By Brian Hudgins

Playing video games is not just child's play-it can be a lucrative career. According to the NPD Group, a New York-based market research firm, Video Game retail accounted for $9.9 billion in U.S. sales in 2004. As a result, increased demand for talented game designers has prompted colleges and universities to add game design majors and coursework to their curricula.

"Video game development is not a one-man project anymore," says Mark Baldwin, who has taught game design development at Westwood College Online and the University of Advancing Technology (Tempe, AZ). "Now there are huge teams, and all the implications of that,"he says, likening game production to that of filmmaking ("the budgets are similar"). In fact, a glance at a typical game's credits shows that dozens of people are involved in conceiving, creating, producing, and delivering a finished game to the market.

The good news for budding game designers is that those increased budgets translate into increased salaries. At the 2006 E3 Expo, the world's largest trade show for the computer and Video Game industry, Doug Lowenstein, president of the Entertainment Software Association, reported that typical entry-level Video Game industry jobs pay $50,000 or more. "That's well above the average paid to college graduates," he noted.

Lowenstein continued to illustrate the industry's growth potential by citing a study conducted by Sidak and Crandell that states the Video Game industry supported 144,000 jobs nationwide in 2004, and is projected to grow to 265,000 by the end of 2009.

High-Tech Theater
So what's a typical day in the life of a gaming professional? Just ask Adam Noce, 24, a 2005 graduate of the Art Center College of Design who works as a game tester for Buena Vista Games, and as a freelance game design consultant.

First off, Noce explains that it helps to have a well-rounded education in areas such as film design studies because of the role of strong narrative elements incorporated into today's games. "Learning film is essentially learning how to tell a story," he says. "When it comes down to it, the most important thing is to get users involved and make them care about the game."

Being a game tester is much more than high scores and fancy play. Noce notes that having the ability to view a game objectively and possessing high-score communication skills are vital. "Gaming has come a long way even in the last five years," he says. "Stories have become much more integral to the overall experience. People are devising new ideas and game play mechanics. And even with all the sequels, [games] are getting better and better."

One Constant: Change
Because video games are continually evolving, colleges face the challenge of keeping pace by creating new programs of study for those eager to break into the competitive industry.

Michigan State University and Georgia Tech, for instance, have recently pushed the start button on game-based curricula. An interdisciplinary specialization in game design and development was created at Michigan State in 2005 for students majoring in areas such as telecommunication, information studies, computer science, and art. The program consists of four core game design courses taken during a student's junior and senior years.

Brian Winn, an assistant professor in the school's department of telecommunication, information studies, and media, is now overseeing courses that were not available to him and his peers some years ago. "I went to grad school and got into interactive media design, which was the closest thing to game development offered," Winn says. "This eventually led me full circle, back into creating games. Now, as a college professor, I'm developing the curriculum for game design and development that I wish I could have taken when I was in school."

Within game design programs, such as the one offered on-campus and online at the University of Advancing Technology, courses often focus on present technology, with some historical context included. Core courses feature titles such as "3D Modeling Concepts," "Game Tools and Techniques," and "Evolution of Electronic Games." Many electives are available as well, touching on music, portrait drawing, and other extensions of the field.

Coming Full Circle
Tom Sloper, a game development consultant and president of , has seen both sides of the equation: the days when a one-man project was in vogue, and the rapid growth of video games that came during the 1990s and this decade.

"I had no clue I would work in Electronic Games," Sloper says. "I was always interested in Entertainment products. I majored in theater in college because I didn't know what else to major in."

Sloper moved to California early on because he wanted to be a model maker for movies. He worked as a toy developer until he pitched an idea one day to the president of Western Technologies. "The next thing I knew, I was a game designer,"says Sloper.

His initial experiences in game design consisted of creating games for LCD watches and calculators. Sloper later secured a job with Atari, the company that created the building blocks for classic home Entertainment systems such as the Atari 2600 and the Atari 7800.

During his dozen years working for Activision, Sloper saw game budgets and staff numbers grow exponentially. He now serves as a game development consultant-working more on an individual basis instead of being part of a massive team.

To those who want to find a place in the industry, Sloper cautions that the game arena is a place where actions speak much louder than words. "Saying you're interested in the field is nothing," Sloper says. "Go to college and get a four-year degree if you can. It's possible to get a job without a degree, but it's that much harder because you have to build a portfolio and a body of work that will get you hired."

Baldwin made a similar assessment of the Video Game field, adding that new kids on the block need to realize that video games' all-ages allure creates heavy competition for coveted jobs.

"The game industry is a sexy industry, the same way the movie industry is sexy," Baldwin says. "Because of that, there are a huge number of people trying to get in. You have to do everything you can to compete."