Who does what in the game industry? (part 1)
More and more often we meet young talents who have the desire to create and develop in the field of arts. That’s why we recently conducted an online course called “How to become a Game Developer?”, in which we talked about the different roles in the game industry. It was attended by over 100 participants interested in a future in the creative professions, students – lovers of video games, as well as their parents. The course was conducted by lecturers from ARC Academy, who are practitioners with extensive experience in video game development, and was led by Ivaylo Koralski – co-founder of the game studio Kyodai as well chief editor in Gameindustry.bg. In the following lines we will share more about the professions that we discussed during the lectures:
Module 1: Games as a business and and the path of becoming a studio manager
Tanko Shokerov, studio manager of Gameloft Sofia, and Georgi Dinchev, studio manager of Creative Assembly Sofia, told us their personal stories about the beginning of their careers in the game industry, as well as introduced us to the process of developing video games. From Tanko Shokerov we learned some interesting facts such as that the growth of mobile games is greater than console and computer games combined. He also told us about the expectations that the gaming market will generate over $ 200 billion by the end of 2023. Georgi Dinchev showed us the three main areas of knowledge needed by a studio manager – working with software for video game development, building an office with the necessary equipment (servers, IT infrastructure, audio rooms) and finding experts for the team. Students also had the opportunity to see a sample team structure in a game studio, as well as the importance of that team for the development of video games.
Tanko Shokerov shared his impression of the event:
It was an extremely positive experience for me. And in the new format, which in my opinion totally works, the lecture turned out very well and I am satisfied.
Module 2: Game Design
Viktor Dosev, lead game designer at Creative Assembly Sofia, gave his brief definition of the broad concept of game design – “to invent the game”. Game design incorporates the various elements that create the game world, some of which are the behavior of the characters and their opponents – the way they move and the commands they can execute. For his part, Alexander Lainé, lead game designer at Gameloft Sofia, told us about the most important qualities to become a good professional in the game industry – creativity, passion and communication. Julieta Jeleva, a student in the Game Dev Advanced program, also took part in the module, sharing that game design includes not only creativity, but also a lot of logic.
There are many more interesting professions in the team of a game dev studio, which we will introduce to you in the coming weeks.
In part two of “Who does what in the game industry?” we are going to tell you about three other important roles in the creation of video games – that of programmers, dev testers and level designers.
