What You Ned to Know to Be a Video Game Designer in Greensboro, North Carolina

Lately, high-tech job seekers throughout Greensboro, North Carolina are landing high paying positions in animation and video game design.  With a population nearing 300,000, the city is bursting with employment opportunities in these fields.  Companies all over North Carolina hire video game design experts.  Many of these businesses are in Greensboro.

Greensboro Schools and Training Programs for Video Game Design

Several Greensboro colleges offer degree programs for animators and video game designers.  Some designers major in computer science with emphasis on digital media.  Others might learn programming and animation.  Some take math with a special focus on game theory. 

Greensboro residents earning degrees related to interactive game design typically attend ECPI University.  Other professional training and degree programs are available online.  The most successful schools with online programs for video game design are The Art Institutes, University of Phoenix, ITT Tech and DeVry.

Working as a Video Game Designer in Greensboro

Understandably, the average salary of an animator or video game designer varies with experience, effort, performance, productivity, networking, geographic location and other factors.  According to a recent statistic, the average annual salary for a video game designer in the United States ranges from about $35,000 to more than $200,000 per year.  In Greensboro, the average yearly income is somewhere around $65,000.  However, this data fails to account for the unreported incomes of countless self-employed professionals.  That being said, animators and video game designers in Greensboro, North Carolina often obtain financial success at jobs they really enjoy. 

Greensboro businesses hiring for these positions include software publishers, mobile phone service providers, colleges, graphic design firms, animation studios and more.  Some designers join top local advertising firms like Adventures in Advertising, Bouvier-Kelly, Coyne-Beahm-Shouse or Unisyn Marketing.  Other designers work for Greensboro movie producers like Greensboro Community TV, Imagine Design, Morse Associates and Safehouse Productions.   

Even basic entry level positions in video game design often require a degree and some game design experience.  But you don't necessarily have to work for a firm, thanks to an onslaught of well funded internet start-ups featuring (or wanting to feature) their own video games.  Animators and video game designers often work as freelance professionals, casually telecommuting from comfy home offices.  They land gigs with corporations as independent contractors, or design and sell games to retailers, or build their own game-related websites.

Recommended Skills for Video Game Designers

The basic work of a video game designer involves dreaming up a game idea, setting the rules, implementing a scoring system and enhancing the player experience with unique puzzles, unexpected booby traps and other clever challenges.  Designers aim to please a world of discriminating gamers who think they've seen it all.  The designer also creates the artwork (or hires an animator) and selects a visual style that seems appropriate to the elements of the game.  The designer also oversees play-testing sessions with enough players to give some idea of the game's potential for commercial success. 

Professional video game designers study communications, engineering, math, computer science, graphics, game theory, story lines, character development, commercial trends and many related topics.  Their efforts are focused on developing all-new, action-packed innovative products.  Above all else, video game designers seek mainstream appeal.