Game Designer and Developer Job Kit

CAREERS

withSTEM JOB KIT ™

Game

Designer+

Developer Insights, information and advice on cool careers in the world of gaming

Real is making industry connections before you graduate.

Study animation, game design and software technologies at QUT to develop real game solutions for an industry client.

QUT Bachelor of Games and Interactive Environments TEQSA Provider ID PRV12079 Australian University | CRICOS 00213J | © QUT 2025 27249

FOREWORD

More than fun and games Gaming tech is so much more than just entertainment, with applications in fields ranging from medicine to defence

N

ans play games. ineteen million Australi urs are played every Globally, over a billion ho heal, simulate, and ch, tea day. We use games to raft in the classroom communicate. From Minec game virtual film production, to real-time rendering in the h wit how we interact technologies are shaping interacts with us. rld wo world and how the ich we teach at QUT. That is the context in wh ve Environments Our Games and Interacti ts who want to create, degree is built for studen the first semester, not just consume. From to design, prototype, students work in teams d to real briefs from and test ideas. They respon partners. The goal is industry and government is also to apply them not just to learn tools; it with purpose. effectively. It is to build important skills that rn lea T QU Students at er ective. They work togeth make game education eff d an e giv to w ho rn , lea in multidisciplinary teams nage projects under ma , ack db fee l pfu hel e receiv ing goals. Game ng cha pressure, and adjust to nk creatively, thi to m development helps the to get s work, and follow steps understand how system s, job ny ma in d can be use things done. These skills t tha gy olo hn tec x g comple especially when developin people interact with. dios connected with local stu My colleagues and I stay our e sur ke and MA XART to ma like Gameloft, PlaySide, r Ou . tor needs of the sec course meets the evolving e global phenomenons lik on d graduates have worke

Fortnite, international hit s like Satisfactory, and award-winning Australi an games like Cult of the Lamb.

Now is an ideal time to ent er the field. The Digital Games Tax Offset (DGTO ) supports local digital gam e companies by providing a 30% refundable tax off set, making it one of the mo st generous schemes of its kind in the world. It is fuellin g local jobs, global invest ment, and a new generation of interactive creators.

As VR, AR, and generativ e AI become part of daily life, the demand for peo ple who understand intera ctive systems will only grow.

Games are no longer on the edge of culture. They are at the centre of it.

Our Games and Environments degree is built for students who want to create, not just consume.”

Dr Cody Phillips, Senior Lecturer in Computer Sci ence (Digital Games, Virtual Reality, Augmented Re ality) at QUT

Check out Careersw inspiration and advi ithSTEM.com for more insights, info ce about a game desi rm gner and developer ation, career!

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dr Cody Phillips Senior Lecturer

GAME DESIGNER AND DEVELOPER

DEEP DIVE

s e l o s n o c h t i Careers w Controllers at the ready…

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f you’re streaming Free Guy on Disney+ and have 10,000 hours on Steam, this page is for you! You totally appreciate the design and development of gaming, plus all the layers of code it takes to simulate worlds and characters for your playing pleasure. Want to make a career out of it and join the industry that’s worth $4 billion dollars in Australia alone? Here are some hot facts you need to know.

We’ll call it homework for gamers. — Pippa Duffy

Skills list

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✔ Scoping ✔ Teamwork ✔ Creative thinking ✔ Time managemen t ✔ Problem-solving ✔ Eye for detail ✔ Critical reasonin g ✔ Imagination

k shares alumnus Oliver van Dy T QU o? pr a om fr t Wanna hear it straighexperience studying game design his bit.ly/QUTgames

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click here

Digital dyn

Edu-tainment is having a moment

amos

Book ma rk th ese stud ios fo r you r futu re job sea rch in g…

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Gameloft • Nintendo • Epic Game s • Activision Blizzard • Animal Lo gic • Riot Game s

Sure it’s all fun and games (geddit?!) but gaming is playing a huge role in oth er sectors, too.

From online safety for the 170 ,000 new users (i.e. kids) clicking on the internet each day, to integration in health, government, security and env ironmental organisations, des ign and development in the digital space goes way beyond an online multiplayer session.

ms such as • Schools use gaming platfor Eggs to help ng adi Re Studyladder and students with their learning. guage uolingo is reducing the lan •D across 19 rs use lion barrier for 120 mil dialects. e of • The humble Solitaire is a gam people for e rcis exe in patience and a bra e. eas dis r’s with Alzheime

• CSIRO’s Human Centric Sec urity Team have integrated Cyber Circuit, an ‘old-schoo l’ style game to test and increase cyber security knowle dge for employers.

