What Does a Video Game Designer Do

When it comes to the most important skills required to be a video game designer, we found that a lot of resumes listed 31.0% of video game designers included motion graphics, while 30.3% of resumes included video content, and 10.3% of resumes included adobe photoshop. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.

Learn more about what a Video Game Designer does

How To Become a Video Game Designer

If you're interested in becoming a video game designer, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 74.4% of video game designers have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 6.4% of video game designers have master's degrees. Even though most video game designers have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.

Average Salary for a Video Game Designer

Video Game Designers in America make an average salary of $95,185 per year or $46 per hour. The top 10 percent makes over $160,000 per year, while the bottom 10 percent under $56,000 per year.
Average Video Game Designer Salary
$95,185 Yearly
$45.76 hourly

What Am I Worth?

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Roles and Types of Video Game Designer

There are several types of video game designer, including:

Designer

Role:

A career as a designer can go so many different directions. From fashion designers to floral designers or even graphic designers or interior designers, as long as you have an eye for detail and a steady hand you could design whatever you wanted.

The education that is required to become a designer can vary depending on what type of designing you're going to be doing. For example, a floral designer only needs a high school diploma, but a graphic designer may need a Bachelor's degre. It really depends on what direction you want to take your career.

  • Average Salary: $66,347
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree

Game Designer

Role:

Game designers work with a team of programmers, designers, artists, and management to oversee the complex task of creating a video game. They design, develop and implement game features as well as complete accurate documentation for all assigned features. They assist in managing budgets, work schedules, and project timelines. Also, they help with the constant review of the game's progress to adjust the implementation of assigned features. Additionally, they are responsible for writing the game codes and testing the early versions.

As a game designer, you'd be required to have a bachelor's degree in game design or a related field with a minimum of three years of experience working in a design capacity. Essential skills include communication, creativity, presentation, collaboration, project management, interpersonal, and analytical skills. You must also be familiar with computer systems and programming languages. Game designers make an average salary of $72,833 annually. Their salary varies between $48,000 and $112,000.

  • Average Salary: $87,645
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree

States With The Most Video Game Designer Jobs

Mouse over a state to see the number of active video game designer jobs in each state. The darker areas on the map show where video game designers earn the highest salaries across all 50 states.

Average Salary: Job Openings:

Number Of Video Game Designer Jobs By State

RankStateNumber of JobsAverage Salary
1California2,689$106,458
2New York1,151$93,700
3Texas1,013$91,038
4Washington711$106,982
5Georgia696$71,688
6Illinois656$77,600
7Florida639$76,332
8Massachusetts630$97,622
9Virginia615$84,145
10Pennsylvania530$85,248
11North Carolina513$79,886
12Michigan436$88,630
13Ohio404$97,974
14Oregon371$87,218
15Minnesota369$74,295
16Colorado345$86,587
17Maryland344$100,825
18New Jersey330$85,381
19Wisconsin298$101,229
20Arizona262$86,666
21Missouri231$83,511
22Indiana222$100,948
23Utah207$93,451
24Tennessee201$77,716
25Connecticut163$99,993
26Alabama161$73,309
27Kansas136$69,981
28Iowa134$71,700
29Kentucky126$89,732
30South Carolina124$88,220
31Oklahoma106$74,961
32Louisiana98$97,924
33Arkansas92$78,019
34New Hampshire90$95,737
35Nevada77$119,434
36Nebraska77$81,839
37New Mexico70$93,409
38Idaho61$100,082
39Mississippi60$91,469
40Maine59$98,920
41Rhode Island57$109,261
42Delaware46$112,119
43Montana40$83,374
44West Virginia39$98,514
45North Dakota32$84,908
46South Dakota32$81,450
47Vermont30$91,977
48Alaska24$102,507
49Hawaii22$71,496
50Wyoming17$70,150

