After browsing "Help wanted" threads, I came to realise that it is incredibly hard to get into even indie industry as a game designer, since every person count there and most can offer several talents at once such as programming/design, or 3d/design etc. Which made me think that I do heavily lack other skills to offer atm than good game design, and would really appriciate feedback on what are my options to make me more viable as a game dev.
So I am looking into expanding my knowledge into diverse technologies I would need to know in order to efficiently communicate with the team and understanding how games work tech wise (such as networking, shaders, rendering technology, etc), since it feels that my studies of game design alone won't get me far to begin with. So to the question, what stuff would you suggest me to get into in order to become a more all-around asset when it comes to game developing which would improve my chances, keeping in mind that I am studying game design and probably won't be able to catch up to be an efficient enough "lead" programmer (..or am I wrong there)?

What I am looking for are basically "handles", or terms, I can continue googling on and finding courses/books on, since it feels a bit to vast of field to dig in by my self. Any tips are appriciated (with exception of Photoshop and Maya, already studying those, and considering picking Unity up)!

P.S. I would also appriciate other designers sharing thoughts on what are my options here. Please note that this is not quite a "Breaking in" thread, but "What more should I learn" one.. erm.. ok, I my self am a bit confused now.. ^^

I think as often as not game designers come from another track within the company, be it a programmer, artist or writer. This makes "how can I become a designer" a pretty damned difficult question to answer. I think you have as good an answer as you are going to get though with learning Unity. Nothing shows better than past work.

Now here's another catch, at the rank amateur level the thing a group needs LEAST is a designer, because everyone and their dog that starts out programming or doing art for a game generally want to create the game of their dreams. You don't have a lot of indy artists and programmers sitting around waiting for a design to implement.

So I guess what I'm saying is, if you want to be a professional game designer... become an artist or programmer.

Now here's another catch, at the rank amateur level the thing a group needs LEAST is a designer, because everyone and their dog that starts out programming or doing art for a game generally want to create the game of their dreams. You don't have a lot of indy artists and programmers sitting around waiting for a design to implement.
So I guess what I'm saying is, if you want to be a professional game designer... become an artist or programmer.

Heh, pretty much sums up what I was thinking, thanks for putting it so well! However path to a decent programmer is long to discover all by my self, so to be more specific with my question, what technologies should I start looking into to go hand in hand with Unity? Such as network solutions, rendering, etc.. (uneducated guessing there ftw!) in order to get me going on google crusade ^^

[quote name='Serapth' timestamp='1312490366' post='4844688']
Now here's another catch, at the rank amateur level the thing a group needs LEAST is a designer, because everyone and their dog that starts out programming or doing art for a game generally want to create the game of their dreams. You don't have a lot of indy artists and programmers sitting around waiting for a design to implement.
So I guess what I'm saying is, if you want to be a professional game designer... become an artist or programmer.

Heh, pretty much sums up what I was thinking, thanks for putting it so well! However path to a decent programmer is long to discover all by my self, so to be more specific with my question, what technologies should I start looking into to go hand in hand with Unity? Such as network solutions, rendering, etc.. (uneducated guessing there ftw!) in order to get me going on google crusade ^^
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Unity is pretty much all you will need, other than a program or two to create art for your game, in which case this list should help. As my sig shows, I am embarking ( very slowly so far ) to document the process of creating a game, from the very beginning, and Unity is the engine of choice. In my case, the software I am using preferring free software, is here. That is more than enough to get you going and completely free.

Please note that this is not quite a "Breaking in" thread, but "What more should I learn" one.. erm..

I disagree wholeheartedly. I'm moving this to Breaking In. Cron, scroll up and click the FAQs link, and READ. Please.

[quote name='Cronnix' timestamp='1312489705' post='4844680']Please note that this is not quite a "Breaking in" thread, but "What more should I learn" one.. erm..

I disagree wholeheartedly. I'm moving this to Breaking In. Cron, scroll up and click the FAQs link, and READ. Please.
[/quote]

Done so, I found the lesson #3 extremely helpful, and it was the reason for this post to begin with. As I said, I am merely asking tips for what technologies it would be useful for me to study as game designer, not how to break in or what education to pick. But as you say, thanks for moving the thread

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Unity is pretty much all you will need, other than a program or two to create art for your game, in which case this list should help. As my sig shows, I am embarking ( very slowly so far ) to document the process of creating a game, from the very beginning, and Unity is the engine of choice. In my case, the software I am using preferring free software, is here. That is more than enough to get you going and completely free.

[/font][font=arial, verdana, tahoma, sans-serif][size=2]Your blog looks like a gold mine, I'll be spending some time there ^^[/font]

As I said, I am merely asking tips for what technologies it would be useful for me to study as game designer

I don't know how I missed that. Read "The Tools of the [Design] Trade," then.

What you really want to ask is "what is a position where I am needed, secure and get paid?" There is no such position unless you are the CEO of that company. You want to be able to model, script, and finally market your own game. If you have good dreams of becoming the most needed position on a team, then be the leader. If you want to be the best artist, get in line. Same for script/programmer. There are so many people that you simply can be replaced very easy. My suggestion is learn them all, enough to know what you are looking for and talking about in team meetings.

The fast track into game design is to become a professional and published writer / author (can be any medium) and then apply again under that mantle.
I believe that there is a worldwide shortage in this arena, we have lots of good graphic designers, audio engineers, artists, animators and programmers (healthy competition), and I understand that authors are beginning to line up to fill the void, so its a good time to move if you are talented in this regard.