Courtney Grace
Many dream of turning their hobbies into careers. If you’re passionate about video gaming, you might feel like this is impossible, but turning your love for video games into a lucrative career is easier than you might think. There are countless video game career paths to choose from, and it’s an industry that’s growing with every passing year.
Are you ready to learn about the best jobs for gamers? We’ve compiled eight of the best jobs for video gamers that you can pursue in this profitable industry.
Many dream of turning their hobbies into careers. If you’re passionate about video gaming, you might feel like this is impossible, but turning your love for video games into a lucrative career is easier than you might think. There are countless video game career paths to choose from, and it’s an industry that’s growing with every passing year.
Are you ready to learn about the best jobs for gamers? We’ve compiled eight of the best jobs for video gamers that you can pursue in this profitable industry.
Is It Hard Getting a Job in the Gaming Industry?
Careers in gaming have only grown in popularity with each passing decade. Thanks to the wild success of popular consoles like PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo, the number of gamers has grown with the industry.
With online games and mobile apps making gaming available on smartphones and other portable devices, video game careers are becoming even more in demand. But how difficult are these career paths to pursue?
Gaining specialized skills like software engineering and programming may not be easy for everyone, and it can take years to complete a degree. You might also need other skills, including:
- Creativity
- Attention to detail
- Communication
Along with developing your skills, the competition for video game careers can depend on the type of job you’re seeking. Special effects artists and animators, for example, will see an average job growth of 5% from 2021 to 2031, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Web developers and digital designers, on the other hand, can expect a job growth rate of 23% during the same time period. As many as 45,400 jobs will need to be filled.
When it comes to compensation, the average yearly salary for a video game designer is $66,894. When video game designers gain five to nine years of experience, their salary increases by 15% on average. Certain degrees, like a Master of Computer Science in Game Design and Development, can help raise the annual salary to nearly $75,000.
Jobs for gamers without degrees are available, however, if you decide to attend a coding bootcamp with a specialized curriculum that can help you acquire the necessary skills or pursue another educational path. But competition can be tough. When it comes to job openings in the video game industry, you may find it difficult to compete for a higher salary without the same degree as other professionals.
Regardless, the video game industry isn’t going anywhere, and growth isn’t slowing down. A market analysis report from Grand View Research shows that the video game industry market was valued at more than $195 billion worldwide in 2021. The compound annual growth rate for the video game market is 12.9% for 2022 through 2030.
With the industry constantly growing, jobs for gamers should only continue to increase.
The Best Jobs for Gamers
If you’re investigating jobs in the video game industry, you’ll find that hundreds or even thousands of professionals collaborate to ensure everything comes together perfectly. From sound and audio to software development, design, and illustration, the video game industry includes professions for people with various skills and backgrounds. Let’s take a closer look at some of the best jobs for video gamers.
1. Game Developer
A game developer is responsible for implementing the designer’s vision and putting the individual pieces of the game together. They’ll accomplish this with coding, level editors, and version control software as they stitch together the assets and logic that make a game run smoothly.
One of the biggest responsibilities of a game developer is to write code using a specific programming language — usually either C, C++, or C#. They must also master soft skills, however, like communication and teamwork in order to collaborate appropriately with other video game professionals.
2. Game Designer
A game designer is one of the most creative and exciting professions in the video game industry. Rather than spending their days writing and debugging code, these professionals work on a high level, creating design documents that dictate how the game will look, feel, and function. They essentially put together the materials that make it possible to bring these exciting fantasies to life.
Because they determined so many aspects of a game, game designers must be skilled in many areas. Typically, necessary talents include creativity and artistic abilities, communication skills, storytelling expertise, and some programming skills. They regularly talk directly with creative teams to ensure their vision is executed properly.
3. Video Game Writer
If you’re not technologically inclined but you still have passion for video games with a compelling narrative, you can still get your foot in the door as a video game writer. Writing careers are great jobs for gamers without degrees because they don’t typically require traditional four-year degrees to obtain the necessary skills.
Video game writers design the background story of video game characters and the world in which they exist. Some writers may focus on specific aspects of the video game (like dialogue, flavor text, etc.) while others may write multiple parts throughout the game. Either way, video game writers require excellent communication and writing skills.
4. Animator
Careers for gamers also include the exciting role of animators. These artists use their skills to make art assets naturally move, breathing life in a game. Sometimes, animators will create their own assets, but often, they’ll take the work of a dedicated artist and rig it for animation.
Typically, animators are responsible for aspects of the game like the playable characters’ walking and combat animations, player interaction feedback, and ambient background movement. Without animators, the game world would feel lifeless.
Once animations are complete, it becomes the work of a developer to implement the animations into the game and make them interact with the video game environment.
5. Video Game Artist
Video game artists are responsible for developing the style within a video game. These talented individuals will work closely with the designer to ensure the vision is executed perfectly, since it’s the art that most people will see first and associate with the game.
These artists often draw or sketch their first drafts before transferring them into software for 2D sprite creation or 3D modeling. In some cases, they may need to be familiar with motion-capture tools to make their designs as lifelike as possible.
6. Game Tester
If you love playing games, you might leap at the chance to play them for a living as a video game tester. When a video game moves into the prototype stage, the game tester is responsible for acting as the final set of eyes before the game proceeds to market, ensuring the elimination of glitches and bugs. Even after a game has been reviewed by designers, animators, and game developers, someone needs to actually play the game to check for any potential issues.
It’s worth noting, however, that this role isn’t necessarily exactly how you might imagine it to be. Sometimes, it involves repeatedly playing the same fifteen minutes of gameplay to make sure some specific aspect of the game is working correctly.
7. Quality Assurance Engineer
Quality assurance engineers are sometimes the same as game testers, but a QA engineer will often work more directly with the game’s code to ensure that the game is optimized for various devices.
The QA engineer must have analytical, mathematical, programming, and problem-solving skills. They should also be detail-oriented when checking video games to ensure they’re meeting quality standards.
8. App Developer
App developers create applications for mobile devices like smartphones or tablets, which can certainly include video games made for these platforms. App developers need strong programming skills and plenty of experience in writing quality code. App developers should most likely learn the best programming languages for their projects.
9. Video Game Streamer
Video game streamer is one of the most popular jobs for gamers without a degree. All you really need is a high-speed internet connection and a computer. This job involves using streaming services like Twitch and YouTube to stream your own video game playing sessions.
Being a successful streamer involves building a fanbase and nurturing subscribers since this is how you can start making income.
Kickstart Your Career with App Academy
If you want to pursue a career in the video game industry, it will be a great benefit to learn key coding and software engineering skills. While App Academy’s bootcamps do not directly prepare students for a career in game development, we can still teach you those essential skills that can provide the foundational knowledge needed to succeed in the tech industry. From there, you can work to acquire any additional skills needed along the path toward your dream career.
Our immersive programs also all include resume and career coaching as a part of the curriculum, so you can be confident in finding an exciting and fulfilling career. Check out our programs today to get started.
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| Full-Time Online Coding Bootcamp | Full-Time Software Engineering Program |
| Part-Time Online Coding Bootcamp | Part-Time Software Engineering Program |
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