Video games have been part of our entertainment for over 30 years. At first, they were made up of small pixels, but, nowadays, they can compete with the best film productions.
The interest generated by video games makes many people want to work in this sector, and we will explain to you what branches exist and how to work in the video game industry in its most creative or technical sections. This report is just a little guide in case you’ve been bitten by the worm of being part of this world.
The first thing to do to work as a programmer, artist, composer, journalist, or video game marketing is to study. There are several options: entering the career of Computer Science, Fine Arts, Journalism at a University and then complement what he learned with some of the many masters of video games that have been born in recent years.
A second option is to enter directly into a degree of video games in which all the processes of video game development are studied. Finally, there is a third way to be self-taught. This is a longer and more complicated path, but also more satisfying as you learn a multitude of resources.
Yes, none of these three possibilities of which I have spoken to guarantee that of the night to the morning you go to work in the game industry. It all depends on the moment, the luck and the determination of each aspirant to fulfill his dreams.
Programmer
In the development of video games, there are many areas, and one of them is that of the programmer. This discipline comes into play right after creating the game design: script, sketches, character dialogs, screen items, the function of the programmer is to put all these elements in graphics and get them to move correctly on our screen.
Video game studios usually have several programming teams that are dedicated to the development of different elements of video games: engine programming, visual programming, physics programming, artificial intelligence programming, network programming or Gameplay programming. When they have a vacancy, they usually post job offers on their websites and, if you meet the requirements, it is one of the opportunities to get into the video game industry.
Art
Within the world of video games, artists are one of the most numerous collectives, and it is up to them whether a video game attracts our attention or not. They are in charge of creating the characters, the setting their quality or lack of it, can be evaluated directly by the player.
As in the case of programmers, there are many roles within video game studios and to which you can dedicate yourself if you want to work in the industry. Within Spain, it is essential to be dynamic in work and know-how to adapt to different artistic styles since, since they are not very large studios, you will have to work on various decorative elements of the video game. I mean, you’re not just going to work on developing a character, you can also take care of the scenarios.
The most important role is the Art Director who watches over the entire visual section of the video game is integrated correctly. It has to be as soon as you start defining the first synopsis of the video game and set your game style, genre.
Other roles within the art section are conceptual artist, 2D Artist, 3D Artist, traditional artist, organic or sculptor, Texturizer, Rigger, animator, level builder, Illuminator. If you want to work in the video game industry in the art section, you have to prepare a sound portfolio so you can send it to the video game companies. Of course, it is not enough to have just one; it must be adapted to the job you want to choose from.
Although it is not highly valued and seems like the simplest of video games, the sound section is as important as programming or art. One of the most attractive places is the composer of the soundtrack. Logically, not everyone can access knowledge and studies in music are required.
The composer’s task is to develop a soundtrack that reinforces game mechanics and provides narrative load, depending on the genre of the video game, target audience, platform. It is not the same to create music for an adventure game as for a shooter and also for a console or mobile game.
As in the case of the video game artist, it is essential to have a model with several musical pieces to send to the studios so that you can choose to join a work team.