Game Design (Really a useless career?)

[quina123]

What do you guys think of game design? would you think its useless, or even too competitive to get into?
I myself love video games, but my passion comes from level building and designing. I've always loved to do that, and I was thinking of going in for game design. But people (including my father) has always told that its useless and a waste of time. blah. I doubted it for years, but now its time to see what others think of it?

So what do you think about Game Design?

 

[mmntech]

It's like any other job in the media industry. You're lucky if you get regular, salaried work. Most of it is on contract from what I've heard. Also seems to be a fairly competitive job market, so there's no guarantees you'll always be able to find work. Not unless you're some sort of prodigy.

Game marketing is where the money is these days. For a lot of these triple A gaming companies, the marketing budget can be almost as much as the development budget. Sometimes more. I always see tons of jobs for people like marketing coordinators and communications specialists. One way to work inside the industry.

 

[purbeast0]

with mobile developing being so easy to do indie wise, i wouldn't say it is a waste of time. but as mentioned, you have to have someone to market your work to get it to stand out in the billions of games out there.

 

[John Connor]

I bet it's like IT. Have to take a no pay internship to build up "experience" just to get your damn foot in the door.

I think phone app game design might be more lucrative. I mean you see this shit advertised on TV all the time. "Download youramoron Saga today!" And then the stupid people play this crap and pay for perks. Just like Facehell, in order to get up in the damn game you either play for 8 hours all day, every day or you buy shit. Truly pathetic. There was a time where you earned those perks. Now the MOFO with the most money can have a higher XP.

Gaming has gone to shit for me personally. I played BF3 a few times and kept getting my ass shot despite me point blank shooting them. Guy I know told me it must have been their perks or some shit. IDK, but I uninstalled that crap. Don't even remember that crappy Origin username and password anymore. And that's another thing. What kind of ass backwards way is it to launch a game in a browser?

Anyway... I love BF2 still and have been modding levels in there with the BF2 editor. And I love the AIX mod. Really, out of all the BF2 mods I like AIX the most. But my main game is plain old FS2004 that weighs in at around 55 GB now. LOL

 

[mmntech]

Gaming has gone to shit for me personally. I played BF3 a few times and kept getting my ass shot despite me point blank shooting them. Guy I know told me it must have been their perks or some shit. IDK, but I uninstalled that crap. Don't even remember that crappy Origin username and password anymore. And that's another thing. What kind of ass backwards way is it to launch a game in a browser?

Gaming has gone the way of movies and music. There's still good stuff out there, but it's not being made for the mainstream. Big studios don't want to invest in risky ventures, which means the same watered down crap year after year. Now they try to nickel and dime you at every corner with "microtransactions". What Jim Stirling calls "fee-to-pay". Mobile is mostly a desolate wasteland of exploitative garbage these days.

This is why I've moved away from consoles and back to PC again. Pick up the halfway decent garbage cheap on sale, plus there's a plethora of good indie stuff on the platform.

 

[1sikbITCH]

Seems like a skill-set like that could be pretty adaptable or transferable in the future even after you are too old or burned out to design games anymore. VR, movies, tech that hasn't even been invented yet... I could think of worse trades to pursue.

 

[1sikbITCH]

It's like any other job in the media industry. You're lucky if you get regular, salaried work. Most of it is on contract from what I've heard. Also seems to be a fairly competitive job market, so there's no guarantees you'll always be able to find work. Not unless you're some sort of prodigy.

Well then there's that. Gotta be able to get a job in the first place

 

[Markbnj]

From my perspective being a game designer is like being a writer on a television show, and being a hit game designer is like being a writer on a hit television show.

 

[mmntech]

Seems like a skill-set like that could be pretty adaptable or transferable in the future even after you are too old or burned out to design games anymore. VR, movies, tech that hasn't even been invented yet... I could think of worse trades to pursue.

Probably be better go get into programming would it not? App developers seem to be in demand right now.

 

[bbhaag]

If ya got the know how, passion, and perseverance it ain't worthless. It's up to you not your father or anyone else.

 

[Imp]

I dreamed about it as a kid... It's probably not a fun job with you spending days/weeks trying to get a stupid animation to work properly or balancing the game out.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Too many talented people in the modding community willing to do the work for free or peanuts. Impossible to find a job unless you, well, you know. With the couch in the break room and the camera. Best case, you'll just be another lowball-salaried 20-something working 70+ hours a week for a manager who expects you to be grateful for the punishment.

Go into software development and learn how AI works. You might end up programming games. Or Skynet. Or a learning firewall. It's all money in the bank.

 

[John Connor]

I already have a learning firewall that uses honeypots to study intrusions. It's patented and I'm going to sell it to the CIA for.... 100 billion dollars. :twisted:

 

[Sonikku]

From my perspective being a game designer is like being a writer on a television show, and being a hit game designer is like being a writer on a hit television show.

You'd probably be better off being a writer for the tv show. At least that segment of entertainment has a shred of unions. In gaming you work until you drop, then work some more. Surrender any notion of having a wife, kid or family life. A hobby is seriously pushing it. 80-100 hours a week, your ass is theirs.

