Is becoming a game designer a realistic goal?

[nboy22]

I was always under the impression that game design colleges/majors were a joke. The jobs I see at my university for game companies are for computer science and physics majors.

I wouldn't say they are a joke. I would say that the schools just cannot offer too much training in classes because they are so short (1-2 hours per class period, 2 times a week at most).

I went to a gaming school called UAT in Tempe, AZ. A lot of kids there have no discipline and they play MMO games all day in the commons, blowing away their parents' money. My take on it is that not enough students are that "into" what they do. Most students do not put much effort into it, glide through school, and then end up wondering why they don't have a job.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

I can't imagine being a game designer. All the people in my school are always under massive amounts of stress from making a game every week, the massive amounts of code they have to go through. Also from what I've seen from making of videos, it gets worse.

Unless you REALLY have a passion for coding, or doing art, and making very very little money in the process, I wouldn't recommend it.

Also he is 13, now is not really the time to be thinking about this. I must have changed my mind about 4 times from 15-16 about what I wanted to study. Just because he LOVES playing video games, does NOT mean he'l enjoy making them

 

[disappoint]

Great site for the up and coming game developer with an emphasis (and sample code) on programming:

http://nehe.gamedev.net/

While they have tutorials and basecode in a lot of languages including Visual Basic, I recommend using the C++ code instead.

 

[DrPizza]

He's really laid back. He does his homework but doesn't really study. So far, that hasn't stopped him from getting good grades.

He wanted a new sound card, and told him I wouldn't buy him one unless he read four classics this summer.

I'm a teacher. I've known hundreds of students. Students who get good grades without having to study often struggle for a while when they get to college. Unlike other students who have had to study to get good grades, many "smart" kids have zero study skills. It's important to make sure that he's challenged now, so that he DOES develop good study skills & so that he can also work on organizational skills.

 

[lxskllr]

Would working with the tools game companies provide be of any use? It might give him an idea if he's really into it or not.

 

[Newbian]

So silly question but how does your son get out of HS at 16 when he only has a 3.75 gpa?

It's one thing if the kid is a genius, another if he has just decent grades that it sounds like.

 

[0roo0roo]

Can he code a fun game? Knowing how to play a game is like knowing how to watch a movie. The number of game designers is a tiny fraction of the job market. Coding/working on the game engine and such types of jobs are more likely. Being able to tell a story/create fun is not something you can just walk into doing.

 

[TridenT]

Jeez, you sure do like doing all the work for your kid! Can your child not do this by himself if he is so competent?

 

[zerocool84]

Anything that involves coding on a computer for someone else is guaranteed to involve all nighters all the time and tons of stress to meet deadlines especially if you're going to work for a large corporation.

 

[PhineasJWhoopee]

I'm a teacher. I've known hundreds of students. Students who get good grades without having to study often struggle for a while when they get to college. Unlike other students who have had to study to get good grades, many "smart" kids have zero study skills. It's important to make sure that he's challenged now, so that he DOES develop good study skills & so that he can also work on organizational skills.

He was already a younger student (his birthday is in later Sept) and he skipped 8th. He took two math classes (algebra and geometry) to get caught up with the advanced students in his peer group and had no study halls.

He does a lot of work in school (he finishes his in-class work quickly and then works on his homework) so he rarely bring work home. He's just not the kind of kid that will study for tests for long periods of time.

He watch some of the usual comedy junk on TV but will also watch science and history channels.

 

[HydroSqueegee]

figure out if you even like to program first, then get aspirations for game development. If you like to code, then get a day job doing that and develop your own games by night. Its the only way to actually do what you want. People still have to code for all the shit games out there and the odds of getting on at a good studio is slim. Those My Pretty Princess games arnt gonna make themselves.

 

[HydroSqueegee]

He was already a younger student (his birthday is in later Sept) and he skipped 8th. He took two math classes (algebra and geometry) to get caught up with the advanced students in his peer group and had no study halls.

He does a lot of work in school (he finishes his in-class work quickly and then works on his homework) so he rarely bring work home. He's just not the kind of kid that will study for tests for long periods of time.

He watch some of the usual comedy junk on TV but will also watch science and history channels.

The key is to introduce him to the things that will let him attain his goal. Get him into programming, thats the first step, and it will make or break his dream. And the sooner he starts, the better he will be. Lots of time now while hes young to mess around.

 

[yllus]

He could literally get started today on writing his first game for the Xbox 360 using the XNA Studio software released freely by Microsoft:

http://creators.xna.com/en-US/create_detail

After certification, his game can actually be downloaded and purchased on an Xbox 360.

 

[Cogman]

He was already a younger student (his birthday is in later Sept) and he skipped 8th. He took two math classes (algebra and geometry) to get caught up with the advanced students in his peer group and had no study halls.

He does a lot of work in school (he finishes his in-class work quickly and then works on his homework) so he rarely bring work home. He's just not the kind of kid that will study for tests for long periods of time.

He watch some of the usual comedy junk on TV but will also watch science and history channels.

