Outside Gaming Experts: Hitpoint Studio

We were fortunate to have some visitors to the Game Design Camp from the local gaming industry. We thought that bringing in people who do gaming for a living might be a positive experience for the young gamers, and it was. Visitors from Hitpoint Studios not only talked about the design of a game from inception to publishing, but they focused in on the academic skills that one would need to be successful in the gaming world.

In particular, I loved this graphic from the Hitpoint folks showing how a game idea makes its way through the design process. There are many parallels to writing — from initial idea, to draft, to review, to revision, to publication.

Here are some notes from what they shared with the camp around the
jobs that make up a game design company and the academic skills
necessary for success:

Jobs in the Game Industry

• Programmer
• Artists
• Animators
• Artist Techs
• Tester/Quality Assurance
• Game Writers
• Designers
• Project Managers

And here are some of the academic skills that they say are needed for the variety of jobs:

• Math
• Logic
• Drawing
• Creativity
• Collaboration
• Physics
• Composition/Writing
• Acting
• Communication
• Attention Span
• Organization