 

[TheSiege]

My buddy went here
https://www.smu.edu/guildhall

Has worked for iD and now works for 343 and has always had work. But he is really talented too.

 

[quina123]

very good 411! I see the pros and cons of it. but damn, its such a huge passion for me. That I say, I would do it. Now are that I may be working 70+ for 20/hr (possible) 35%, working till my eyes bleed (like I ain't already doing that!

@Imp, really? it never takes days or weeks to get an animation to work. nor are animations stupid. it usually can take well just (for me) a couple hours. No lie.

Not sure what you mean by "balancing a game", but that may take longer.

so this is true for the game designers that work on the upcoming games coming this year.

 

[Imp]

very good 411! I see the pros and cons of it. but damn, its such a huge passion for me. That I say, I would do it. Now are that I may be working 70+ for 20/hr (possible) 35%, working till my eyes bleed (like I ain't already doing that!

@Imp, really? it never takes days or weeks to get an animation to work. nor are animations stupid. it usually can take well just (for me) a couple hours. No lie.

Not sure what you mean by "balancing a game", but that may take longer.

so this is true for the game designers that work on the upcoming games coming this year.

Maybe not animations, but I've spent a lot of time on simple programs or just spreadsheets looking for syntax or logic errors. The point was that you'd probably end up spending a lot of time fixing bugs.

I play a lot of Company of Heroes 2. It's been out for something like 2 years and they still seem to rebalance units/abilities every few months. Same with Diablo 2 and 3 I used to play. That's a lot of QA testing, feedback, retesting, feedback, release, feedback, retesting.

 

[Dr. Zaus]

I think that being well educated, particularly in philosophy, helps you in anything you want to do.

If you want to be a game designer then major in philosophy and get a minor in music theory.


Actually, no matter what you want to do, do what I just said.

Then get an applicable terminal degree.


Unless your family is poor and you need a job that pays well so that you can rise your family out of the muck of poverty. In that case, take 150hours worth of accounting and become a CPA.

 

[Hugo Drax]

Game design sounds like one of those liberal arts jobs where you intern for 10 years fetching coffee for no pay, then your big break 10 years later is an 8 dollar a job making photocopies of game maps.

 

[quina123]

damn! its really that bad? that would really be the end result? I wonder if they tell you this during the course of your work.

Was thinking about going to Full Sail University for game design, but too many people make it seem horrible. Problem for me is, I really don't have another passion.
I mean, I don't want to try and go for something I have passion for, nevermind interested in. things like that never end good. And... you end up with an unwanted loan.

 

[DougK62]

Go for it. If you work your ass off and put together a great skill set, with a nice portfolio, and internship experience then you will find a good job. If you don't want to put in all that work then consider a different career path.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

damn! its really that bad? that would really be the end result? I wonder if they tell you this during the course of your work.

Was thinking about going to Full Sail University for game design, but too many people make it seem horrible. Problem for me is, I really don't have another passion.
I mean, I don't want to try and go for something I have passion for, nevermind interested in. things like that never end good. And... you end up with an unwanted loan.

If it's your passion then do it.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

damn! its really that bad? that would really be the end result? I wonder if they tell you this during the course of your work.

Was thinking about going to Full Sail University for game design, but too many people make it seem horrible. Problem for me is, I really don't have another passion.

Full Sail? No. Just... no. Those "Game Design" degrees are a scam.

I mean, I don't want to try and go for something I have passion for, nevermind interested in. things like that never end good. And... you end up with an unwanted loan.

Go somewhere reputable. A nice state school, maybe that will let you transfer credits from a community college. You'll save a lot of money that way.

You'll probably have to major in something boring, like art with a minor in computer science, or visa versa. Any time you have a project to do, try to combine the two interests. Computer graphics is kind of its own separate discipline, but not all universities will have a separate program for it. (It may be listed as a "concentration" or something, but you might just have to invent your own major - depends on how stodgy the department is.)

Also, take every math class you can.

Talk to a university advisor, and ask if there are any students or former students* you can contact for their impressions of the program, job placement, etc.

*(This is something that for-profits will actively discourage you from doing. Because they have something to hide.)

I don't work in game design, but I do work in software development, and I can reassure you that we actively recruit our (paid) interns from the larger state schools that we have an ongoing relationship with, not the for-profit degree mills.

 

[ultimatebob]

Yeah, I'd get a CS degree with a minor in art.

Even if the game design thing doesn't pan out, at least you have a skill to fall back on for a few years. Don't make a career out of programming, though, since everyone is busy outsourcing all of the coding jobs to somewhere you probably don't live.

That said, I'm going to give you the same advice I gave the guy who was looking into getting into mobile app development. Take a free game development course from Coursera, and make sure that this is something you actually enjoy before spending real money on it.

 

[Midwayman]

Game design is kinda like going to school expecting to come out a NBA player or something. Sure it happens for a very small set of people, but its really up to you to make it work. Its not enough to be good. You have to have drive. If you love it, give it a shot. However understand that it has a very high chance of being a hobby degree. That you will effectively be able to check the "has college degree" box. Make sure your school is accredited. A lot of art/game schools don't really bother.

Worked for Dynamix and Midway Games for ~15 years, So have been down that road. Animator though.