Job Roles in the Games Sector

Game Designer-
The game designers they are responsible of what is going to be on the game and how the game plays.
They plan all of the elements for the game: settings; structure; rules; story flow; characters; the objects that's going to be in the game; maps; vehicles and the devices that is going to be available for the characters and all of the modes to play the game.
Sometimes the game designer is the creator of the games concept and conclusion but most of the time the game it already has a concept and the ingredients that's going to define how the game will be made and the game designer must decide the best way to create the by using this ingredients and within the financial of budget and timescale.
Games usually are big projects and the designing process might be shared by a number of different people supervised by the Lead Designer.
Game designers are employed by development studios, both independent and publisher-owned.
Game designers have to have a deeply understanding of different platforms software's is has to be familiar with software technologies and techniques appropriate to each platform.
The game designer also trains some people called 'testers' to test the game to make sure they know whats is expect to the finished product.
Good technical understanding is required for a game designer such they have to be creative and have a good imagination; their also need a good understanding of games playing stories and playing theory; their need an excellent communication and presentation skills; the ability to be part of a team or by then self's.
Game designers usually work between 30-60 hours a week and their get paid between £ 19.000 to £60.000 every year.




QA- TESTER

Quality Assurance Technicians, or Testers their have a very important role in the process of the the game, their need to test the game by suggesting a detailed report of impurities in the game to ensure the best playability possible to the finished game.
A QA-TESTER involves play-testing the game in a characterised way, they need to analyse the performance of the game so they can identify problems and being able to suggest improvements to make the game better before it comes out.
They need to test the game by looking for bugs, impurities in the game, from the complete crashes to the minor of the glitches(software errors) in the game. Their also acts as the game first audience(the first people to play the game) and giving their opinions about the game reporting if the games is playable or not and identifying any improvements that can be made for a better game.
Testers are employed by design studios and publishers, they have to work long hours under pressure depending when the games is going to be released and their work can be very stressful.
QA-Testers they get paid between £9-10 pounds an hour  and their will make an average of £25.000 annually depending on how much experience they have on the job.


Programmer -
The programmers, they are the heart of the game development.
They design and also write the codes that runs and controls the game.
They test the codes and fix all the bugs and they also develop customised tools  that can be used by other members of the development team. Different platforms (games consoles, PCs, handhelds, mobiles, etc..) their all have particular programming requirements and there are also various specialisms within programming. Games development is an very large and complicated process and large teams of programmers might get involved in creating a game, some in leadership roles and some working on just one aspect. The programmers are employed by development studios- publisher owned and independent. They also work for  middleware producers.
The work is office based and the atmosphere is usually informal. Can be highly pressurised job and programmers normally work very long hours. They get very well paid and their skills are in demand not just in the UK, but also in Europe and US.
Programmers in the games industry are enthusiast people and many of them start off by using programming as a hobby. Most of the new   entrants in the programming industry are graduates.  Universities courses have links with the games development studious and organise work placements.
Off the bat, a university graduate can probably expect to be paid £25.000-£30.000 as a junior programmer. Apparently game programmers get paid less than other programmers. For example the average wage for a senior programmer in the UK is £42.748 but for a senior games programmer it is £33.333


Animator -
 In the game industry the animators are the ones responsible for the movement in the images( the work of art) and the behaviour. This is applied to give life to the game creatures and characters it can also be applied to other elements such as scenery.objects and environmental effects.
Special software packages are used to edit and creat the animations which can be used for both automated or 'in game' behaviours  scenario sequences or 'cut scenes'.
When a characters are well animated they have the purpose to bring the game to life -literally-  to get the players more involved and interact more towards the game. However as in other game development disciplines, the animators must make the movement image and the behavior in a very efficient and effective way to make the best use of the games technology, to maximises the game play and interactivity with the game.
Animators workd for development studios, independent and publisher-owned, and they also work for specialist outsourcing companies. Animators in the games industry they are usually permanently employed.
A game animation can be a very complex combination of many different types of movements and effects.
animators considering a carrer in a game production they have to understand the interactive natre of games and they need to have an overall grasp of all of the aspects of their discipline such as modelling, rigging, skinning, kinematics,  character modeling and the basic cinematography.
Animators can get paid as an entry salaries are in the region of £12.000 -£15.000. The salaries in the games industry start higher at £18.000 rising quickly with experience.
Experienced animators can earn £23.000-£25.000.


Level Editor-
A Level Editor defines and creates the architecture for the parts of a game, including the landscape, buildings and objects.
They must be true to the overall design specification, they have to use the story elements and the characters that was defined by the Game Designer, but they often have considerable scope to vary the specifc look and feel of the level for thich they are responsible.
The level editor develops the game play for each level, and that includes the challenges that the players have to face and actions that they must take to overcome them. The archiecture helps to define those challenges by presenting obstacles, places to hide, tests of skill and other elements to explore and interact with the game. Level editors they play an important role in the game development by creating memorable environments and game play elements to satisfy who ever is playing the game(the game audience).
They need to be creative and inventive and be able to understand the design factors to contribute to an entertaining and absorbing game play experience. They have to keep up to date with advancing technologies and their are employed by development studios both publisher-owned and independent.