Need Help...

Did you try and call up any of the game companies in New York and ask if you could have a phone interview with any of their designers?

Check out the Game Career Guide published by Game Developer Magazine here.

1) When? The first time I laid eyes on a videogame. I've simply always wanted to make videogames. When I was little I did a summer school class to play around with HyperCard, I built level after level in ExciteBike, etc.

2) See my GD.net journal for this. I outlined it fairly extensively a little over a year ago when I got my first professional designer position.

3) I didn't really study "video game designing" per se. I studied Computer Graphics Technologies with emphases in Animation and Game Development at Purdue University.

4) Game Designer. Kind of a weird question to answer though, because I worked my way through college as well.

5) See the game career guide I linked above. I started definitely on the bottom end of the spectrum, but things are looking up now. For a single person I'd say yes, I make plenty. I have a family though, so I've had to stretch my money a bit more.

6) Depends on your definition of long or short? I tend to work between 40 and 45 hours in a week. Occasionally deadlines will get dropped on me that will require 50 (or only happened to me twice) 60 hour weeks.

7) I make frickin' videogames!

8) Much tougher to answer than the last question. As a designer you don't just put to paper what you think would make for a great game. You have to deal with the demands of the publisher and the constraints of the resources provided to you by your company based on money and time (and time = more money). You have to make sure everyone is on the page, everyone on all sides are happy, and that the game will be as fun as possible given all the above constraints.

9) That their ideas are gospel and the bestest thing evar! Everyone on the team is going to have good ideas, including the programmers, artists, and even QA guys. A good (in my opinion) designer will serve more as a shepherd of the ideas and concepts needed to make the best game you can given the time and money alloted.

10) The ability to write clearly and concisely, and the ability to effectively communicate with your team members.

Answers to all those questions here

Thanks alot to the both of you I really appreciate the help. To zero im going to look into giving them a call but thanks alot for taking the time to answer the questions. Now I just have to implement it into my research paper...thanks again.