A day in the life
Hours
Most gaming studios hours are very flexible, with employees being able to choose when they work and do not have a strict clock in and out schedule, however they do have to keep in mind their workload, deadlines and times of large meetings. Separate from that, each department typically has subgroup meetings. This typically means, for example, a group of character designers group together to create additional plans regarding how a power decided by the game design team will affect the characters overall composition.
TLDR
- Game Development/Design workers often clock in later than typical office workers.
- You are expected to attend a multitude of meetings per day, however it is dependent on the day's workload.
“ I also have a lot of mini chats with different people over Teams to talk about small decisions that need clarity or something I missed designing when I worked on the screen the first time.”[1]
Workload
Typically, designers focus on putting together game levels and documentation (specifically for decisions of your or other teams in order to keep everything orderly and up to date.) Along with this, there are typically many play-tests once the first draft is established, which have testified to be weekly to bi-weekly depending on the progress of the developers.
Abilities required
- Document ideas and interactions, often including gameplay triggers and events related.
- Develop a story, dialogue and characters for use or concept.
- Conseptualize and create exciting gameplay implementations.
- create a comprehensive timeline of updates from each team in order to remain organized and on task.
sources
[1] J. W. Bay, “What is a typical day in the life of a video game developer?,” www.gameindustrycareerguide.com.(accessed Mar. 23, 2026).
[2] A. Wikström, “A Day in the Life of a Video Game UX Designer - working from home,” Medium, Apr. 25, 2022. (accessed Mar. 23, 2026).
[3] cgspectrum, “Game Designer Job Description, Salary, Skills & Software,” www.cgspectrum.com, 2024. (accessed Mar. 23, 2026).