As one of the fastest growing industries, now is the time to get into game design. The field offers competitive pay, paired with the satisfaction of designing a unique game that people around the world can find joy in.
In practice, being a game designer requires focus and technical skills, and hiring managers will be looking for applicants who can demonstrate their familiarity with the industry. Game design encompasses multiple tasks to create code and media at each level of the process, meaning your background as a game designer may be different from someone else’s.
Overall, game development includes the conceptualization process, designing the game world and its systems, and building a working prototype using code and visual editors. Last comes the testing process, which involves putting the game through its paces to ensure playability and remove bugs.
To help you build a resume that will catch the attention of hiring managers, this guide begins by looking at four types of game designer resume templates. Afterward, the skills you should emphasize and the action verbs you should incorporate are discussed.
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As a game designer, you're in an exciting industry that's always evolving and growing. Crafting an impressive resume for game design roles means showcasing your unique blend of creativity and technical skills, all while staying up-to-date with recent trends in the gaming world. Hiring managers in the game industry are looking for candidates who can demonstrate a strong foundation in design principles and a deep understanding of player experiences. They also value individuals who can adapt to new game engines and platforms, as well as contribute to a collaborative work environment.
When writing your resume, it's essential to emphasize the projects you've worked on and the technologies you're proficient in. Additionally, you'll want to highlight any unique achievements or creative solutions you've implemented in past roles. Remember, game companies are not only seeking skilled designers, but innovative thinkers who can bring their own spin to the gaming experience.
A strong portfolio is a must for game design roles. Include a link to your online portfolio on your resume and highlight key projects you've worked on. Provide screenshots, videos, or playable demos to showcase your design capabilities and creativity.
Game designers use a variety of software and tools in their work. On your resume, list the game engines (like Unity or Unreal), design tools (such as Photoshop or Blender), and scripting languages (like C# or Python) you're experienced with to demonstrate your technical proficiency.
As hiring managers do not spend long reviewing each resume, you’ll want to make an impression quickly. A few key ways to do that are to start with a fact-filled, succinct summary and hit on strong action verbs that are relevant for game designers.
If you're a career changer or have a lot of experience, consider beginning your resume with a summary that encapsulates your experience in the game design industry in a few sentences. Avoid being overly wordy and always use numerical data points to keep the hiring manager reading. Avoid buzzwords like 'go-getter' or 'talented' in your game design resume summary.
Generally, game designers are tasked with one outcome: designing a game. By including strong action verbs that are relevant for the position (such as "designed", "developed", "built", and "collaborated") in your list of accomplishments, and repeating choice ones, you’ll be highlighting that you know the role and what it requires.
As a Senior Game Designer, you'll be responsible for creating innovative and immersive experiences for players. It's crucial to demonstrate your expertise in game mechanics, level design, and player engagement. With the gaming industry rapidly evolving, hiring managers are seeking candidates who can adapt to new technologies and have experience with a variety of game genres. When crafting your resume, focus on showcasing unique projects and achievements that demonstrate your adaptability, creativity, and leadership skills in game design.
In addition to showcasing your technical abilities, it's important to highlight your understanding of current industry trends and how they impact game design. This could include adopting new game engines, virtual or augmented reality technologies, or mobile gaming. Make sure your resume reflects your ability to drive innovation and stay ahead of the curve in the competitive gaming industry.
As a Senior Game Designer, you'll be taking on leadership roles and collaborating with multidisciplinary teams. Highlight your experience in leading projects, mentoring junior designers, and working effectively with colleagues from different areas of expertise to bring cohesive and successful games to life.
Companies value designers who have experience across a wide range of game genres and platforms. Be sure to detail your involvement in different types of games, such as action, strategy, or educational, as well as platforms like console, PC, and mobile gaming. This will demonstrate your versatility and ability to tackle diverse game design challenges.
Senior game designers have added expectations compared to less experienced game designers, including potentially leading teams. Reference any accomplishments related to leadership and consider listing your skills to highlight your capabilities. Desmontrate soft skills like leadership, teamwork and initiative in your bullet points - avoid listing those words directly, but instead show them through your resume's bullet points.