• The United Nations Enviro nment Programme has teame d up with big games like Angry Birds 2 to incorporate things such as climate change into their gaming options.

Translation station Like many indus

tries, the gaming world has its own lingo. Take note of this list of helpful words and the ir meanings — but remembe r, you’ll also learn on the job, so you don’t need to be an expert to enrol!

Milestone: Each step in the development process is a mil estone.

Bugs: Bugs in the gaming world infiltra te programming and create pro blems that need to be solved by QA testers so we, the people, can play without hitt ing any probs.

Dev: Literally developer, just abbreviate d.

No

ob: This is an inexperienced player in a gaming environment. Des igners and developers work hard to ensure user experience (UX) and user inte rface (UI) are premium, by considering IxD (interactive design; see next point) at every turn. So noobs don’t sta y noobs for long!

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IxD: Interactive design is how designers switch from their initial idea and creative vision to thinking about how the user will play their game.

Alph

a and Beta: Major stages in gaming design. Alpha refers to the first build of a game, when it’s rea dy for testing.

Beta is when it gets to the alm ost-readyfor-the-public stage and all the bugs are (hopefully) fixed.

Ping: The location of a mark within a gaming simulated world.

VC: Voice chat. Very important in online gaming, so making this seamle ss in development is a no-brainer.

GAME DESIGNER AND DEVELOPER

REAL PEOPLE

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2D design, isha Darmansjah is a fan of e and entertain, cat edu t tha es gam old-school study practice. her cat Susu and shaking up anities, Aisha completed Loving both STEM and hum same uni her parents a double degree at QUT — the arts people”) and h graduated from (“They’re bot h assistant while arc rese where she now works as a IT. in s completing her Honour and a Bachelor of “I did a Bachelor of Science ments,” Aisha says.

Games and Interactive Environ the game side of things “But I’m continuing on with for my Honours.” thought she’d go IT wasn’t always the path she ams of becoming an dre down — originally, Aisha had interest in the an had archaeologist. “I’ve always STEM, which led and ies anit hum connections bet ween haeolog y. However, the me to look into pursuing arc s to the lack of jobs in uni open days opened my eye ead, I turned to another this field in Australia. So, inst yed — games.” meeting of disciplines I enjo e that really caught It was playing one such gam asking the big ted Aisha’s attention and she star that? What was ign des y the questions like, “Why did

IT Trainee, Noosa Shire Council

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r of (Geology) / Bachelo Bachelor of ScienceEnvironments (Animation), QUT mes and Interactive

Research Assistant, QUT

Honours student, IT, QUT

d l r o w e h t o Welcome t ! t n e m n i a t u of Ed With a double degree animator Aisha Darm in science and games, ansj love of the natural ah is combining her world and tech

their thinking put ting that in this game?”.

“I was playing Pokémon Em erald and, upon arriving in Mossdeep City, I was sho cked to notice mangroves growing there,” she says. “Gr owing up near the coast, mangroves were a common occurrence for me in real life, but it was at this point I realised I’d never seen them in a game before. It mad e me want to know why that was. And so I star ted pav ing the way that would eventually lead me to game development. Being a natural sciences nerd, I’m ver y interested in environments and how they can be represented in games to impart experience s on the player.”

Thanks to the opportunity at QUT to combine her love of tech and the natural world, along with the suppor t of her teachers, Aish a was able to double up on her degree and achieve bot h. “I’m an animator so I do a lot of asset creation, but it means I get to flex my artistic muscles and my scie nce-y thinking muscles, too,” she says.

Aisha also rates the relation ships you get to form at QUT by working in smaller coh orts. In her project work, she’s been able to coll aborate and form friendships with programm ers and game developers who she needs to make her animations come to life.

Her ultimate bring-to-life job?

“To study the mechanisms that make edu -tainment games work and apply that knowledge to get people thinking about the world around them.” — Pip pa Duffy, 2020

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aisha darmansjah animator

I got to flex my artist ic muscles and my scienc ey thinking muscles, too. ” 6

A day in the life of a… A

QA TESTER

ce he got his very first sin ng mi ga th wi ed ss se ob en Miles Hatcliff has be what he loves is a bonus! do to id pa ts ge w no he t fac Xbox as a kid. The

s a QA (quality assurance ) tester, Miles Hatcliff is living his dream, working in games develo pment at Gameloft. Having alread y travelled the world with his QU T stu dent team to compete in the Global VR Hackathon in China, as well as publishing award-nomi nated game Isle of Ewe on Steam store, Mi les soa ked up all the opportunities and industry connections along the wa y to score a job before he even gra duated.

