While most of the excitement of a video game usually occurs on the screen, there is just as much excitement behind the scenes for those seeking video game designer jobs. Companies are looking for experienced game designers and college graduates with bright ideas, artistic skills, and great imaginations to help their businesses launch the next big video game hit. The video game design industry offers many opportunities to combine backgrounds in art and science to create new games for the adventure-hungry gamer audience.

The video game market continues to thrive as video games expand onto new platforms such as smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices. Social media sites have also contributed to the growth of video games. Expansion into these new areas has helped the video game design job market. The outlook is great for savvy game designers looking to use their talents to design new games for the burgeoning mobile device market.

Several large game development companies have recently announced their initial public offerings to the stock market. This should boost the demand for video game designers and those with skills needed for this exploding business. Those seeking the lucrative video game design jobs should not have a problem finding employment in the business.

Salary information

Video game design jobs at a top video game company often command a video game design salary that is competitive with salaries in other fields. Beginning salaries average about $35,000 to $40,000 per year. Most video game designers average about $40,000 to $50,000 per year. For those with several years of experience and extraordinary creative skills, the salaries can average about $70,000 per year. Since many popular games are the result of the creative talents of the video game designers, many experienced game designers are highly valued by the top video game companies.

A lucrative video game design salary can be achieved for those working for the top video game companies. These companies demand more from their designers and the designers are rewarded for producing the best new video games and features. The companies pay some of the highest salaries for video game designers often rising well into the six figure range. In the video game industry, more experience translates into higher pay.

Past job growth

Job growth for video game design jobs in the past had been steady until the recession hit. Like other industries and the overall economy, the video game industry also took a hit but still saw modest gains. Job growth in the past was due to games designed for the motion-based platforms such as the Wii and Kinect. The growth has also been attributed to the transition for many gamers to mobile devices and social networking sites. The popularity of many of these games on these devices and sites help to introduce a whole new audience to video games. That growth in new users helped to fuel the recent growth that has occurred as the video game industry recovered from the recession. Video game companies have reached a point where they have several different platforms and end users for which they have targeted their new video games.

Future Job Growth

The market for video game design jobs is expected to see continued growth in the future. As new games are being designed or adapted for the new mobile computing platforms and social media sites that should help propel the number of video game design jobs to higher levels. It is forecasted that more people will own a mobile device or a tablet computer than the number that owned a game console. This growth will create even greater demand for designers and talented professionals in the gaming industry. Those with superior skills and more experience will see themselves in being in greater demand. A designer with these attributes will be able to command a higher video game design salary than those with lesser experience.

As the major game console companies release new products such as the PlayStation Move and new mobile devices are developed, it is forecasted that video game design will see an increase in jobs to help meet the demand. Consumers will continue to challenge the video game companies to design more graphically-rich and feature-laden games. This should translate into the continued growth of jobs in the video game industry. The video game design salary for a talented designer should also grow as competition between video game companies for the best designers become even fiercer. In the long run, the consumer benefits when more elaborate, complex, and more stunning video games are released. Professionals working in the industry should benefit from more opportunities with salaries to match.

The video game industry may have suffered some doldrums when the home video game platforms reached their plateau. But now the industry stands on the brink of a new wave of video games to meet the new devices and social networking sites. Video game designers will be needed to help meet this new upswing in demand for video games.