As a senior game designer, hiring managers will expect you have taken on increasing levels of responsibility at your previous positions. Make sure to include examples of how you "spearheaded", "supervised", "led", or "managed" groups or teams to cement this impression.
Along with referencing your background in leadership roles and including relevant skills in your list of accomplishments, you may want to have a skills bank on the right or bottom of the page. This list of skills should encompass your technical skills and the types of games or platforms you have experience with.
As a 3D Game Artist, you get to create visually stunning game elements, like characters, objects, and environments, making the gaming experience come to life. In recent years, the rise of virtual and augmented reality has increased the demand for highly skilled 3D artists in the gaming industry. When crafting your resume, it's essential to showcase your technical expertise and artistic flair while keeping up-to-date with the latest trends and tools.
As this role is highly competitive, tailoring your resume to each job application is crucial. To stand out, focus on emphasizing your accomplishments in previous projects, highlighting your unique skills and demonstrating your commitment to staying current in the ever-evolving gaming landscape.
In your resume, emphasize your proficiency in 3D modeling, texturing, and animation software commonly used in the gaming industry, such as Maya, 3DS Max, Blender, ZBrush, Substance Painter, and Photoshop. Make sure to specify your expertise level and provide examples of projects where you've used these tools.
When applying for a 3D Game Artist role, your portfolio is critical to demonstrate your creativity and artistic abilities. Ensure to provide a link to your online portfolio and include details about your creative process in your resume, such as concept sketches, storyboarding, and character development.
As a video game designer, you'll be responsible for creating the core elements of a game, such as gameplay mechanics, storylines, and characters. With the gaming industry constantly evolving, it's essential to stay current with the latest design techniques and tools. When crafting your resume, make sure to emphasize your creativity, problem-solving skills, and ability to work well in teams, as these are all vital qualities for game designers.
In the second paragraph, you'll want to highlight your technical skills and experience in various aspects of game development, such as programming languages, engines, and software. To stand out, make sure to provide examples of completed projects or games you've worked on, as well as any awards or recognition you've received in the field.
In your resume, provide a link to your online portfolio showcasing your game design projects, including any personal, school, or professional projects you've worked on. This will give potential employers a visual representation of your skills and creativity.
While some game designers dabble in multiple platforms, video game designers are dedicated to console games. Regardless of your specialization, you can stand out by adding in numerical values to your accomplishments and including relevant certifications or activities.
Whenever you can, include a quantitative value to let hiring managers know the extent of your accomplishments. It is much more effective to convey that you led a team of 30, for instance, rather than to say you led a team. Similarly, testing over 300 mini games is more impressive than saying that you have experience testing games.
If you have additional certifications beyond your academic background, you should be sure to include them in a separate section on your resume. Any relevant volunteer activities (that utilize any aspect of game designer skills) should be included in this area as well.
As a 3D Game Artist, you have a distinctive and dynamic role. This job requires a combination of creativity, technical skills, and a passion for gaming. In the current gaming industry, with the rise of VR and AR games, 3D artists are in higher demand than ever. Thus, your resume ought to reflect your ability to navigate this rapidly evolving landscape. However, keep in mind, the industry is increasingly valuing specialization, such as character design or environmental artistry, over general 3D modeling. Therefore, your resume should not only speak to your technical proficiencies but also highlight your artistic niche.
When writing your resume, remember, it's crucial to showcase your unique value proposition. Even though you might be using industry-standard software like Maya or Blender, it's your unique artistic perspective and expertise that will separate you from the pack. Your resume should be a reflection of your uniqueness, while still adhering to professional standards and expectations.
When listing your skills, don't just name-drop software. Instead, highlight the specific tasks you can perform with them. For example, instead of just mentioning "Maya", say something like "experienced in rigging and animating complex 3D models using Maya."
