• Game-Design in college
    225 replies, posted
[QUOTE=Penis Colada;29012981]Universally known fact: Game design degrees are utterly useless Learn 3ds max and/or Maya and learn to make 3D models and textures at a professional level, build up a portfolio, send portfolio to employers, get money get paid. Worked for me.[/QUOTE] That is what I'm going to do. The problem is that school is taking all my time and energy to study 3D arts. I want to quit school (media assistant ) and make myself a schedule for studying 3D and searching for other small courses that would be aid full. But NOOOOOOOO! Everyone is bitching about how "No one wants to employ someone without a 2nd degree". Seems like everyone is impervious to the fact that your degrees don't mean a thing in an artistic field of work. [B]Penis Colada[/B], is there anything you could do to help me? :smith:
[QUOTE=Chernzobog;29010323]What sells? New things. New and original things that can appeal to large audiences. Just look at GTA, great story, and great gameplay for those who don't give a shit about the story. I bought it for both.[/QUOTE] For the most part, no. The majority of gamers are dumbasses who buy the same FPS game at the end of the year every year. That's why there's so many FPS games: That's what people are buying.
[QUOTE=milkandcooki;29013080]For the most part, no. The majority of gamers are dumbasses who buy the same FPS game at the end of the year every year. That's why there's so many FPS games: That's what people are buying.[/QUOTE] But occasionally you get FPS like bulletstorm that are just so original
[QUOTE=milkandcooki;29013080]For the most part, no. The majority of gamers are dumbasses who buy the same FPS game at the end of the year every year. That's why there's so many FPS games: That's what people are buying.[/QUOTE] All you need do do then is pepper the trailers with explosions, guns and titties.
[QUOTE=avergejoe;29003829]Me too, I'm thinking about going to UofArizona, because they have a really good aeronautical engineering program, and you leave college with many "recession proof" Job opportunities. I mean if you really love game design do it, but in a bad market, your job won't be 100% secure.[/QUOTE] If you're interested in aerospace engineering, particularly in Arizona, Embry Riddle would be a better choice. We have the best AE program in the nation. The climate up here is pretty nice too!
[QUOTE=ChristopherB;29013314]If you're interested in aerospace engineering, particularly in Arizona, Embry Riddle would be a better choice. We have the best AE program in the nation. The climate up here is pretty nice too![/QUOTE] Thanks, although I'm not into a lot of those muti-state Universities. I've also thought about UW because I live in Washington. Unfortunately, there was an article in the Seattle Times about how a 4.0 student who graduated from highschool with honors and tons of community service didn't get into UW.
The best thing you could do to increase your chances of kicking off a good career is learn lots in your spare time. Lots of people will turn up to interviews with 'well i made this mediocre game in my college class' whilst you could turn up with 'i made this game over 3 years in my spare time', show it to the guy and compared to everyone else it would look amazing. Employers love this, I know from experience. It shows a lot of good things about you as a potential employee. Game Design qualifications aren't all that great though, you may benefit more from taking just a plain programming course, or other stuff like 3D modelling as mentioned.
Im going to uni just for game design, if the work load is the same as ours, then it'll be pretty stressfull. It means less playing games and more making them. A good way to test your skills is to enter comps like DominanceWar and shit like that Pretty much the programs we cover are; Zbrush, 3dsMax, Maya, photoshop, unity etc. Mainly using unity because it has a live update so we don't know need to compile shit just to test one little thing [editline]6th April 2011[/editline] [QUOTE=Sunday_Roast;29013069]That is what I'm going to do. The problem is that school is taking all my time and energy to study 3D arts. I want to quit school (media assistant ) and make myself a schedule for studying 3D and searching for other small courses that would be aid full. But NOOOOOOOO! Everyone is bitching about how "No one wants to employ someone without a 2nd degree". Seems like everyone is impervious to the fact that your degrees don't mean a thing in an artistic field of work. [B]Penis Colada[/B], is there anything you could do to help me? :smith:[/QUOTE] One of my tutors has worked at a few different big game companies, they mainly care about your portfolio than your piece of paper. My 3D tutor has got shitloads of qualifications in 3d and animation, but his harddrive shat itself and lost 9 years of work on his portfolio, he can't get a job in a company because hes got nothing to show for it, so he's mainly just freelancing now.
