Games developer

Are you a tech-savvy person, who lives and breathes gaming? As a games developer, you'll create code and tests for all sorts of games. Who knows, you may work on the next global success like Tetris or Minecraft!

You'll help produce games for PCs, games consoles, the internet and mobile phones. Games developers will sometimes build new games or make exciting updates to existing titles.

A game can take several months or even years to produce. There are lots of stages before a game is released, from creating ideas and characters to programming and testing.

Your tasks might include:

• creating and refining how the game works – rules, interactions, controls and player experience

• using programming languages to build the game’s functionality

• working closely with game designers, artists, sound engineers and writers to make sure technical solutions support the creative vision

• identifying then fixing bugs, performance issues and gameplay problems

• importing and programming visual elements, audio, animations and other media into the game engine

• making sure the game runs smoothly across different platforms

There are a few areas of games development you could specialise in:

• Artist – create the game's visual characters, objects and scenery. You'll produce concept art, drawings and storyboards at the planning stage

• Animator – bring the characters, objects and scenery to life with computer modelling and animation software during the production stage

• Programmer – create the code to make the game work. You'll specialise in developing graphics, artificial intelligence (AI) or gameplay software

• ScreenSkills – explore creative roles and how you can break into the industry

• Medium article – A Peek into the Routine of Game Developers

• ScreenSkills – learn how to build a games portfolio