If you specialize in a particular area of 3D art, such as character design or environmental art, make sure that stands out on your resume. This could be reflected in the projects you choose to highlight or the specific skills you list.
Game artists are specifically focused on developing visual assets for games, and thus they employ a different skill set than most game designers. You should be sure to name specific tools you’ve worked with. Additionally, including any internal promotions will help convey your commitment to companies.
Having a working understanding of the tools of the trade adds value to your application. Be sure to reference your work with tools like Revit, 3ds Max, Maya, or any other relevant software as it solidifies your familiarity with crucial applications. Add in the big projects you’ve worked on to further impart your experience.
If you can demonstrate that you’ve done well at past companies - to the point of being promoted - you should do so. This imparts to hiring managers that you know what you’re doing as a game artist. If relevant, you can also include how quickly you earned your promotions.
A game artist is an animator that designs 2D and 3D art in the gaming industry like scenery, characters, or backgrounds. To advance as a 3D game artist, you will need to show past experiences of how you’ve grown with previous companies or in past roles. You can also use strong language and verbs throughout your resume to show your technical skills and most important achievements and accomplishments.
If you want to continue to grow in your field, you can use previous positions in your resume to show hiring managers how you advanced to different roles in the company. This will also indicate that you have the leadership skills to advance and that you’re able to take on new roles and responsibilities.
You always want to make an impact by using strong action verbs to start off your bullet points. This could include using verbs such as, “Created,” “Illustrated,” or “Designed” to show future employers that you already have the skills that you will need in future positions and that you focus on action and what you’ve specifically achieved.
We spoke with hiring managers from top game development studios like Blizzard Entertainment, Ubisoft, and Electronic Arts to gather their best advice for creating a strong game design resume. Here are their top tips for showcasing your skills and experience in a way that will catch their attention and help you land your dream job in the gaming industry.
Hiring managers want to see that you have hands-on experience designing games. Make sure to include:
Avoid simply listing generic statements like:
Instead, provide concrete examples that demonstrate the depth of your game design experience.
A resume summary is an optional section that highlights your most relevant experience, skills, and achievements for the job you're applying to. While a game designer summary isn't required, it can be beneficial if you're a career changer or have extensive experience to provide additional context. However, avoid using an objective statement, repeating information already in your resume, or making your summary too long.
When writing your game designer resume summary, focus on your unique value and what you can bring to the role. Tailor it to the specific job description and company. Aim for a concise paragraph that showcases your expertise and entices the hiring manager to keep reading.
Your work experience section is where you show hiring managers how you've applied your skills to make an impact in previous roles. It's one of the most important parts of your resume, so it's crucial to get it right. In this section, we'll break down everything you need to know to write an effective work experience section for a game design resume.
Your education section shows hiring managers that you have the necessary foundation to succeed in game design. It's a key section that shouldn't be overlooked, even if you have many years of experience. Here are some essential tips for crafting a compelling education section on your game design resume.
Game designers need to show their creative flair, plus technical acumen in design software. Use action verbs in your resume to highlight these skills.
Each of your bullet points should detail an accomplishment in your career(s). To indicate that you have a familiarity with the game designer position, you can begin your bullet points with an action verb that is relevant to the field from the list on the left. If you worked in other fields, you can still incorporate these action verbs as a way to emphasize your understanding of the responsibilities the work involves.
For a full list of effective resume action verbs, visit Resume Action Verbs.
While game designers could be working on radically different kinds of games, the skills they utilize are generally the same. On the left, we’ve compiled the most referenced skills in game designer resumes.
Once you’ve identified the game designer skills that are most appropriate for your background, you should work them into your resume. You could pick the most relevant ones to incorporate in a short summary, weave them into your bullet-listed accomplishments, or list them in a skills bank.
You can include the above skills in a dedicated Skills section on your resume, or weave them in your experience. Here's how you might create your dedicated skills section:
This word cloud highlights the important keywords that appear on Game Design job descriptions and resumes. The bigger the word, the more frequently it appears on job postings, and the more 'important' it is.
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