So I’ve been teaching Game UI Design since the 2020 lockdowns, but always been a charming side-hustle at best. 2023 is the first time since starting where I have enough registrants that I had to have a waiting list, and that means line after line of data to root through! If you’re not a statistics nerd, that’s where the real gold is: inferences and implications.

But more than anything, it allows all of you a glimpse into people… well… just like you. Part of what make entering a new field so grueling is the silence. Nobody is helping, nobody is commenting, and nobody is reminding you this is tough and everybody’s going through it. My hope is that by revealing the qualitative and quantitive data (but not the actual quotes to make my Mentorship feel like a safe place where you can speak your mind!) other Mentees and Designers will feel not quite so alone out there.

Besides, it’s fascinating data that some of you might be able to use!

2023 was a wild year, and I registered enough students to process some real data and get some real insights!

Basic 2023 UI Game Design Mentorship Statistics

Sample size: 52 Registrants

Age: early 20s to mid 40s

Gender: 3 Women register for every 2 Men

Top 3 Countries People Register From: USA, UK, Spain

All Countries Represented: USA, Canada, UK, Spain, France, Italy, Nigeria, Chile, Columbia, Israel, Portugal

Most Popular Current Job Title: UI/UX Designer (web & app) and Product Designer

Other Professions Represented: UX Researcher, Animator, Motion Designer, Graphic Designer, Baker, Shipper, Teacher

Registrants with a Portfolio of any kind: 34% (😨)

Institutions Students Attend before coming to me

Coursera, Interaction Design Foundations Master Classes, Springboard, General Assembly, DesignLab, Elevtr, Avocademy, uDemy, Game Jams, Youtube

Weird Clicking Noises

Nearly 40% of Registrants felt aimless in their lives until they thought of Design and then it all “clicked” for them. The majority of people experience this revelation as a slow burn; the result of remaining stagnant in an unfulfilling job – sometimes for decades. But this insight can also come or after a major life change – often layoffs (5) but sometimes loss (1).

Here there be Portfolios

There is a universal sense of confusion and seething frustration when making a Game UI Portfolio. As mentioned in an earlier post, only 36%(!) of Registrants even have a Portfolio of any kind, let alone game related. Building a competitive Portfolio is hard enough, but it sounds like, from your perspective: you’re sailing on the open ocean on a starless night… you wouldn’t know where to go even if you could get there.

Solar Eclipse levels of Shade

And a chief reason I won’t directly quote from the questionnaire is because some of y’all are very angry and resentful of the previous Bootcamps and Cohorts you have taken. ~25% of Registrants write they felt they weren’t prepared for the day-to-day practicalities of a real Game UI job, or that they felt lost in a crowd without feeling present and seen. I’ve even seen some prospective students take to LinkedIn to call out previous institutions by name(!) with dozens of responses in the thread citing similar experiences(!!)

Stranger in a Strange Land

Of the people who live outside of America, Canada, and the UK – aboutish 33% of Registrants feel a huge gulf in their opportunities to learn and enter the Western-centric game Industry. This Game Design Iron Curtain that surrounds the West is largely invisible to those living inside of it, and unnervingly tall when viewed from outside.

Love Language

The word Love is used by 14 separate people.

Passion by 8.

Dream by 4.

Conclusion

2023 was eye-opening for the Industry and for me as well. I had no idea the international UI Game scene was so large or so desperate for education. I didn’t realize that people are specifically looking for Game UI Design, and are settling in on boring-old Web and App instruction (which will not help them compete in the slightest). There’s so much I didn’t know before, and I’m barely scratching the surface with this data. So here’s to 2024… and hopefully double the data!