Design jobs and their requirements

A good way to find out which skills I should be focusing on improving, is to find out which skills and responsibilities are expected from applicants when applying for Game Design related jobs.

I will highlight the points that are common between the different jobs to find out the most desired skills. Similar points will be highlighted using the same colour.


Job Vacancy #1: Senior Game Designer

Expected Skills & responsibilities:

• Work with the lead designer to fine-tune the vision

• Come up with suitable game mechanics that fall in line with the game’s vision

• Create and maintain design documentation in a Wiki

• Iterate designs to create a great gameplay experience

• Communicate with an external developer to make them understand the design and the overall vision

• Proactively find problems with the gameplay and come up with solutions

• Excellent written communication skills (English)

• Very good analytical gameplay balancing skills

• Excellent Microsoft Excel skills

• Gameplay mechanics / system design

• Ability to understand the game’s vision and apply it to every design

• Ability to take direction and feedback, and working this into your designs

Job Vacancy #2: Senior Game Designer - Social Games

Expected Skills & responsibilities:

• Work closely with a Project Manager to make a new hit game come to life.

• Come-up with new feature ideas which will increase user experience, engagement and monetization.

• Transform high-level ideas into detailed and well thought-out concepts.

• Create wireframe screens, mockups and user flows for new product features and content.

• Perform & analyze user testing and recommend design solutions.

• Keeping the design coherent for the development team by maintaing specification document throughout the development.

• Provide the development team detailed design of features for agile feature implementation.

• Conceptualize, create and maintain detailed game design documentation throughout the project cycle

• Design compelling & funny characters/storyline to a new social game concept.

• Experience in designing a Social Game from beginning to end.

• Experience or knowledge of game design, level design, gameplay theory & story writing.

• Strong knowledge of game balancing and pacing.

• In-depth understanding of Facebook as a gaming platform.

• Excellent communication and presentation skills.

• Systematic and strategic thinking as well as imagination and creativity.

• High level of English.

• Passionate game player with in-depth knowledge of casual or multiplayer/online games.

Job Vacancy #3: Monetisation Designer - Midlands

Expected Skills & responsibilities:

• Balancing 

• Pacing 

• F2P monetisation of the latest titles.

• Develop UI and systems to ensure the player experiences balanced and rewarding gameplay.

• Strong experience with designing in-game economy

• F2P design theory 

• Excellent communication skills.

Job Vacancy #4: Senior Game Designer for Exciting Mobile / Tablet Games Studio

Expected Skills & responsibilities:

• Develop concepts and prototypes for new games.

• Develop and maintain design documentation, including gameplay mechanics, guidelines, UI flows, game loops and player progression.

• Plan and implement the game economy and gameplay, and tune it with game metrics and user experience testing.

• Work with the Executive Producer to define and drive the design of a game: the mechanics, story, missions, and more.

• Feels capable of becoming a Design Lead in a project.

• Three or more years of professional game design experience including mobile / free to play.

• Proven track record in game design.

• Proven user interface and user experience design required.

• Excellent analytical, facilitation and organizational skills.

• Ability to schedule and prioritize design tasks.

• Comfortable working with Excel.

• Demonstrated the ability to work well in an agile manner with Producers, Artists, and Engineers.

Job Vacancy #5: Senior Game Designer

Expected Skills & responsibilities:

• Familiarising yourself with the game. You will come to grips with why it is an exciting title, and will have already come up with some creative ideas for improving it.

• Have a real impact on finalising some of the game’s core areas. 

• Work with programmers and artists to establish great design work in the UI, gameplay systems, and product roadmap.

• Design and deliver additional content for the game after launch. 

• Work with a team to develop these designs into functional features and events.

• Your designs will continue to keep millions of players engaged, and equally continue to attract new players. You will be an expert in live operation design, and in understanding what keeps players coming back for more.

• You'll have excellent communication skills and be able to influence people with subtlety and grace.

• You'll have worked in a design role on a number of titles, in a range of different gameplay systems.

• You really understand and enjoy F2P design and how to blend both gameplay fun and monetization.

• You have an interest in live titles, and in creating content that will keep millions of players returning and engaging with titles.

• You can assess the potential risk and return of your design suggestions.

• Your design documentation is concise, clear and visual.

• You are comfortable with iterative design practices and rapid prototyping.

• You’ll be able to de-construct existing games, laying bare their mechanics and structure.

• You understand learning curves, pacing, gaming compulsions, mobile UX, and what really motivates players.

• You’ll be a consummate collaborator and team-player, understanding how to work in a growing team and a fast-paced, exciting environment.

• You’ll bring your energy, creativity and passion to everything you do.

• A peerless written and verbal communicator, you should be comfortable writing design specifications and technical design specifications.

• Confident and smart, you’ll be happy working alongside MBA graduates and business minds, collaborating with them to develop your features.

Common Skills or Responsibilities

The following are commonly required skills which I will be taking into the dissertation.

Coming up with new features / mechanics. (Creative Design)

Good skill at creating detailed design documents.

Experience with iterative design and prototyping.

Test and analyze existing gameplay to come up with improvements.

Strong knowledge of game balancing and pacing.

Good experience with Microsoft excel.

Experience related to building economies in games.

Conclusion

After checking the skills which I found in common between the five design jobs I looked at, it showed that my current project idea would touch upon most of the said skills. Fortunately I already have experience on the points that I won't focus on.