Video Game Designer Education

Video Game Designer Majors

Video Game Designer Degrees

Bachelors

74.4 %

Associate

11.5 %

Masters

6.4 %

Top Colleges for Video Game Designers

1. Stanford University

Stanford, CA • Private

In-State Tuition

$51,354

Enrollment

7,083

2. Harvard University

Cambridge, MA • Private

In-State Tuition

$50,420

Enrollment

7,582

3. University of Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, PA • Private

In-State Tuition

$55,584

Enrollment

10,764

4. Cornell University

Ithaca, NY • Private

In-State Tuition

$55,188

Enrollment

15,105

5. Northwestern University

Evanston, IL • Private

In-State Tuition

$54,568

Enrollment

8,451

6. University of California, Berkeley

Berkeley, CA • Private

In-State Tuition

$14,184

Enrollment

30,845

7. California State University - Long Beach

Long Beach, CA • Private

In-State Tuition

$6,798

Enrollment

31,503

8. Carnegie Mellon University

Pittsburgh, PA • Private

In-State Tuition

$55,465

Enrollment

6,483

9. University of Southern California

Los Angeles, CA • Private

In-State Tuition

$56,225

Enrollment

19,548

10. Duke University

Durham, NC • Private

In-State Tuition

$55,695

Enrollment

6,596

Top Skills For a Video Game Designer

Choose From 10+ Customizable Video Game Designer Resume templates

Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Video Game Designer templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Video Game Designer resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.

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Video Game Designer diversity

Video Game Designer Gender Distribution

Male
Male
87%
Female
Female
13%

After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:

  • Among video game designers, 13.3% of them are women, while 86.7% are men.

  • The most common race/ethnicity among video game designers is White, which makes up 67.7% of all video game designers.

  • The most common foreign language among video game designers is Japanese at 50.0%.

Online Courses For Video Game Designer That You May Like

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1. World Design for Video Games

coursera

Start creating your world. A game world is not just a backdrop for your game—be it minimal or detailed, contained or part of a much bigger universe, it provides the context for your player. Ultimately, a game world should feel alive and wholly unique to any player who will experience it. In this course, we will explore game worlds in existing games and study the art and influences that inform their themes and styles. We will also investigate key components of environment and level design as...

2. Character Design for Video Games

coursera

In this course you will explore concepts and approaches involved in creating successful character designs that can be applied to video games. Following a first week delving into some foundational concepts for successful character design, each of the remaining three weeks are structured as a master class where you will observe three professional character designers at work in the studio: Andy Ristaino (Adventure Time), Jacky Ke Jiang (Journey), and Robertryan Cory (SpongeBob SquarePants). Each...

3. Game Writing: Storytelling through Video Game Design

udemy
4.6
(948)

Write and design your own games; develop ideas, character and plot to create a compelling storyworld. (Made with Unity)...

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Best States For a Video Game Designer

Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a video game designer. The best states for people in this position are Nevada, Delaware, Rhode Island, and Washington. Video game designers make the most in Nevada with an average salary of $119,434. Whereas in Delaware and Rhode Island, they would average $112,119 and $109,261, respectively. While video game designers would only make an average of $106,982 in Washington, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.

1. Washington

Total Video Game Designer Jobs: 711
Highest 10% Earn:
$167,000
Location Quotient:
1.73

2. Rhode Island

Total Video Game Designer Jobs: 57
Highest 10% Earn:
$185,000
Location Quotient:
0.84

3. District of Columbia

Total Video Game Designer Jobs: 192
Highest 10% Earn:
$180,000
Location Quotient:
2.04
Full List Of Best States For Video Game Designers

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Top Video Game Designer Employers

Most Common Employers For Video Game Designer

RankCompanyAverage SalaryHourly RateJob Openings
1IGN$129,791$62.401
2TEKsystems$111,230$53.482
3Heavy Iron Studios$109,477$52.632
4Daybreak Game$106,144$51.031
5University at Buffalo$105,495$50.721
6Hitcents$105,292$50.621
7Electronic Arts$103,117$49.581
8Take-Two Interactive Software$102,883$49.462
9Valve$101,273$48.692
10Projects$100,381$48.261