Now, with his Bachelor of Games and Interactive Environments , with a major in Games Design and a minor in 3D Animation and Marketin g, Miles hopes to eventually move into a 3D artist role and maybe one day open his own studio. — Pippa Duffy, 202 0

miles hatcliff qa tester

9:30am

This is what a typical day for Miles looks like…

7:30am k.

Wake up and get ready for wor

8am

Catch public transport to the office in the city.

8:45am

Arrive in the office and head up to the roof to make a coffee and have a bite to eat.

9am

k.

Begin the workday at my des t cha k wor our Check emails and all Inst es. sag mes (Mattermost) for the latest build of the game r. late testing

Design stand-up meeting. Sit in on the design team’s stand-up meeting and take notes.

9:45am

Begin testing the (latest) game we’re working on. Log any issues to project-tracking soft ware Jira. If anything insightful cam e out of the morning meetings, I mig ht have something specific I want to test.

1pm

Lunch time. We normally wal k down to a Japanese place near the office and get sushi. Other times, we do a team lunch.

1:30pm

Check to see if there is a new build and re-download it. Review issues marked by devs as completed. This is to check that fixes that happened hav e worked.

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developer Investigate any issues that a and saw. Gather more information .

Jira to it log

3pm

Quick tea break.

3:10pm

any Run a test plan to check for issues any Log unexpected behaviour. or ss” “pa as k found to Jira and mar t. hee “fail” on spreads

6:15pm

9:15am

f QA stand-up meeting. Ver y brie ay, terd catch-up on what we did yes and ay what we will be doing tod us. whether anything is blocking

2pm

I hope to one day open my own games studio.”

Bachelor of Games and Interactive Environments (Games Design / 3D Animation and Marketing), QUT

er.

Arrive home. Make and eat dinn s. day our ut abo r tne par Chat to my

8pm

a little Play some video games or do sleep portfolio work before going to around 10pm.

QA Tester, Gameloft

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GAME DESIGNER AND DEVELOPER

Get the job!

Ready to kickstart your future career as a game designer and developer? Begin here…

Pay grade?

You ca n ex pect to po cket th is ki nda cash when em ployment ca lls…

Game Designer: $125 K–$130K Game Developer: $1 05K–$110K Animator: $80K–$85 K Software Developer : $85K–$105K User Experience an d Inter face Designer: $95K–$11 5K* *Sou rce: salaries acc ord ing to seek.com.au

Find your niche s — er, There are so many character of rld we mean roles — in the wo ! gaming! Find your match

Study corner Tertiary education is your key to the gamin g and creative computer sciences faculties.

Where gaming was once a fun thing to do on weekends, caree r options are now only as limited as your imagi nation.

QUT offers cool courses like eSports and doub le degrees with everything from business to science, IT and marketing. Hit up these courses on Open Day to find your fit!

Bachelor of Games and Interactive Environments: major in animation, game design and software tech

Diploma in eSports: kickstart your long-term gaming studies or flex your skills and specialise in esports with this epic diploma

Bachelor of Business / Bachelor of Games and Interactive Environments: hone your sales skills once you’re done designing your game

Bachelor of Design (Interaction Design): awesome on its own or combine with engineering for a more product-development-specific pathway

Bachelor of Creative Industries: combine with IT or data science degrees for all-round know-how

Take it in(tern)

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way to amp up your Internships are an excellent a taste for the skills while still at uni and get search on these gle Goo a Hit .

IRL s career vibe nity. companies to score an opportu

can develop Designer: You’re creative and a digital to e slat tran will t visual ideas tha t. environmen to take visual Animator: You have the skills moving parts into cues and turn still images

on a screen. ear for motion.

Sound designer: You have an g, the sound You create the game theme son ey” — think “fol bites/character voices and the ound kgr bac g, footsteps, crashes, cheerin noise — in-game. puter and can Programmer: You speak com to put the write code to enable the tech the right creative aspects of a game in sequence.

the game from Developer: Your job is to take a playable/ to e cod of es piec concept and interactive masterpiece. tap into the Marketer: You know how to e interest to make erat gen buyer’s thinking and financially viable.

— e! gam i.e. your product — Sell. Sell. Sell.

Wargaming Sydney TikTok Ubisoft Atlassian Gameloft Canva Careers with STEM is a publication and trademark of Refraction Media.

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This edition was published on 2 June 2022, updated 7 July 2025.