1. By: Desmond Walker

2.  A game designer is one of the most highly sought-after and competitive fields in the industry.  Game designers/developers get to develop the overall concept of the game.  They oversee the process of making that concept a reality.  They work on crafting the systems that make a game run and they work on nearly every aspect of the game development process.  Game designers are rewarded for their hard work with quality pay: the average annual salary is $83,000.

3.  The working environment of a game designer is usually a comfortable office or cubicle, although some game companies do allow telecommuting.  The main work-related injuries in this field, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, are eye strains.  Ergonomic chairs and keyboards can prevent or lessen the impact of these problems.  So can frequent breaks from looking at the computer screen.

4.  Writing Game Content  Drafting In-Game Specifications  Meetings  Debugging and Fixing Issues.

5.  As the video game industry grows, more universities are creating curriculums to support careers in video game design.  Video Game Designers typically have a bachelor's degree in Game Design, Computer Engineering or Computer science which takes four to five years to complete.  Courses in a Game Design degree program may include project management, and, game prototyping and level design.

6.  A video game designer must have a strong set of skills, including programming, video graphics and hardware essentials  Graphics also play a huge role in video games, and game designers must have at least some skills in these areas.  Video game designers also need to understand how to work game consoles such as PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii, Xbox,etc.  Many colleges, technical schools, and universities offer classes certificates and advanced degrees in areas computer programming,computer engineering, software development,etc.  This is not a job where you can just jump up and decide you want to do it with no training.

7. . The average salary of a male designer is $53k(down from last year's average of $56k).  Lead designers get around $63k. The highest paid designer makes around $300k.  Females make up 9% of the design force. The average salary for female designers is $48k (down from last year's average of $60k).

8.  1.University of Utah (Salt Lake City, UT)  2.University of Southern California (Los Angeles, CA)  3.Rochester Institute of Technology (Rochester, NY)  4.Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, MA)  5.Drexel University (Philadelphia, PA)  6.Savannah College of Art and Design (Savannah, GA)  7.The Art Institute of Vancouver (Vancouver, British Columbia / CAN)  8.Michigan State University (East Lansing, MI)  9.Worcester Polytechnic Institute (Worcester, MA)  10.New England Institute of Technology (East Greenwich, RI)  11.North Carolina State University (Raleigh, NC)

9.  http://blog.k12.com/2012/05/09/college-readiness-george-washington- university-online-high-school http://blog.k12.com/2012/05/09/college-readiness-george-washington- university-online-high-school  http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/video-game-designer1.htm http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/video-game-designer1.htm  http://www.sloperama.com/advice/lesson14.htm http://www.sloperama.com/advice/lesson14.htm  http://www.theartcareerproject.com/combine-work-and-play- information-about-video-game-design/93/ http://www.theartcareerproject.com/combine-work-and-play- information-about-video-game-design/93/  http://work.chron.com/education-training-necessary-game-designer- 4875.html http://work.chron.com/education-training-necessary-game-designer- 4875.html  http://www.theguardian.com/money/2010/may/01/video-game-designer http://www.theguardian.com/money/2010/may/01/video-game-designer  http://wpcomwidgets.com/ http://wpcomwidgets.com/  http://google.com http://google.com