Since the 1st year I knew I wanted to go into concept art, which is why over the past 3 years I have tried to get a grasp on as many aspects of design when it comes to Games Design.
The most obvious job I would be looking for, would be to become a concept artist at a games company. Thankfully there is a website called ArtStation which allows designers from all over the world to build their portfolios and even apply to jobs from that specific site. By looking at the available jobs, the titles that would interest me the most are:
Junior/Character Artist
A character artist job is basically designing and creating art for characters. The characters are the ones that the player can control most of the time. It is possible that Creature Design can fall into Characters too which are not playable but still required in the game.
Junior/UI Artist
Any job spec with the word “Junior” is basically a job that is tailored for people who have graduated and are still willing to learn under strict supervision which will then allow further advancement into the industry. UI artist is in charge of designing User Interface, so interactive buttons, menus etc.
Junior/Concept Artist
This job speaks for itself, it’s basically concept art where an artist does various of concepts be it for characters, creatures, weapons, UI, environments etc. It’s a very broad topic, but it’s also the one that I imagine wouldn’t go stale because of doing the same thing over and over again.
These 3 job roles are definitely the ones that I feel like I would exceed at due to my skillset set.
I would also not mind starting from the bottom in the company as a QA, which stands for Quality Assurance which is basically game testing and writing up on improvements and checking for glitches before the release of the game.
Even though I do have some experience as a 3D Artist, I don’t think I’m confident enough in pursuing that further. I can quickly mock up 3D assets in 3DS and SketchUp but not to a level where all the topology would be seen as “perfect” or “game-ready”.
I’m not sure if I’d be up for Freelancing, as in my mind it is easier to get a job in the industry and work your way up, and then get your name out there, and possibly then get a freelance job since the public or potential employers will know.
There are 2 main areas in the Games Design department, AAA and Indie.
It is important to note that the jobs and the process of design will differ massively depending on the company and the state it is in.
Most if not all AAA companies have their jobs very specifically laid out. For example you get departments for Concept Art for Character Design, Vehicle Design, Props and Objects, with a lot of people working as a team on these specific tasks. This will then get passed on to the art department where they will make the final versions. Whereas in an Indie company if your job spec is a Concept Artist, you will pretty much end up doing a lot of concepts from various areas in a small team. Sometimes you may even have to do 3D Art despite being just a Concept Artist, which is why it is so important to have a large and still developing skillset.
Platinum Piotr 