Look, I was just like him. All of high school was a breeze for me, I rarely had any homework because I could literally finish everything in class. That doesn't make for good study skills.

Even now, I struggle to force myself to just sit down and study. I still am able to learn things in short periods of time, but the actual act of studying takes a lot of effort. (heck, I glided through most of college in the not-study mode)

Watching TV doesn't count. Get him some advanced literature and force him to study it. He'll thank you for it later. Don't let the ability to get things fast rob him of the ability to study.

 

[tatteredpotato]

I'm a teacher. I've known hundreds of students. Students who get good grades without having to study often struggle for a while when they get to college. Unlike other students who have had to study to get good grades, many "smart" kids have zero study skills. It's important to make sure that he's challenged now, so that he DOES develop good study skills & so that he can also work on organizational skills.

This can be true, I was one of those "doesn't do work in HS, get's a decent 3.7ish GPA" kinda guys, but when I got to college and actually started studying what I wanted I put more work into it. It wasn't even like it was work either, it was just what I wanted to do to learn the stuff.

He could literally get started today on writing his first game for the Xbox 360 using the XNA Studio software released freely by Microsoft:

http://creators.xna.com/en-US/create_detail

After certification, his game can actually be downloaded and purchased on an Xbox 360.

Buy him the book "Head First C#" and let him get used to programming. If he can't focus on non-game programming he's going to have trouble in school. After he knows some C#, he can start playing with XNA (it's free).


Also, you say he want's to do game "design", which can be quite different from what we all assume you meant (game programmer). Game designers focus more on the gameplay aspects of games while programmers work on implementing those gameplay mechanics. At small companies you'll see overlap but the larger companies are going to keep these separate. Game programming is probably safer as you have lots of other well-paying jobs to fall back on if you know how to program well, while you don't have much to fall back to with game design.

 

[Delita]

Look, I was just like him. All of high school was a breeze for me, I rarely had any homework because I could literally finish everything in class. That doesn't make for good study skills.

Even now, I struggle to force myself to just sit down and study. I still am able to learn things in short periods of time, but the actual act of studying takes a lot of effort. (heck, I glided through most of college in the not-study mode)

Watching TV doesn't count. Get him some advanced literature and force him to study it. He'll thank you for it later. Don't let the ability to get things fast rob him of the ability to study.

Pretty similar for me. I did absolutely nothing in HS and when college came around I figured I could just do the same. Didn't work out as well. Took me a little while to find what worked best for me. I still have problems forcing myself to sit down and study and usually have to seclude myself from everything in situations where I have to.

 

[Gibson486]

I want my son to study CompSci/EE and if he's still interested, get a graduate degree in game design from USC or a school like that.

Trust me, once he is done with EE or CS, he will not want to touch game design.

 

[Gibson486]

Look, I was just like him. All of high school was a breeze for me, I rarely had any homework because I could literally finish everything in class. That doesn't make for good study skills.

Even now, I struggle to force myself to just sit down and study. I still am able to learn things in short periods of time, but the actual act of studying takes a lot of effort. (heck, I glided through most of college in the not-study mode)

Watching TV doesn't count. Get him some advanced literature and force him to study it. He'll thank you for it later. Don't let the ability to get things fast rob him of the ability to study.

yup, same here. I breezed through high school after freshman year. I only studied for my history class because i never remembered jack. Everything else was too easy. Come college, yeah, after freshman year, that crap did not fly anymore. I had one semester where I got nothing but C's and D's. O barely got a 3.0 when i finished. NOw I am in the work world....I need to study for my FE exam. Yeah, it has not gone so well.

 

[Gibson486]

I can't imagine being a game designer. All the people in my school are always under massive amounts of stress from making a game every week, the massive amounts of code they have to go through. Also from what I've seen from making of videos, it gets worse.

Unless you REALLY have a passion for coding, or doing art, and making very very little money in the process, I wouldn't recommend it.

Also he is 13, now is not really the time to be thinking about this. I must have changed my mind about 4 times from 15-16 about what I wanted to study. Just because he LOVES playing video games, does NOT mean he'l enjoy making them

Yup, that is what I am telling my gf's little brother. He wants to go to this school in FL where it specializes in game design. He loves video games. HE asked for my advice...I told him not to do it because if he ends up not liking it, he will be restricted in the careers he wants to pursue. I told him to go to a university and take CS. If he does not like it, then he will definitely not like game design. If he likes CS, he can take on game design from there, but if he does not like game design, he has a bunch of other career paths he can take.

 

[PricklyPete]

What he does out of school will matter as much as what he does in school. The beauty of programming and game design is there are a TON of resources to get started outside of school.

A lot of people want to become game designers, but don't have the drive to make it happen.

Finally, don't go into game design if you want normal working hours and a lot of money. Few people make it big in games and even fewer have normal working hours.

 

[Anubis]

Yup, that is what I am telling my gf's little brother. He wants to go to this school in FL where it specializes in game design. He loves video games. HE asked for my advice...I told him not to do it because if he ends up not liking it, he will be restricted in the careers he wants to pursue. I told him to go to a university and take CS. If he does not like it, then he will definitely not like game design. If he likes CS, he can take on game design from there, but if he does not like game design, he has a bunch of other career paths he can take.