I'm doing Game Design and Development atm and all my lecturers emphasize heavily on portfolio. Build up an extensive portfolio ranging from traditional animation to flash animation and traditional modeling to 3D modeling. All these will help you alot and many of the things taught I felt were mostly things you would've already known if you follow games alot such as the design principles. I had to do a traditional board game as well for my year projects I'd recommend starting on learning programming like Flash and C++ and picking up 3DS Max or Maya as everyone in here has stated. I also suggest picking up the traditional methods of doing such things like animation and traditional modeling using clay to build up a good portfolio. Drawing is also an integral part and start to practice as well on it if you really want to do game design.
Waste of time, from what I've heard.
OP, Ireland's gaming industry is becoming more developed every year. Recently, Bioware opened a base in Galway. EA has a base in Connaught too. Blizzard has a large base in Cork. Granted, most of these aren't actual game designing positions at the moment, but there is no way of knowing what the industry will be like in 3-4 years (when you finish your course). A quick google, and I found at least one job opening for a senior games developer in [url=http://www.loadzajobs.ie/it-jobs/senior-games-developer-dublin-ireland-1671006.html]Dublin[/url].
[QUOTE=avergejoe;29013364]I've also thought about UW because I live in Washington. Unfortunately, there was an article in the Seattle Times about how a 4.0 student who graduated from highschool with honors and tons of community service didn't get into UW.[/QUOTE] Colleges aren't only looking at grades and community service. Most colleges want a particular kind of person. Maybe the 4.0 kid's essay wasn't convincing enough or passed off a personality that the college didn't like. For some of the places I've gotten into, people I know and have much higher grades than me and go to AP classes were denied.
[QUOTE=mr apple;29013472]Im going to uni just for game design, if the work load is the same as ours, then it'll be pretty stressfull. It means less playing games and more making them. A good way to test your skills is to enter comps like DominanceWar and shit like that Pretty much the programs we cover are; Zbrush, 3dsMax, Maya, photoshop, unity etc. Mainly using unity because it has a live update so we don't know need to compile shit just to test one little thing [editline]6th April 2011[/editline] One of my tutors has worked at a few different big game companies, they mainly care about your portfolio than your piece of paper. My 3D tutor has got shitloads of qualifications in 3d and animation, but his harddrive shat itself and lost 9 years of work on his portfolio, he can't get a job in a company because hes got nothing to show for it, so he's mainly just freelancing now.[/QUOTE] Now I just have to get my parents to understand this. What good is a stupid piece of paper if you actually don't know anything.
Get a "useful" college degree, work on projects at home and slowly have your game coagulate as you learn. You'll be working on your game on your time by your rules without deadlines.
I decided to go with programming, it isn't as narrow as game design.
Hi Galoi, I'm on the same boat, except I'm going to the Kajaani University of Applied Sciences to study all kinds of Game Design. In Finland of course, that's where I live. It's a 3,5 year course where you work as a team (under a REAL university-owned company called Kajak Games) to make games and sell them. Developers get all the profit. Also, it's a tough course. If you won't fit to one of the four team positions (Game Designer, Graphic Artist, Programmer or Producer) you're kicked out into the System Administration Course (MySQL stuff basically), which is, from what I hear, horrible. They had this awesome summer Programming Course I attended, the teachers were really good and our project was to make a game in 2 days - the result which you can find at my website linked below. My suggestion? [b]Start making games right now.[/b] I have been developing games since I was eight years old (using Klik & Play) but recently started coding stuff in C# and C++. I usually use [b]Construct[/b] to conceptualize my games and then [b]XNA[/b] to make them into full games. Use those two. They're the best and the easiest. I hope that you have success with your dream job as I hope I will. Here's my [url=http://www.tomitoikka.com]game projects[/url] for those interested and [url=http://kajak3d.com/index.php?page=index_en]here's the website for the university I'm definitely enrolling in.[/url]
[QUOTE=Chickens!;29003740]Also Playtesters get paid more than Animators and Programmers.[/QUOTE] To offset the high amount of suicides. Recruiting people is an absolute pain.
