Introduction
This blog will be delving into all of the research I conducted in regard to entry-level Game Designer roles within the industry, what is expected of them, salaries, the general qualifications needed, and what skills are required or commonly used within that roles, and how I fair up against all of the criteria that are to be met to acquire a position for one of these roles.
Focusing on a role
As previously mentioned I have chosen to pursue a role as a game designer, a role that is surprisingly hard to come by for an entry-level position, however when these roles did pop up I wanted to be prepared for them, and as such I had conducted extensive research into what qualifications and skillsets were most desirable for this particular position. I also noticed that these roles were being advertised as more of a generalist designer role and not solely a "game designer" this worked in my favour however over all of my projects I have had to fill multiple design roles and disciplines.
Game designer: qualifications, skillsets, do's & don'ts
When it came to conducting research the main sources I wanted to use were gathering first-hand advice from people who are currently in those positions in Industry, Conducting individual research online into sought after skills for this role, and finally looking at existing job openings for roles within different studios and comparing what skillsets they are looking for to see what most commonly pops up, to make sure that I'm mentioning those key sought after skills in my cover letter, CV, and portfolio.
The most important and relevant information I wanted to gather was first-hand experience and advice from those in the industry on what most studios are looking for as an entry-level applicant, LinkedIn has been an invaluable resource for gaining advice and information on applying for entry-level design positions, I made sure to reach out to those in roles the same or if not similar to learn some insider information on how to make an application stand out, what to include, the importance of certain skills, etc.
I had gathered from the numerous developers I talked to that the most sought after skills for a designer were communication & being able to work as part of a team were the MOST crucial skills to showcase in both your work and your CV Cover letter, as when it comes to interviews, your work can be the most extraordinary perfect portfolio pieces, but if your interviewer feels they could not work with you on a day to day basis, you will not be hired, full stop! so it was important to come across as a genuine person, while still showing off your skills, understanding and breaking down systems, problem-solving in a creative way & show off your passion for your craft.
Outside of LinkedIn, I have been doing research online into what are the most sought-after skills for a game designer through YouTube, Websites, blogs, etc. While much of it was repeat information that was gathered from the developers I reached out to. it helped me understand potential gaps in my skill set that I would have to work on, eg. I still don't feel as confident as I should in scripting, and this is something that would help me stand out as a designer as being able to understand scripting or programming would allow me to better communicate and understand problems and ideas between different disciplines within a studio.
So to combat this in my free time and over the summer, I am going to be "keeping my fingers warm" so to speak with scripting in UE4 by working on a group project with my cohort and making sure that I can play a part in scripting and learning C++, whether that be within UI work or just general mechanical scripting.
Link to some of the websites I used for research:
Gathering feedback from Industry Experts (CV & Cover Letters)
After participating in the Global Game jam 2022 at Hypixel Studios, I was able to create a great network of the employees there that could not have been more helpful in giving advice when it came to CVs CLs, and Portfolios. I had reached out to Kagey their recruitment head both in person while we were at the jam and after the event, and he gave some incredible advice.
For cover letters, I had been told to always break them into three sections, introduce yourself and explain a bit about why you are applying, then talk about why you feel you want to work at the studio, and finally show off your experience and skillset and tailor it to the job role specifically while filling in the gaps of information you couldn't fully show off in your CV.
I also found out that the better you can condense the information in your CL and CV the better, simply put recruiters take a 6-second glance at everything you send in and can make that judgment call in that short of a timeframe, so it is important to make it as easy as possible for them to have all the relevant information available first.
I made sure to constantly be getting feedback from my tutors and industry on my Cover Letters in particular so that I could constantly iterate and improve upon what I had previously written, making sure that each cover letter was individually tailored to each company.
What to include in a CV, & Business Cards
I struggled for some time with trying to know what to order in terms of relevance for my CV. Something I quickly was told was that in our industry education does not play as big a factor as other jobs, but rather that it is more important that you showcase the skills that are most sought after for this role.
More general notes of what to include were more standard information such as references and employment history, however, something that I really wanted to include was my hobbies and interests section as this allowed me to add some personality to an otherwise robotic CV, while also being a catalyst for conversations in an interview
For my business card I wanted to keep the information short and sweet, with the front of the card being solely my logo and the back containing both my name and my contact information. This way there is no irrelevant information that is taking up space on the card.
I also am looking into getting a contactless NFC chip business card that can be tapped on a person's phone and it will bring up all of the contact information. This is something I think would make me stand out as very memorable to a potential employer as its not something that is currently very well know or commonly used.
Researching game design portfolios
Hugo Peters Portfolio: https://hugo.fyi/projects/bolt-storm#
Micheal Levalls Portfolio: https://www.michaellevall.com/forgotten-key/
Looking into what game designer portfolios were available I was blown away by the quality of work that was out there, One of the key pieces of feedback I had gotten with my portfolio was that it was overly wordy and didn't get to the point enough.
When I stumbled upon Hugo's portfolio I loved how he used collapsible boxes to condense his information. So this is something I implemented into my own portfolio. This way i could condense information to key categories that a recruiter could select from if they wanted to see a certain skillset.
Trying to keep all my information as condensed as possible on a portfolio is incredibly important but is easier said than done, it took multiple iterations and LOTS of feedback from my tutors and industry professionals on my portfolio to get it to a stage where I felt I was happy with the information shown to be both highly relevant for my role and easy to access for potential recruiters.
What makes a good portfolio? (Do's & Don'ts)
Most of the portfolios I had looked into followed a very specific pattern of what to include & what platform to show your work on in the case of Game Designers this being an online portfolio of work hosted on a website,
First and foremost was making it explicitly clear exactly what it was that you worked on, partly for plagiarism but also for the recruiter to understand exactly what you have created/designed and so that in a potential interview setting that you can discuss what exactly you have completed.
Have your most recent work as the first thing that is viewable on your site, this way they can see exactly where your skills are currently at, but also make sure that you include at least one team project so that you can showcase that you have experience working in a team and if you had a leadership role even better as you can showcase your skills in management and tough decision making.
Have your information be as concise as possible so that a recruiter can quickly understand what you are developing, the best way to do this is to have a Hero image/video at the beginning of your project showing off gameplay or a trailer of what this project is. While also using images and gifs to explain mechanics and systems.
Try not to muddle projects that are irrelevant together, i.e. don't have an asset development project in your game design portfolio as this only goes to muddle your portfolio as a whole and may make the recruiter question if you yourself know what role you would like to fill.
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