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The Game Designer profile focuses on the function of a game, creating systems, rules, and gameplay, and helps with world-building (story and IP) to ensure that it is playable, fun, and engaging. It oversees both the foundation and execution of game mechanics and the overall user experience.

People who work as game designers must be very technical and very skilled at solving complex problems on a daily basis.

The description of video game design work may differ slightly depending on the size and type of project, and the studio. Typically, as games become more complex and teams larger, some of the traditional roles of a game designer are separated into specializations such as the role of level designer and/or systems designer.

People who work in level design focus on creating and implementing levels, environments, stories, and missions, while people who specialize in systems design focus on designing and then implementing the minute-by-minute game systems that make the game fun, such as controls, movement, and combat.

Job Description

The game designer profile is responsible for ensuring that all the features and mechanics of a game work in a coherent and attractive way for the player, providing an entertaining and satisfying gaming experience.

You can specialize in different areas, such as combat design, narrative and user experience, game controls, or even take on the role of creative direction, responsible for conveying the vision of the game to the rest of the team to ensure consistency and quality in all parts of the game.

  • Conceptualize, implement, and maintain gaming systems that achieve a satisfactory flow state, addictive game loops, and a risk/reward balance.
  • Develop the main story, character backgrounds, and dialogue, through written scripts and storyboards, including any relevant research.
  • Create and maintain comprehensive documentation (such as design schematics, diagrams, and visual mockups) that details triggers, interactions, and subsequent events for specific aspects or features of the game.
  • Work closely with user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) designers to optimize the game’s interface.
  • Design and build levels and environments.
  • Prototyping of the game.

The Game Designer profile requires having a balance between creative and technical skills to bring a video game concept to life. It’s important to have a good understanding of some fundamental aspects of technical design and game programming, although you don’t need to be an expert in these areas. Having notions of programming or something similar can be useful, but it is not essential.

Video game studios can look for the following skills in their video game design vacancies:

  • Have skills to break down problems into systems.
  • Possess a solid understanding of the principles of game level design, including level design, architecture, and other related aspects.
  • Be able to use data to gain qualitative insights that affect your designs.
  • Understand marketing and market research to understand what the target audience wants and how to sell them the game.
  • Have a good understanding of technical implementation in games, such as scripting languages, syntax, and other basic programming concepts.
  • Have basic to advanced drawing skills to communicate ideas visually.
  • Have a basic understanding of 3D art, modeling, texturing, rigging, animation, and other areas of creating, using, and converting 3D art.
  • Have basic to advanced knowledge of the user interface (UI/UX) in games.

Within the area of game design, specialized software and platforms are used to create and develop games. These programs and platforms are important to ensure that the game meets technical needs and runs properly. Game designers must have a thorough understanding of these tools and how to use them efficiently to create high-quality games.

Game designers may be required to use some of the following programs or languages:

  • Microsoft Office or Google Workspace software for documents, spreadsheets, and presentations
  • Game development engine (Unity 3D, Unreal Engine, or other)
  • Artistic software (such as Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator) to create a wide variety of visual designs
  • Programs such as Draw.io or Articy Draft, Confluence to elaborate flowcharts, mind maps, narrative trees, mission and system design
  • Jira and bug tracking software
  • Scripting tools and languages (Python, LUA, C#, Unreal Script, Blueprints)
  • C++ programming languages and Python are also commonly used
  • Documentation software such as, Confluence, Notion
  • Teamwork software like Miro


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