Job Description and Career Information for Video Game Programmer

High popularity of video games not only among the children and teen agers but among the adult populace as well has resulted in dramatic rise in career prospects for the video game programmers in the recent years. In fact the video game programmer is one of the most sought after technocrats in the commercial sectors.

Job Descriptions

Tasks that are accomplished by the video game programmer are as follows.

They offer live designs of video games.
Usually years of experience is required to become a proficient video game programmer.
Programmers can work on the technical side as well as on the business side of an enterprise.
A Booming Industry

One of the three electronic industries in high demand among the user circles, video gaming has been a booming industry as well where the prospects are rising day by day. According to the NPD survey reports the gaming industry is experiencing growth rate of 11% per annum.

Designer and Programmer

Many people tend to confuse between the designer and programmer. But the two are different from each other.

Designers develop concepts on which games are made.
They will see their concepts bloom into practical games.
Designers often work with a team but are never entry level job.
Programmers on the other hand are basically concerned with developing the code for the game.
They work in combination with the designers to give the final shape to the product developed combining codes with design and aiming to make the game user friendly.
Job Prospects

Skillful game programmers are usually promoted to the rank of senior programmers or even to the managerial positions in various enterprises. Even fresh graduates have the prospects of getting in job training and programmer’s job in the market as huge scope have been created due to growing popularity of the computer based video games. The growth over a period of 10 years from 2001 through 2010 has been phenomenal, at around 220%.

Working Hours and Earning Prospects

Usual working hours for the video game programmer comes to around 60 hours a week unlike many other jobs where the usual hour limits are 42-48 hours. In course of the work one of the major tasks accomplished by them is ironing out the bugs in the game.

The career is highly rewarding. Even the relatively inexperienced programmer earns around $57,000 per annum while the more experienced ones can easily earn $100,000 or more.