Video+Game+Developer+3+(A.+C.)

=__Video Game Developer by A Chafe__=

Why I chose to research this occupation:
I chose to research the occupation of a video game developer because it's something I take personal interest in and it also relates to technology, which is what this course is all about. I think creating video games would be an excellent thing for someone to do because video games are wonderful forms of art; they contain music, visuals, characters and stories- and even though most of the time there's multiple people working on a game, video games are hands down one of the most artistic creations of all time. Of course, they do not get created easily- creating a fully functional video game requires you to have a lot of knowledge about coding and programming. ==

What's it like being a video game developer?
Being a video game developer is a hit or miss job. The reason for this is because there's no guarantee that you'll make any money at all off of it. The work involved with being a game developer is extremely long and tedious, and knowing that you might make nothing off of your hard work can be discouraging. An example of how tough the game development process can be would be the development of [|Super Smash Bros. Melee] (the game represented in the image above) for the [|Nintendo Gamecube]. The developer of that game- [|Masahiro Sakurai]- spent 13 months doing work on it without taking a single day off. That's approximately 396 entire days working on a single game, and development on the game still was being done after that mark. He'd ended up suffering severe shoulder problems from developing this game and its two successors. That game, of course, was guaranteed to sell well, as it's a follow up to a previous installment and it was published by a loved gaming company (Nintendo.) While there's still pressure there of making sure it's a good game and making sure it's accepted by the big-guys in the company, compared to a first-time game developer the stress level tends to be higher. You need to be certain that a company will publish your game for you and the consumers will enjoy it. You could finish an entire game and not even be allowed to publish it, or you might publish it and no body will play it. You put a lot of work into programming games and there are many risks to take when working on them. As for where a video game developer would work, most do work at home, while others work in offices.



=What kind of technology is used with developing video games?= The technology used in developing video games is mostly what's called an "engine." Not a car engine, but a game engine. What an engine does is it mimics the capabilities for a video game console. For example, if one was developing a game to be played on a PS4, they would use a PS4 engine as opposed to using an actual PS4 or just a PC. The reason games aren't entirely developed on a PC is because a lot of consoles are unable to run the intense things a PC is capable of, so when it comes to porting a game from the PC to the consoles, there may be issues. An example of this would be the game [|Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric]. The issues involved with the development of this game are explained in the following video: media type="youtube" key="2Mo7esa1Tfk" height="390" width="640" =What training and education is required to be a video game developer?= It's actually possible to be a video game developer without any education past high school. You just need knowledge of the programming required. However, naturally it looks much better when applying to be a game developer if you have the education needed. A course in Newfoundland that would be good to take would be the [|Video Game Design course at CNA].The program is two years long and teaches you exactly how to create video games. The best school in the world for leaning video game development is [|DigiPen] in Washington. Also, computer science/engineering is good to have, too. =Work Opportunites:= In St.John's, there's actually a game development company known as [|Other Ocean Interactive]. Other Ocean has its list of jobs offered on its website [|right here]. It might not be one of the big guys out there, but it's still a work opportunity for those who live on the island and don't want to leave. Naturally, the more developed technologies reside with the larger companies. Another career opportunity in Newfoundland would be from [|this advertisement here]. =Salary and Benefits:= The salary of a video game developer again heavily depends on how successful the game itself is. However, if you're working for a company, you earn $70 000-90 000 annually when in the generic position. The benefits also depend on if you're working with a company or not. Some game developers don't make any money at all and just post their games on the internet for free play. An example would be these games: media type="custom" key="27633504"media type="custom" key="27633508" =References:= https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20120529130144AABmSDL http://programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/163933/what-technologies-are-used-for-game-development-now-days https://www.recruiter.com/salaries/video-game-designers-salary/