You may find this hard to believe, but playing video games could be the first step to a career. Thousands of workers who develop video games for a living say their passion for playing is what drew them to their jobs. "I’ve always loved games," says Hugh Riley, a game artist. "Making them is a dream come true."

A love of games is an advantage in an industry whose stock and trade is fun and fantasy. But game development jobs also require serious skills. Only highly qualified people find jobs.

There are video games for every taste: sports, action, adventure, strategy, and education. Games are made for personal computers, consoles, arcades, and the Internet. Games even add excitement to some retail websites and electronic organizers.

Demand for video games is rising, and the industry is growing. Sales of game software generated more than $6 billion last year, according to NPD Interactive Entertainment Service, a market research group based in New York. More than 19,000 new games were showcased at the 1999 Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles. And according to a Coopers and Lybrand study for the Interactive Software Developers Association, the average development company grew by 18 percent between 1997 and 1998, with about 50,000 people working in video game development in 1998.

Most games are developed in small studios and then shipped to publishers who advertise and distribute them. This article describes the development stage of a video game, from concept to completion. Keep reading to learn about common development occupations, some of the advantages and disadvantages of a development career, and how to get started in the industry.

Job titles and duties of video game developers vary by game genre and company organization. Jobs change rapidly as new technologies emerge. For these and other reasons, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) does not have employment or earnings data for most occupations within the video game industry. "Games are the Wild West of the computer industry," says Christopher Ulm, a designer at Oddworld Inhabitants in San Luis Obispo, California. "There's no set way of organizing companies. Everyone does it differently."

But there are some similarities. In every development studio, the people who make video games comprise four main teams: design, artistic, programming, and testing. The design team writes the game concept, character interactions, and gameplay elements. The artistic team creates images and composes music and sound. The programming team plans and codes software. And the testing team finds errors in the game before it is published.

Game designers

"Designers create fun," says Christina Mcgavin, a game designer at Maxis Studios in Redwood, California. Game designers write the blueprint of the game. They decide the mission, theme, and rules of play. If the game is engrossing, designers have done their job.

Most development teams have a lead game designer, who is responsible for the overall concept and feel of the game. Level designers work with artists and programmers to lay out smaller sections of the game. Writer-designers write game text and dialogue. Some also write manuals and hint books.

The early stages of game design involve brainstorming, collaboration, and revision. Designers test their ideas by writing short scripts and narratives and sketching rough storyboards. The storyboards describe the action of the game with a sequence of pictures. As their concepts solidify, designers supervise the production of working video game demonstrations.

After the designers decide on the game concept, they write a detailed plan, called a design document. This document lays out every aspect of the game. It includes maps of each game setting and flow charts to show how events in the game may unfold. Everything the player might see, do, or hear is described somewhere in this document.

Designers are storytellers, with a twist: they invent a plot, but they let the player control the story and decide the outcome. They create a web of possibilities, and the player chooses a path.

A video game's design evolves over time. New ideas lead to new levels, special features, and secret additions and shortcuts called codes. "One of the most difficult parts of designing is deciding what to leave out," says Ulm. Designers edit and add to the design document throughout development.

A designer's main concern is to make the game entertaining and irresistible. "We have to understand what makes a game fun," says Mcgavin. "It's our job to connect with the player." But understanding fun is not as easy as it sounds. She explains, "Lots of people can say whether a game is good, but they can't quantify what makes it good." And harder still is recreating the effect.

Designers often challenge players by devising puzzles to solve or enemies to defeat. If a game is too easy, the designers make puzzles and enemies more cunning. The goal is to increase the game's difficulty as the player gains new skills—to make a game easy to learn but hard to master.

The pace and rhythm of a video game is also critical to its success. Designers decide how quickly players move and how often they encounter obstacles and other characters. If the pace is too slow, the game is boring. If the pace is too fast, the game is confusing.

Designers work with artists, programmers, and musicians throughout development. In fact, sometimes a designer is also the lead programmer, artist, or producer. But even if designers have other duties, their role is unique. They oversee the entire game playing experience, instead of concentrating on one element. "Artists might want to paint beautifully intricate art, and that’s good," says Ulm, "but if the art slows down the game too much, it can't be used."

Skills and training. Communication is one of a designer’s most important skills. "You need a strong ability to write, to communicate ideas, and to persuade," says Ulm. Creative writing, English, theater, and other liberal arts classes help many designers to strengthen those skills.

Designers also have to be good managers. They lead the development team and make sure it implements the game concept. They incorporate many people's ideas into a single product.

Designers need technical skills as well: They need to understand computer programming and software design. "To be a good designer, you have to understand how games work," says Mcgavin. Designers have to be able to understand the technical hurdles programmers face.

Most designers earn a college degree. The most common degree concentrations are English, art, and computer science.

However, a designer’s most significant training comes from experience. "There's no such thing as an entry-level designer," says Mark Keeper, manager of product development at Blizzard Entertainment in San Mateo, California. Designers usually begin their careers as game artists, programmers, testers, or producers.

Earnings. The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not have data for game designers, but industry sources suggest their salaries vary widely. Surveys by placement companies found annual salaries for writers and designers usually ranged from $35,000 to $75,000 in 1998 and 1999.