The multi-billion-dollar gaming industry is continuously on the rise due to the worldwide community of players utilizing games as entertainment, stress relief, education, social interaction, and sport. As PC, VR/AR, at-home fitness gamification, mobile, tablet, console, wearables, and Cloud gaming grow in popularity, so does the need for strong creative and technical minds to build the gameplay content.
Game studios are looking for talent with these qualities:
- Experience with shipping games full lifecycle
- Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, and fair work/life balance mindset
- Up-to-date on new features, current-generation, and next-generation gameplay technologies
- Understanding of Unity and Unreal best practices
- Authentic vibe with their existing ethos
- Collaborative mindset that can take initiative and work well independently
- Loyalty! Talent that desires to grow their careers and be a part of long-term projects
Based upon our clients’ needs, here is the list of the 10 Most In-Demand Gaming Jobs of 2021:
1. Unity Developers
Unity Developers are software developers inside the Unity engine platform producing video games. They design the game and build the program code for the game’s design and function.
Related Titles: Unity Programmer, Unity Engineer, Unity Architect
2. Gameplay Designers
Gameplay Designers are responsible for planning how the game is played. This designer outlines and defines the game’s structure, rules, characters, objects, assets and envisions the different modes of play like multi-player or story mode. This role is often the middleman between technical engineers and artists.
Related Titles: Game Designers, Gameplay Engineers, UX Designer
3. 3D Artists / Animators
3D Artists / Animators are multimedia designers who create, mold, construct and animate assets, creatures, objects, and characters for a video game. They add personality, emotion, and realism to the game by adding body movements, reactions, timing, action, posing, and staging.
Related Titles: Rigger, Modeling, 2D Artist, 2D Animator, Character Animator
4. Unreal Engine Developers
Unreal Engine Developers create real-time 3D gameplay features and functionality within the Unreal engine program. Developers are responsible for the creation, code, and performance of immersive virtual game worlds using realistic action, renderings, environments, settings, lighting, and perspective.
Related Titles: Unreal Developer, Unreal Programmer, Unreal Architect
5. Level Designers
Level Designers create the levels, advancements, and missions that players will experience as they progress through a video game. They are responsible for the game map, and all still features such as landscapes, large-scale assets, cities, towns, and rooms. They even define all essential details that will guide players through the level like entry and exit points, weapons, currency, paths, doors, and even aesthetic details like texture and lighting.
Related Titles: Environment Designer, World Designer, Game Designer
6. Esports Brand Partnerships
Brand Partnership Manager in Esports is a client-facing, road warrior with extensive knowledge of all things Esports and leagues. This person is responsible for developing and building partnerships with the right brands in the esports and gaming industries to grow the game’s audience and revenues.
Related Titles: Business Development, Sponsorship management, Affiliate Marketing, Brand Manager
7. Producers
Video Game Producers are the thought leaders of a game’s overall production process. Their role is a balance of project management, creative development, technical development, licensing, and managing budgets and timelines. People in this role usually have a game development or game art background as they need to understand the ins and outs of game production to avoid costly setbacks.
Related Titles: Product Manager, Licensing Manager
8. Senior QA Lead
Quality Assurance Leads manage teams of testers and technical QA analysts that ensure games are shipped on time with maximum quality and minimal bugs. Their goal is to plan and conduct rigorous game testing across all platforms and consoles. They are also responsible for developing and implementing game fixes and improvements and deploying updates. Their role is critical in tuning, functionality, and successful player engagement.
Related Titles: QA Director, QA Analyst, QA Tester
9. Technical Artists
Technical Artists help game artists integrate and place their art assets into the game without disruption or technical issues. They take the technical limitation responsibility off the shoulders of the engineers and the artists. Skills for the role include rigging, rendering, optimization, shading, programming, scripting, tool building, and knowledge of engine platform capabilities.
Related Titles: Technical Animator, Animation Tools Engineer, Environment Tech Artist
10. VFX Artists
Visual Effects Artists plan, design, and seamlessly implement realistic special effects and animations within the game such as lighting, fire, smoke, weather, explosions, dynamic actions, attacks, and other environmental elements. This role is responsible for 3D art, motion graphics, modeling, lighting, and rendering.
Related Titles: FX Animator, Technical Artist, VFX Tools
What didn’t make the list? AI Programmers, Gameplay Engineers, Rendering Engineers, Platform Engineers, Technical Directors, Systems Designers, VR Hardware Engineers are also extremely popular.
Looking for one of these talented professionals to join your team? Our team would love to help you find them. Or if you’re one of these skilled pros looking to find your next gig, give us a shout!