Game design is the discipline most people want to join and the one least understood from outside. This guide explains the different kinds of designer, how a design career progresses from junior to director, what design tests ask for, and the tools working designers use every day.
What designers actually do
A game designer is not the person who has the ideas. Everyone on a team has ideas. A designer is responsible for turning goals into specific, testable rules and content, communicating them clearly, building them (often directly in the engine), watching players use them and iterating until they work.
Most of a designer's week is spent on unglamorous work: tuning numbers, writing and updating documentation, scripting events, fixing broken encounters, sitting in playtests, and negotiating with programmers, artists and producers about what is achievable. If that sounds appealing, design may suit you. If you mainly want to decide what a game is about, that is a director-level job reached after many years of the work above.
Types of designer
Large studios split design into specialisms; smaller ones combine them. Job titles vary, so read the description rather than relying on the title alone.
Systems designer
Systems designers create the rules that interact to produce play: progression, crafting, loot, stats, abilities, AI behaviour parameters. They live in spreadsheets, think in terms of feedback loops and edge cases, and need to explain abstract structures to the rest of the team.
Level designer
Level designers build the spaces players move through: layout, pacing, sightlines, encounter placement, scripting and guidance. They usually work directly in the engine, blocking out levels with simple geometry before art passes, and collaborate closely with environment artists. In open-world games the role may be split into world, mission or quest design.
Combat designer
Combat designers own the moment-to-moment feel of fighting: player moves, enemy behaviours, hit reactions, timing windows and difficulty. They work tightly with animators and gameplay programmers, and need a sharp eye for frame-level detail.
Economy designer
Economy designers balance currencies, rewards, prices and sinks, particularly in free-to-play and live-service games. The role leans on data analysis and modelling, and economy designers often work alongside data analysts and product managers. Ethical judgement matters here, as does knowledge of UK rules on things such as paid loot boxes and advertising to children.
Narrative designer
Narrative designers decide how story is delivered through play: dialogue systems, branching, environmental storytelling, quest structure and barks. The role overlaps with writing, but narrative designers are often more concerned with structure and implementation than prose. Some studios hire writers separately.
UX designer
UX designers focus on how players understand and use the game: menus, onboarding, HUD, accessibility options and information flow. They work with UI artists and user researchers, use wireframes and prototypes, and test with real players.
Technical designer
Technical designers sit between design and programming. They script complex behaviour, build tools and templates for other designers, and prototype features in Blueprints or script before programmers harden them. It is a strong route for people who enjoy both disciplines, and technical designers are often in demand.
Progression: from junior designer to design director
| Level | Typical responsibilities |
|---|---|
| Junior designer | Implements and tunes content to a spec: placing encounters, scripting events, balancing a set of items. Learns the tools and the team's way of working. |
| Designer | Owns a feature, level or set of content from documentation through to polish. Runs their own playtests and iterates. |
| Senior designer | Owns larger systems or major parts of the game, makes design decisions with less oversight and mentors juniors. |
| Lead designer | Leads a design team or strand of the game, sets priorities, reviews others' work and represents design in planning. |
| Principal designer | A senior individual-contributor path at some studios, owning the hardest design problems without managing people. |
| Design director or creative director | Holds the overall vision for a game, makes final calls on what the game is and keeps every discipline aligned with it. |
Many designers do not start as designers. QA testers who analyse levels well, artists who start scripting, and programmers who care about feel all move into design. Our guide to breaking in through QA covers that route, and games job titles explained compares how studios label these levels.
Design tests
Design tests are common, often set before an interview, and they are where many applicants fall down. Typical formats include:
- Feature design. "Design a new traversal mechanic for our game" or "design a progression system for a mobile puzzler". You write a short document covering goals, rules, edge cases and how you would test it.
- Level design. A top-down map or engine blockout for a given brief, with annotations explaining intent.
- Analysis. Critique a feature in one of the studio's games, or in a well-known game, and suggest improvements.
- Balancing. A spreadsheet task, such as balancing a set of weapons or an economy against stated targets.