Im assuming the school in Florida is Full Sail

talk to my brother (glitchny) about it, he graduated a few years ago from it. however it was my brothers 2nd BS he majored in English and minored in CS before going there. He does game programming for Casino games currently

 

[brandonb]

I'd say its not a realistic goal. Most game companies require experience, and shipped games before you can even get to someones desk, usually 2 or 3. The only way to really get into the field is to do something on your own, have it be popular, then get hired. Going the modder route... Like create a mod for an existing game that is actually popular, you might get hired by the company for the next project to get your feet in the door. If he goes to school, yet doesn't do something on his own, he will never get into the industry, ever...

I tried for years (maybe about 12 years) sending resumes, small demos, to just about every company I could think of and never got anywhere. Ever... Never a contact, or a response of "Thank you for sending us your info."

The closest I've been was through word of mouth on gaming forums actually talked to a few developers... I was able to get an interview at a company that made flight simulators, and they interviewed me as a programmer, and while I was there tried to convince me to make missions instead for their game, but were offering less than $30k a year when I was already making $60k a year in the business world. I declined. (I should have accepted if I wanted to get into the industry but hindsight is 20/20)

On the same forum another company contacted me, and wanted me to help them for free! Saying "Once we ship, and make money on this project, then we can hire you for money for the project after."

Yeah right...

 

[purbeast0]

I'm a teacher. I've known hundreds of students. Students who get good grades without having to study often struggle for a while when they get to college. Unlike other students who have had to study to get good grades, many "smart" kids have zero study skills. It's important to make sure that he's challenged now, so that he DOES develop good study skills & so that he can also work on organizational skills.

honestly that is how I was. i got through highschool w/out having to really study, and when i hit college it was a huge wakeup. i almost wanted to drop out after doing very bad my first year.

that said i was a CS major and pulled through. i too got into CS because i loved games and wanted to make them.

as i went through school i quickly learned that making games is a very very difficult task. i also learned that it requires a lot of math knowledge and advanced math due to all of the graphics transformations, especially with the 3d stuff in games now. but you said he is good in math.

i also learned that making games was a very very competitive industry, and that i would not even have any chance of taking one of these classes until my later years in college.

my 4th year in college (took me 5 to graduate) i took an openGL course. i actually did enjoy it somewhat. but in this course i also learned more abuot the competitiveness of the industry, where the jobs are located, and how little the pay is compared to other industries.

with all that said i decided not to pursue that route. i just figured i'd do some other type of software development.

part of the reason i got into CS as well was for the pay, and I did not want to be making little pay with stressful days doing game design. sure it may be rewarding, but i also love to game and would rather spend my time plaing games than making them.

 

[tatteredpotato]

honestly that is how I was. i got through highschool w/out having to really study, and when i hit college it was a huge wakeup. i almost wanted to drop out after doing very bad my first year.

that said i was a CS major and pulled through. i too got into CS because i loved games and wanted to make them.

as i went through school i quickly learned that making games is a very very difficult task. i also learned that it requires a lot of math knowledge and advanced math due to all of the graphics transformations, especially with the 3d stuff in games now. but you said he is good in math.

i also learned that making games was a very very competitive industry, and that i would not even have any chance of taking one of these classes until my later years in college.

my 4th year in college (took me 5 to graduate) i took an openGL course. i actually did enjoy it somewhat. but in this course i also learned more abuot the competitiveness of the industry, where the jobs are located, and how little the pay is compared to other industries.

with all that said i decided not to pursue that route. i just figured i'd do some other type of software development.

part of the reason i got into CS as well was for the pay, and I did not want to be making little pay with stressful days doing game design. sure it may be rewarding, but i also love to game and would rather spend my time plaing games than making them.

But the nice thing about getting a generic CS degree as opposed to a specific game development degree is that you could make that choice after you graduated. It's much more flexible if you stay more general, but if you really want to do it, you're not going to be as competitive as someone with a specialized degree.

People change what they want to do as they learn more about it, I think it's best to get a more broad undergraduate degree and specialize at the graduate level once you have a better idea of your interests.

 

[purbeast0]

But the nice thing about getting a generic CS degree as opposed to a specific game development degree is that you could make that choice after you graduated. It's much more flexible if you stay more general, but if you really want to do it, you're not going to be as competitive as someone with a specialized degree.

People change what they want to do as they learn more about it, I think it's best to get a more broad undergraduate degree and specialize at the graduate level once you have a better idea of your interests.

yea that is a good point, and after you graduate with the degree and have your skills, it would be a lot easier to pick up game development on your spare time since you have the understanding of how everything works.

i've written my own android and iPhone apps which I didn't try until I was 5 years out of school and in the software industry, and I created them all on my own with know knowledge of how it worked.

i honestly don't think i could have done that while I was in school, or hell not even a year or so out of school. you learn a lot when you are working in the industry and see how things actually work.