Game Development VS Game Design.

[Echo Magnum]

GAME DESIGN VS GAME DEVELOPMENT

Game Design is about the creative aspect of video-games, creating characters, settings, environments, stories at production stage and also creating (designing ) the rules and content at the pre-production stage

Game Development is actually more broad and involves design but here I'm referring to the actual development such as programming, testing and the software development process in creating a commercial video-game.

Which one is better to take as a course in university and or just generally.

Supposing you are balanced at both the required design and development skills, which one would be more rewarding and benefiting to do as a profession if you had to single down on one of the two sectors of the video-game industry.

Also who earns the biggest pay ( besides the publisher/producers ) and what would you ( if you are interested in working in the video-game industry ) would you wish to be or do out of:

> The Artists ( Character designers, Environment, *UI design, Concept Art e.t.c )
> The Sound Engineer ( Technical professionals responsible for sound effects, voice acting, music e.t.c )
> The Testers ( Analyzes the game to document any defects and overall quality )
> The Programmers ( *AI, *UI, Sound, Game-play e.t.c )
> The Level Designers ( Create levels, challenges for the game with a built-in engine for the game )

(* AI = Artificial Intelligence , UI = User Interface )

If your already doing one of these courses, I would appreciate it if you could share how its like, what the work like, if you enjoy it or not and any other experience.

 

[GameBoy]

I want to be main designer of course. I have 4-5 original* own ideas for games right now (one in development, although it took me 3 years already, still not done) and I want someday see it all in action.

But if picking one form your list - definitely sound engineer and/or composer. Sure, I can do some graphics and coding, but these aren't my best skills.


PS. DON'T EVER be a tester. What I can say after betatesting my 5-minutes-long game - it's very boring job and I'm sure it isn't well paid one.


*like everyone wannabe game designer

 

[Mr_Smith]

Quality Assurance is actually a pretty good paid job, if I'm well informed.
I want to be a game/level designer, as that sounds like the most fun job. But you shouldn't really pay attention to what will pay the most, if you want to earn a lot of money get a job as senior programmer or senior game designer, which is difficult to achieve. Even better, don't go in the game-making industry if money is your main attraction point.

 

[GameBoy]

I'll bet that Quality Assurance isn't same thing as betatesting. ;d

 

[Dahrkael]

I'll bet that Quality Assurance isn't same thing as betatesting. ;d

actually, QA Testers are the ones who "betatests" the games searching for bugs or localization errors, and yes, its well paid but also a pain sometimes.

Im mainly a programmer and of course Id like to work as one on game development.
But right now my best bet is starting as a QA tester in the Electronic Arts office here.

 

[Mr_Smith]

2D

Er, what? Please post with more content. That was the guy's sig anyway.

 

[Zeriab]

Which one is better depends on what you as a person would enjoy the most / get the biggest reward out of. I am not talking about money, but rather the more important parts about what you really want to do.
Of course you may not really know what you what and there is also the possibility that after learning about an area that you don't like it as much as you thought. So it may be a good idea to try a bit different, particular if you are able to cancel the stuff you don't like without it costing you too much.

In terms of money the salaries for lowly grunts are on average the highest for programmers. On the other hand, game programmers are under-paid compared to other programmers, so choosing to become a game programmer is silly if it's for the money. Of course if you particular like programming games it's a different matter.
It is true that quite a number of people are using QA as an entry path to become a programmer.

In terms of AI since I do have a slight love for it :cute: I suggest you check out http://aigamedev.com/

*hugs*

 

[Echo Magnum]

My dream job would be lead character designer and/or lead design and if possible I would like to own my own dev-studio and sort or produce commercial-indie games for a living and employ/involve most of my friends from university, even if I don't get super rich or whatever It would be satisfying enough to make games which I already do as a hobby a career ( I already do it for free ).

I read that most people who take game design courses have a hard time finding work though? programmers get jobs easier but its harder to get promoted or become lead programmer or something, but come to think of it almost everything is difficult to get a starting job in, e.g if you take some really common course like business management its not like you can just walk into some random business and demand a job. Its always better to be self employed but at the same time this is a lot harder and requires a lot of capital.

Also the commercial industry is hell of competitive and most newbie dev-teams get 'swated' by the aggressive studios who could copy your idea and make it twice as better with the amount of team power and cash they put behind it. Not only that making a game takes about three to four years at least and during all this time you are technically "unemployed" ( like you have to pay for the costs of production even though your not earning anything yet ) until you finish the project and hope that it would sell and most times as I said there is a lot of competition to beat. but having said all that I think once you make it theirs nothing more satisfying this world has to offer ( well at least for me ).

I found a helpful site on how to start your own game company if your also interested :
How to start your own game company

It usually starts from home brew dev-teams then slowly expands into a major company.