gaming

What does it take to become a game developer?

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When you look at Game Development, it is not clear where to start. We suggest you decide on the direction that is closer to you in IT. You will start from this when choosing a distance IT higher education program.

Generally speaking, a Game Developer is a developer who writes code and assembles games. It is thanks to him that everything comes to life and works as it should. For large projects, a whole team is assembled, consisting of narrow specialists:

  • Gameplay – responsible for the game mechanics in conjunction with the game designer;
  • Animation – they deal with animation. For example, they make sure that the character’s hair develops in a realistic way when he or she moves;
  • Engine – responsible for utilities and synchronization with other software;
  • DevOps – work with microservices that allow users to play online together, make purchases in the product, and update it to the latest version;
  • UI – develop the game menu;
  • Audio – specialists in audio effects;
  • Back-end – formally, this team member is not directly involved in game development. The backend is responsible for the server side of the product.

In addition to coders, the project involves designers: Technical artist, 2D Artist, 3D Artist, 3D Character Animator. We would also like to highlight the Game Designer – a person who thinks through the game world itself, its logic, and the story plot. This list can be continued endlessly, it will vary depending on the level of the company.

And let’s not forget about game testers, project managers, Product Owners, and other additional (but no less important) roles in the game development team.

As you can see, you can hold various positions in the game development field. Some of them require years of study, while others can be mastered during courses. Therefore, the first thing we recommend is to understand who you want to be in this ecosystem and match your desires with the skills.

To become a game developer, you need at least this:

  • Don’t just play shooters and roguelikes, but disassemble them into parts: plot, mechanics, characters, features, interface. Develop observation and think about what could be improved in the product.
  • Master the programming language needed in the game development. Coding is not the whole GameDev, but it is a solid foundation. Take online Java courses and only then master narrow game development tools.
  • Learn English. The most up-to-date information for game dev specialists is primarily available in English. In this area, new products appear faster than news about them are translated into other languages.
  • Engage in self-education. Free courses, YouTube videos, books – if you really dream of gaming, you will greedily absorb information about this field.
  • And then there are two ways: try to get a job in a GameDev company with basic knowledge as an intern or get a specialized education.