In 1940, At the New York World’s Fair, 1940, the first recognized example of a game machine was unveiled by Dr Edward UhlerCondo. During the six months of its display, the game was played by about 50,000 people.
However, it was in 1967only, when Ralph Baer & his team launched the “Brown Box”, the first game system designed for commercial home use.
Atari became the first gaming company in 1972 to set the benchmark for a large-scale gaming community and built a whole new industry around the “arcade”.
With the advent of personal computers and colour television, the craze for video games started growing to an unprecedented level forcing companies like Nintendo, Sony, Attari, Microsoft, etc. to not only develop new games (software) but also personalized gaming consoles like Xbox, Play station etc.
Gaming Industry further revolutionized when modern technology not only ensured better internet capabilities but also led to the launch of smartphones. The improved software and tools also ensured a better consumer experience due to enhanced graphics, better visual effects, and exciting challenges.
Furthermore, the lockdown induced by the pandemic boosted the gaming industry such that the time spent on video gaming jumped by 39% at a global level. In fact, in India as well there was a 50% growth in the gaming industry.
This excitement has led to peeking of people’s interest in the game designing profession. Before moving ahead let’s understand the meaning of game designing.
What is game designing?
A game designer is a professional field that entails designing the game architecture- conceptualization, ideation, planning, budgeting, and executing. In addition, they also look at technological aspects besides collaborating with teams to design levels, characters, puzzles, storyline, visual and sound effects, etc.
A game designer is also involved in researching the target audience to understand their tastes, psychology, etc. This will help them suggest iterations to ensure the success of the game. They are also involved in the feasibility study of the concepts vis-a-vis budgets, trends, extensibility, and audience psychology.
Game designers must ensure that the games must lend themselves to use on various platforms as well as evolving technology including augmented reality and AI.
Gaming Industry:
- As per NASSCOM data estimates, an average of 42 minutes per day is being spent by Indian gamers on mobile games. SOURCE: ResearchAndMarkets.com report
- KPMG report states:
- From INR 136 billion ($1.83 billion) in the fiscal year 2024, the total Indian gaming market is anticipated to reach INR 290 billion ($3.91 billion) growing at 113%.
- From 433 million players in 2024, the number is estimated to rise 52% by 2025 reaching 657 million.
- From INR 60 billion ($808 million) in 2024, the revenue from the online casual gaming segment is anticipated to hike at 182% to arrive at INR 169 billion ($2.28 billion) in 2025.
- Globally the gaming market is predicted to reach USD 314.40 billion by 2026 rising at a CAGR of 9.64% from USD 173.70 billion in 2020.
While there are many opportunities available to students on completion of game design courses, we are listing as follows only a few:
- Game Animator: He uses 2D, 3D techniques, and other technologies along with art and imagination to bring to life the characters and storyline to life within the limits of the game’s framework.
- Game Audio Engineer: Basis the essence, target audience & genre, Audio engineer is instrumental in creating an out-of-this-world gaming experience with the use of appropriate sound effects.
- Game Designer: Being the centre of creativity, he is involved with ideating concepts, building levels, and puzzles, prototypes, interactive narrations& developing game mechanics. Besides this, he ensuresan unsurpassed user experience.
- VFX artist: He manipulates objects and light to create special effects that ensure popularity as well as sublime user experience.
- Game Programmer: His duty is to use appropriate programming language such that games run on different platforms.
- QA Game Tester: Before the game is opened to the public, he ensures that all bugs, mistakes in the game are identified and fixed.