Video Game Development: Put Your Gamer Skills to the Test

Are you the type of person who can lose an entire day playing Halo? Do you plan on calling in sick for work when the new version of Half Life drops? Do you find the expression "pwned" slipping into conversations that have nothing to do with video games? If you can answer "yes" to these questions, you might be well-suited to a career in video game development.

Video Game Development: A Career in an Expanding Field

Now is a great time to develop video games. Whether first-person shooters, like Halo and Half Life, or massive multiplayer role-playing games, like World of WarCraft and Second Life, today's video games are bigger than ever, with stories rivaling most novels and detailed graphics that offer gamers a more immersive experience and designers the ability to clearly realize their artistic visions. According to Animation Arena, the video game industry earns seven billion dollars annually, and workers in this massive industry are compensated accordingly with the following average annual salaries:

• Designer: $45,000-70,000
• Creative director: $45,000-81,000
• Producer: (regular) $62,000, (executive) $82,000
• Animator: (regular) $46,700-75,000, (lead) $64,000-215,000

Get an Online Education in Video Game Development

If you are interested in a career in video game development, the best way to succeed is to enroll in a video game development degree program. Many of today's learners, when looking at their education options, are opting for the flexibility of an online degree program. In a video game development program, you might take classes like C++ programming for game developers, video game console design, 3D graphics programming, game mathematics, and physics for game developers. Enroll in a video game development degree program and prove your parents wrong; you can make money playing video games.
Source:
Animation Arena, Video Game Salaries

Brandon Bond is a freelance writer living in Columbia, Missouri, with his wife and two dogs.