Will experience get me a job better than a degree in the game's industry? - Developers

I was thinking about quiting college and just using the portfolio of games I made to get employed in a studio. Would that work? Just wanted to ask because this is a developer forum.

No one can answer this conclusively one way or the other, there's too many unknowns. Both certainly have value, especially if you're looking to get a development position. How close to being done with school are you? A degree will never hurt your prospects, so in general I suggest people suck it up and finish school. Yes there are plenty of people who get great jobs without degrees, and yes as a "passion" driven industry experience can sometimes go a long way, but there's no guarantee a company won't also see a guy with just a high school degree and go with the dude who ALSO has a portfolio but was able to finish school. If god forbid the whole game industry thing doesn't work out for you, a degree will help you get other jobs more easily as well, even ones that have little to do with what you studied. So my suggestion as someone with 5+ years in the industry, is to get a degree.

The degree will land you a lot more job interviews than just a self-built portfolio. It's a lot better to write it on a resume, it means you can stick with difficult long-term goals such as pursuing higher education. The grind is hard but the results pay for themselves. It's also applicable to a lot more programming jobs than just a game studio, life could take you to an office that needs a functioning website or to a small business that needs a good logistics keeping system for all you know. It's good to have options open in case things don't work out or you get burned out after a few years. If you become adamant about dropping out go for some programming certifications at the very least. If your college has a certification program go through those before leaving, it's a lot easier to have someone else control your schedule than trying to keep yourself studying between working and downtime.

Most jobs ask for a degree or relevant experience. Having both will make you incredibly attractive on a resume, and land you much higher on their list. Finish college and do as many projects as you can, so you can have both a degree and diverse portfolio to send as well.

As someone with a degree in the thing and who has never gotten remotely close to an interview related to it I will say that studying this stuff in college is mostly a waste of time Whether I got hosed by the department falling apart while I was in school or the general state of the industry when I graduated I can't really say, but I see it said more often than not that a good portfolio from someone who is self-taught is always preferable to a mediocre portfolio from someone with a BFA in game art/design This seems to be true for both programming and art, though I will say that a degree is a lot more powerful of a fallback for a programmer than it is for an artist. At least then non-games companies will be able to seek you out due to your ability to program, whereas artists are usually railroaded in school into specific disciplines and pipelines and therefore are only desirable to companies that use these same pipelines.

Short answer: It's definitely possible, but you will be fighting an uphill battle every time you're looking for a new job. Long answer: Having a degree (with a decent GPA), while not necessarily guaranteeing you a job right off the bat, is beneficial on your resume for several reasons. It demonstrates that you can be trained. A degree with a decent GPA shows that a candidate is able to learn any required skills and begin applying that information within a reasonable time frame. It shows that you're somewhat well rounded. Development work almost always involves other tasks besides coding, such as client interaction, documentation, interpersonal communication, etc. It provides insight into how you're able to deal with various day-to-day situations while pursuing a long-term goal. Ask any student, they will often have plenty to say about lots of crap happening on short notice, often with circumstances outside of their control. Is someone able to still get the job done regardless of having to deal with sudden circumstances, unreliable teammates, or unhelpful instructors? Common criticism of the modern job market is how virtually every decently paying position requires a degree or a previous training program, and that a degree is not a guarantee of a quality candidate, nor is absence of a degree a sign of a candidate not being able to do an amazing job. To some extent, this is all true. However, its important to remember that the hiring process very expensive in time and resources, and subsequently is quite risk-averse. It can take a long time and many thousands spent on finding just the right fit, but it can cost a lot more (with no benefit, I might add) if after the whole hiring and on-boarding process you find out that the new hire lacks basic behavioral skills, required technical skills, or is simply not a good fit for other reasons. A degree, especially one in a relevant field, will often result in the hiring manager willing to give you the benefit of the doubt. In a strictly mathematical sense, it adds value to your candidacy. That being said, it is entirely possible to succeed as a self-taught developer, but you will be facing a mountain of competition for entry-level positions and will find yourself frustrated looking for postings that require x years of relevant experience as an alternative to a degree. It will also make it very hard when you're looking to advance your career only to find far fewer alternative experience requirements as opposed to degree requirements. All of this largely applies to the software development field as a whole, but remember that the games industry is essentially a software development field that tends to be worse than average in the realms of hours, salary, and benefits, and with even higher competition. There were plenty of times that I felt frustrated in college, and considering alternatives when faced with an untenable situation. Looking back, I am happy that I chose to stick with it to the end. I am continuing a job search over the past few months and am pursuing several promising opportunities. Even with a degree the job search can be tough, but I have no doubts that I made the right choice in finishing my education. This is a personal anecdote, so take it with a grain or two of salt, but I can feel your pain regarding frustrations you may currently be putting up with. I don't know what OP's exact situation or circumstances are, but at the end of the day you will need to keep the following things in mind: How hard will it be to finish my curriculum? How much time have you invested in your degree so far? How hard will it be to find opportunities after you finish your degree? How much harder will it be to reliably teach myself the required content? How much harder will it be to stand out compared to similarly qualified candidates with relevant degrees? How much harder will it be to advance my career beyond my first job out of college? It all comes down to cost benefit analysis. Whatever you choose to do, OP, I hope everything works out well for you.

Depends. What's you strong side? Coding requires you to understand to use the same stuff the company uses to develop, you ask for the job. They'll not change this for you. If you can integrate your code into they tools, you good. On the artist side everything goes. It's basicly about how good your games look. If they like what you produced they'll consider it. It's that cheap.

Game development is very risky field, with extreme competition for stressful low-paying jobs. Make sure that you'll have a plan B.

I'm a half a year into college, I already finished 3 classes so far and I'm midway through completing 3 more classes.

You seem very confident about being able to earn money on the games you make, would you mind posting some of them. It's kinda hard telling you what roads would be possible with so little information.

This is my first game: https://store.steampowered.com/app/905890/MONOWARS_Red_Zone/ This is the next one I'm working on, It's far from finished but it will be a masterpiece when its done. It's a remake for my first game. https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/412472/1cbb8440-4061-4b3c-91ed-93c56d33e82e/monowars_remake2.PNG https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/412472/07a2a2f0-7a04-401c-b4ee-da2d30d7c623/monowars_remake.PNG

You seem to have potential however during my time in college for 3D modelling and animation, I learned that it is a very hard job to get because it's a job that's low in demand and a lot of people want it. In this field, a guy with no degree but who can make models look like a the realest thing ever made will get picked over someone with a degree anyday cause it comes down to just pure talent rather than education in this field. But hey, you never know, stay in college and get your major so you have a degree to fall back on, but nothing wrong with chasing your dream even if you decide to not major in it.

I'm sorry, your heart is obviously in the right place but i won't pull you by the leg. You just won't be able to make enough money to live with this level of content. Stay in school, study more. This is nowhere near a professional level.

A thing worth thinking about is the networking and connections you'll build if you stay for longer or finish the degree. Sometimes connections can even trump experience and degree.

@Daniel McCreary As someone who doesn't have a formal education and has worked a few game industry jobs, I'd like to say that an impressive and diverse portfolio alone will absolutely land you job interviews, even with larger "AAA" developers. Since you're in the U.S. it'll be enormously helpful for you financially to skip the college step if you have the time and gumption to build enough practical experience. However, companies & even indie studios will absolutely ask you esoteric questions that your educated peers will be able to answer more easily. There's no getting around that. If you decide to go down the no-college path you'll need to take the time to intimately know the languages and technologies you're working with beyond the practical level. You'll also have to build strong CS fundamentals on your own. TL;DR: Possible but hard