By Art Director John “The Wingless” Burnett. Industry leader in Game UI Education.
User Interface Game Design Course & Resource for public education.
Tags: Game Industry, Career Change, Game UI Artist
Introduction.
There’s never a bad time to talk Resumes. If you keep getting auto-rejected before Round 1, I can at least show you how I formatted my Resume for Game UI Design – but it works for UI/UX, Technical Art, and most Game Dev. I’ll also include some obscure tips you might not have thought about.
1 Time-zone.
Include your location & timezone in GMT. It’s vital for remote roles that both parties know what kind of time dilation they’ll be working with.
2 Vitals
Vitals, in bold, practically scream-yell what the Profile says in flowery terms. List your most explosive “Back of the box” selling points: experience, expertise, rarity – it’s the part where Worf says, “Son of Mogh, Slayer of Galron…”
3 Tech Stack
Tech Stack. Whether you’re human-led or Ai-driven, Studios need to know you use the same software they do. Try to create a “web” of related tools that show breadth and depth. For example, Photoshop plus Midjourney plus DaVinci shows somebody that could easily make high fidelity UI mockups all the way up to UX Wireframes on top of video of the game. No fluff, nobody is sitting up exclaiming, “Hold up, my boy knows Slack AND Trello?!?!”
High-Density ATS Keywords & Core Game Dev Toolchains
To clear modern studio tracking systems, a resume cannot rely on vague descriptions. It must be packed with the exact hard skills, engine frameworks, and pipeline terminology that recruitment algorithms actively scan for.
Studio Vitals & Core UI/UX Competencies
Production Experience: Shipped AAA/Indie Titles, Live-Ops Lifecycle, Cross-Platform Deployment (Console, PC, Mobile), Agile/Scrum Methodologies.
Interface Disciplines: Visual Hierarchy, Spatial Layout, Information Architecture, Interactive Prototyping, User Flow Mapping, Design Systems Maintenance.
UX & Technical Art Hard Skills: Ergonomics, Accessibility Compliance (CVAA/WCAG), HUD Optimization, Real-Time Telemetry Mapping, Feature Ownership, Cross-Functional Collaboration.
DCC Toolchains & Runtime Implementation Stacks
Runtime Game Engines: Unreal Engine 5 (UMG / Blueprints), Unity (UI Toolkit / uGUI), Proprietary Studio Middleware.
Design & Prototyping Software: Figma Component Libraries, Adobe Creative Cloud (Photoshop, Illustrator), DaVinci Resolve (Motion Prototyping), After Effects.
Version Control & Optimization: Perforce (P4V), Git/GitHub, Texture Atlasing, 9-Slice Sprite Scaling, Draw-Call Optimization, Vector Asset Export Pipelines.
READY TO LAUNCH YOUR GAME UI DESIGN CAREER?
TRUSTED LEADERSHIP . REAL EDUCATION . PERSONALIZED CLASSES . STRUCTURED SAFE SPACE
This isn’t a dream, this is Destiny. Join my exclusive one-on-one Mentorship Program in Game UI Design and truly aim for the stars. Seating is extremely limited to only 5 at a time.
4 Education
Education. In the digital space, this is largely performative, so I’ve left it small and humble (but I can still hail to the orange, hail to the blue)
5 Profile
Profile. The formal and expressive part of the resume where you as a real human address a real human. Tell them who you are, your expertise and experiences and how enthusiastic you are. This is also the only spot for warmth or comedy, so just remember brevity be the s-
6 Work Experience
Work Experience. In order: the place you worked, your title and when. The blurb for what you did should be svelte and precise. Skip the bizarrely corporate wording that only uses up critical space – studios care about Titles, Responsibilities and Challenges.
7 Links
Links. Easy access to your LinkedIn, portfolio and personal sites. Bonus points if these are clickable in your PDF, as the file might be thrown around to many people.
On Resume Page Length
Crucially, it should ONLY be one page… if you’re a Digital Artist. Getting all this information cleanly and concisely on one “screen” is literally what you’re supposed to do better than anyone – and your competency may be judged as harshly on how you present your Resume as much as the information therein. Furthermore, once you’re hired, all other challenges will dwarf this one – so square up.
I’ve used this format for a long time and I’ve never had an auto-rejection and it helps to organize my world in a neat, easily-scannable format. Hopefully, it’ll help you too! Good hunting out there.
Studio Profile Metrics & Core Experience Keywords
A resume for a digital artist is the ultimate test of their layout and information architecture skills. To bypass ATS parsing gates while showcasing structural thoroughness on a single page, embed these high-density keywords directly into your professional profile, project descriptions, and work experience blocks.
Profile Synopses & UI/UX Strategy Keywords
Core Methodologies: User Experience (UX) Architecture, Information Architecture (IA), Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Heuristic Evaluation, User Journey Mapping, Task Flow Optimization.
Design Frameworks: Atomic Design Systems, Spatial Layout Hierarchies, Visual Communication, Color Theory Mechanics, Typography Scales, Responsive Viewport Adaptation.
Leadership & Discovery: Technical UI Mentorship, Feature Ownership, Stakeholder Alignment, Creative Direction, Cross-Functional Syncs, Competitive Market Analysis.
Production Pipelines & Technical Implementation Keywords
Technical Art Integration: Runtime Implementation, Blueprint Scripting, Material Graph Optimization, Dynamic Widget State Logic, UI Animation, Motion Prototyping.
Asset Management: Texture Atlasing, 9-Slice Sprite Configurations, Vector Graphics Scaling, Screen Real Estate Budgeting, Memory Footprint Optimization, Draw-Call Reduction.
Studio Workflows: Agile/Scrum Frameworks, Jira Sprint Tracking, Perforce (P4V) Version Control, Git Pipelines, Localization (L10N) Compliance, Internationalization (I18N) Architecture.
Let’s Sum Up
Solve the Time Dilation: Clear the remote work hurdles immediately by slapping your location and exact GMT timezone right at the top of the viewport. Let distributed studios know exactly what hours they’re working with from minute one.
Scream Your Stats: Treat your bold vitals like the “back of the box” features on a classic game case. Front-load your heaviest, most explosive metrics—experience, specialized expertise, and industry rarity—before they even get to your text.
Weave a Connected Tool Stack: Don’t pad your software section with low-value administrative white noise like Slack or Trello. Group your primary execution programs into an interconnected pipeline web (like Photoshop + Midjourney + Figma) to instantly prove cross-functional capabilities.
Cut the Corporate Bloat: Keep your profile warm, humored, and ruthlessly brief. When structuring your history, drop the bizarre corporate jargon and focus purely on what game leads actually evaluate: Titles, Responsibilities, and Technical Challenges.
The Single-Screen UI Test: If you are a digital designer, your resume is the very first piece of interface architecture a studio will judge you on. If you cannot cleanly lay out your professional life onto one single page, you have failed your first UX design assignment. Square up.
Authority Resources & Industry Insights
To cross-reference your documentation architecture, bypass tracking bots, and analyze AAA hiring trends across the broader game development pipeline, audit your layout against these industry benchmarks:
- John Burnett’s Game UI Design Mentorship Program. The world’s only 1-on-1 Mentorship Program in Game UI Design and how to break into the Game Industry,.
Game Developer Career Insights – Study direct tactical retrospectives, hiring manager priorities, and portfolio reviews from veteran industry directors.
UX Collective Design Resume Codex – Review structural frameworks for maintaining strict information architecture, typographic scale, and data scannability on a single page.
The Game UI Database Layout Archive – Analyze shipped, highly functional AAA interface viewports to see how studio leads optimize visual real estate under tight technical constraints.
