Game Design

Game art design is a subcategory of game development. Game art designers work in the gaming industry creating the artistic backgrounds or character designs for video or board games that match their style and theme.

These designers are proficient at prototyping art designs that fit within the parameters of the game storyline and can create storyboards and fully rendered scenes that capture the mood, color, and feel of a game.

Game artists typically have a bachelor's degree in a relevant field such as graphic design, game design, or computer science. If you would like to design for a video game, you may want to gain some understanding of programming languages, as they could help you incorporate the art into the game engine.

Designing for board or tabletop games is a different matter entirely. Working as a game artist could be as simple as building a portfolio of fun background and character designs and then creating a profile on Upwork to get started.

With an incredible amount of access to new games on our smartphones and tablets, the game artist industry is growing. This growth has opened up the opportunity for many careers in entry-level video game design or lead game design. It’s the perfect job for those who love to create new characters or designs for board or video games.

An entry-level game artist's average annual salary starts at around $35,000, but with years of experience and skill, that number can climb.

In fact, salaries for designer jobs can reach as high as $90,000 per year, and working for larger companies like Microsoft or Nintendo can offer additional project management opportunities that indie game companies may not be able to offer.