs, you should know what they produce, familiarizing yourself with their output.

You should know that EA has multiple studios that produce Sports games, action games, and movie license among many others. You should know that if you want to work for a Japanese publisher, you might need to know a little Japanese.

Get Out There and Network

Once you’ve familiarized yourself with the industry and are on your way to having a degree, you should look for video game design career information in the most information packed places of all, the trade shows and publications.

You can find endless amounts of information at these shows, with every major publisher out in full force. Though E3 has changed its format this year to a smaller invite only summit, other major shows such as the Tokyo Game Show (once again, Japanese helps), or the Game Developers Conference offer plenty of chances to step in and grab information or meet and greet with designers.

And if you can get invites to any industry events, either through school or press credentials or through networking with industry insiders, you can find yourself in a position to land a great job designing video games.

The real key to finding good video game design career information is to step out of the box and take real initiative. You had better have a keen eye and a willingness to get your foot in the door and meet lots of people. There are hundreds of opportunities out there if you’re willing to make the effort in exploiting them.

BONUS TIP: If you’re just starting out in the video game industry and want to get your foot in the door, you might want to learn how to become a video game tester first. You can start now by watching this FREE game tester video by clicking here.

Lead designers write and program and organize. It is the responsibility of the lead designer to make sure the universe of the game is a place players will find interesting. The lead designer needs to keep track of the pulse of the gaming world, to know what is hot, what is cold and what gamers will expect in a new game. The lead designer tries to find the best compromise between the resources and time available and the needs of the project to create the best possible game, knowing where to cut corners and where to focus attention.

Another of the tasks is to ensure that everyone in the project understands and works towards the themes of the game. What seems like a minor change can cost weeks of work and waste thousands of dollars. The lead designer has to determine when it is worth those changes, and to plan well enough that changes aren’t needed more than a tiny amount of the time.

Game designers take the notes given to them by the others and turn them into virtual reality. Game designers are given parts of the game and are told to make each module work, and work together with the modules the other designers are managing. Game designers have to be good analysts and outgoing people who will seek out the other members of the team to make every piece work correctly together and leverage every skill and asset available to better the game. They have to be able to figure out what is working, what isn’t working and what needs to be done to correct those problems. They also need to be good writers who can produce clear and concise reports and emails to communicate this with others.

Artists turn those short notes that say a dozen women in chain mail bikinis riding dinosaurs and carrying crossbows will then attack the party into a vision. In a very real sense, an artist did anything you see in the game. There are artists specializing in character design, some who do the background images, others who create the equipment and even animals. Artists must understand how the images will be rendered, so they can create the best appearances while using the least possible amount of system resources.

BONUS TIP: There are a number of skills required to design and produce a video game. An honest examination of your skills and abilities will often suggest one best suited to your abilities. If you’d like to get your foot in the door, why not try your hand at video game testing? You can start by clicking here.