- Implementation. Build a small mechanic or encounter in Unreal, Unity or the studio's tools.
How to do well
- Answer the brief. If it asks for one mechanic, deliver one mechanic, fully thought through. Ten loosely sketched ideas suggest you cannot prioritise.
- Start with goals. State what the feature is for (the player experience, the business goal, the constraint) before describing how it works.
- Respect the studio's game. Your design should fit their audience, platform, genre and tone. Proposing a full open world for a small mobile game shows poor judgement.
- Consider scope. Say what it would cost to build and what you would cut first. Designers who think about production are easier to work with.
- Cover edge cases. What happens if the player does the unexpected? Multiplayer? Accessibility?
- Be concise. A tight, well-structured few pages with diagrams beats a long essay.
- Explain how you would test it. What would you measure or watch for in a playtest?
Documenting designs
The days of a single, enormous game design document that nobody reads are largely gone. Most studios now use shorter living documents, usually on an internal wiki, updated as the design changes.
Formats you will use
- One-pagers. A single page pitching a feature: goal, core rules, player experience, risks. Good for getting early agreement.
- Feature specifications. Detailed rules, states, parameters, UI requirements and edge cases that programmers and artists build from.
- Level documents. Maps, beat charts showing pacing, encounter lists and asset requirements.
- Balance sheets. Spreadsheets holding tunable values, often exported directly into the game.
- Flowcharts and diagrams. For dialogue, state machines, UI flows and system interactions.
Writing good design documentation
- Write for the reader: a programmer needs rules and states, an artist needs visual requirements, a producer needs scope.
- Use headings, bullet points, tables and diagrams. Avoid long paragraphs.
- Separate what is decided from what is still open, and say who owns each open question.
- Keep it current. An out-of-date document is worse than none, because people build from it.
- Include examples ("at level 10 a player with this weapon deals...") so the abstract rules are easy to check.
Tools of the trade
Engine editors
Designers at most studios build directly in the engine. Familiarity with Unreal Engine and Unity editors is the single most useful technical skill a design applicant can have, because it means you can contribute from your first week. Studios with proprietary engines will train you on their tools but still value evidence that you can learn an editor quickly.
Scripting and Blueprints
Unreal's Blueprints visual scripting is used widely for gameplay prototypes, level events and designer-owned logic. Unity designers often work with C# scripts or visual scripting tools. Some engines use Lua or proprietary scripting languages. You do not need to be a programmer, but you should be able to build a working mechanic, read simple logic and debug your own scripts.
Spreadsheets
Excel and Google Sheets are essential, especially for systems and economy designers. Learn lookups, conditional formulas, charts and basic modelling. Being able to show how a damage curve or reward rate behaves across a whole game is a real differentiator.
Everything else
- Diagramming tools for flowcharts and level maps.
- Project tracking software such as Jira, used to manage tasks and bugs.
- Version control, often Perforce at larger studios.
- Narrative tools such as Twine or Ink for branching dialogue prototypes.
- Paper and pen. Many designers sketch layouts and systems by hand before touching the editor.
Building a design portfolio
A design portfolio has to make your thinking visible. Include playable work where possible, with short videos for reviewers who will not download anything, plus annotated maps, blockout to final comparisons, spreadsheets and short design documents. For each piece, explain the goal, your role, what playtesting changed and what you would do differently. Our portfolio guide covers design portfolios in more depth.
Do and don't
- Do finish small levels and mechanics to a polished standard.
- Do show evidence of iteration based on playtesting.
- Do analyse existing games in writing; it shows critical thinking.
- Don't lead with a long document for your dream game. Studios hire you to work on their game.
- Don't present ideas without any evidence of implementation.
Next steps
- Browse live game design jobs at UK studios.
- Looking for your first role? See graduate and junior vacancies and QA roles, a common route into design.
- Find studios making the kinds of games you want to design on the studios page or in the studio directory.
- Prepare your application with games CVs and cover letters and our guide to studio interviews.
- Search every live vacancy on the job board.