Video game sales are booming around the world. According to The NPD Group, a market research organization that tracks computer and video game sales, sales of video games and equipment for the games rose 31percent in July 2007, when compared to sales in July 2006. In June of 2007 sales for video games were $1.1 billion in the US alone, representing a dramatic 35 percent increase from the previous month. NPD revealed that video game sales in Canada were $498 million in July 2007, a 61 percent rise over the same time the previous year. These statistics show that a career in video game design is hot right now. The market is exploding, and so are career options in the field.
A degree in video game design can literally help you shape whole worlds, worlds in which avid gamers will enjoy spending many hours in. Gamers love their games, and being able to create video game realms that appeal to this market is very rewarding. Top games have hordes of fans who discuss the games, create artwork in appreciation of their favorite games and even write about their favorite characters. By pursuing a career in this exciting field, you may literally not only be creating an entertainment product, but you may be changing someone's life.
A video game design degree is also very exciting to pursue. As part of your degree, you will learn to create characters, build story lines, make entire virtual worlds, and much more. You will learn how to design games that gamers will adore and you will learn how to animate entire worlds of characters so that they look as realistic as possible. With today's technology, there has never been a more exciting time to enter this field. The graphics are so advanced that only your own imagination is the limit for what you can create.
As you pursue your video game design degree, you will also learn about artistic design, project management, 3D modeling, and game content development. You will learn how to create digital content for your games. If you attend a quality school while pursuing your degree you will also get plenty of hands-on experience and help in developing your portfolio. That way, by the time you graduate you will not only have the skills and industry knowledge you need to land a great job, but you will have a portfolio to show prospective employers.
If you have always been creative and have loved creating art, now is a very exciting time to pursue a career in your field. Thanks to hot video game design jobs, you don't have to be a starving artist. You can pursue your passion for art while landing excellent jobs. With systems such as PlayStation 2, Wii and Xbox generating plenty of media attention as well as many loyal customers, companies are on the lookout for hot new games for their systems. This means that there is a real need for talented and creative designers right now.
If you love games or love art and want to create entire virtual worlds, a career in video game design may be for you. There is a current demand for talented designers, so entering the field is easy if you have a good degree and a good portfolio. Enroll in a degree program that teaches you to build characters, stories, and worlds and learn the skills necessary for animation and you will have the knowledge you need for a great career. Pursue a degree with hands-on experience and portfolio building, and you will leave school prepared to attract employers to your skill.
1: Challenge your creativity. Most of those in the industry will agree that one of the best parts of video game design is the opportunity to challenge your creativity. Like any other form of art, designing video games keeps your creative mind active. Whether you are planning the game's story line, graphics, characters, or all of the above.
2: Enjoy a casual work environment. When people are asked what they value in a job, a casual work environment often ranks quite high on the list. People don't want to feel stressed by a conservative workplace while they are trying to work, especially if the job generates plenty of stress of its own accord.
Luckily, careers in video game design typically boast casual work environments. Video game people are relaxed and fun loving, rather than uptight and traditional. This is definitely a good thing, for both employee and boss: Not only do people tend to be more productive and successful when they can relax and let their creative juices flow, they also find that their entire quality of life improves.
3: Get paid for your work. Don't listen to all of those party-poopers who insist that you need to decide on a real job while you pursue video game design as your hobby. Video game designers actually get paid rather well. For instance, the average entry-level designer earns a yearly salary of about 43,000, while more experienced designers average about 70,000 a year. Also, full-time designers enjoy the usual benefits, such as health insurance, 401K, and other employer-sponsored programs.
Alternatively, video game design is one of those careers where self-employment or freelancing is possible. Freelance and contract designers typically command even higher per-hour rates than full-time employees; although this is in part to make up for the loss of benefits and the need to spend time marketing oneself, there is also a greater potential to work more hours and, therefore, earn an even higher salary than your full-time counterparts can boast.
4: Know your job is secure. Like any industry, video game design has its ups and downs. However, game designers have a certain amount of added job security, due to the immense and growing popularity of the video game industry. For example, consider Xbox's smash hit Halo 3, which made more than 300 million in the first week after its release.
The video game industry has come a long way from its early days of the Atari and Nintendo. New and more powerful systems are constantly being developed, and increasingly more individual games are released every year. As a result the video game companies are always on the lookout for the bright new talents in the field.
5: Brag to your friends. We'd be lying if we didn't admit that this is a major benefit of designing video games. There is nothing cooler than being able to point to game on the shelf at the store and say that you worked on that game. You'll never worry again about the question regarding what you do for a living.
6: Getting paid to do what you love. No matter what the other benefits, almost nothing compares to the soul-deep pleasure of getting paid well to do what you love every day.
Working in video game design obviously has its benefits. The pay is good, the work environment and the likeability factor of the job even better. If you love to play video games and have a creative personality, then a career in video game design would be a great choice.
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