Draw and sketch, don't forget about the artistic side of games. I'm studying animation at art school, which can lead into the gaming industry, and we keep hundreds of sketchbooks. It's great for looking back on old ideas, and shows your progress, and creativity. If you can excel in the art and the technology side of things then you're jammin'. Too many people get wrapped up in their computer programs and lose sight of what they're trying to make.
[QUOTE=Tastydirt;29004261]Do a degree in computer science or software engineering and build up a portfoilo of game design related things in your spare time. At least this way you still have a great chance of getting a job outside of the games industry and if you look at most game developer positions they all look for computer science or related degrees.[/QUOTE] DO FUCKING THIS PLEASE You will not get a job with a "game-design" diploma, they're basically useless.
I am gonna do Game Developer and after that Game Designer at Grafische lyceum in Rotterdam holland. Quite happy with it, i already joined the guys for a day and its pretty damn awesome, better then expected! My good friend from sweden is also a Game Developer and he says its one of the most awesome schools he ever did. Very curious and happy about my choice. Good luck by the way!
The game designer's [i]most important thing[/i] to remember is [B]communication.[/B] You are the link between people, you are the one that should give everyone united picture of what the product will be and shuffling between people trying to work out their differences in ideas. That's not to say that you are the only one that has input to the game design, a lot of the good ideas come from people around you, coworkers and friends. The final look and feel of the game is a compromise of all these different ideas people have. And it isn't a job where you just think up ideas and expect someone to make a game out of them. You are a cog in the system, figuring out the kinks and solving everyday gameplay issues. And don't always expect to get home early after work. A lot of the people are so dedicated to the product that they spend their free time developing it and expect you to do the same. It's not a must and depends on the community and stage of developement but just so you know.
[QUOTE=PLing;29014978]The game designer's [i]most important thing[/i] to remember is [B]communication.[/B] You are the link between people, you are the one that should give everyone united picture of what the product will be and shuffling between people trying to work out their differences in ideas. That's not to say that you are the only one that has input to the game design, a lot of the good ideas come from people around you, coworkers and friends. The final look and feel of the game is a compromise of all these different ideas people have. And it isn't a job where you just think up ideas and expect someone to make a game out of them. You are a cog in the system, figuring out the kinks and solving everyday gameplay issues. And don't always expect to get home early after work. A lot of the people are so dedicated to the product that they spend their free time developing it and expect you to do the same. It's not a must and depends on the community and stage of developement but just so you know.[/QUOTE] This, a thousand times this. This is why my projects usually don't get off the ground. Communication with team members cuts off or someone disagrees with the game direction.
I've been programming in C++ since I was 14 (now 20, so 6 years so far), I'm doing a Computer Science degree on track for a first, and it's still no guarantee I'm going to be able to get a game development job. A "game design" course is completely useless. I haven't heard of a single case of someone coming from one of those courses and ending up successful. Anyone can design a game, everybody has ideas. The programmers will design code better than you, the artists will design assets better than you, composers will design music better than you, and ALL of them are capable of coming up with game ideas. A designer position is aquired through years of working through the company into the position. Not by some course which by the way will be pretty much useless in every other area of life, especially in the eyes of employers. If you're really serious, you need to pick an area of game development and work on it, work on it and work on it. Either that or work your way into manager positions so you have valid experience. A game design course will get you nowhere.
[QUOTE=Mr.Dounut;29014622]DO FUCKING THIS PLEASE You will not get a job with a "game-design" diploma, they're basically useless.[/QUOTE] You people honestly don't know at all, have you even had a job at a games company?
[QUOTE=Jallen;29015615]I've been programming in C++ since I was 14 (now 20, so 6 years so far), I'm doing a Computer Science degree on track for a first, and it's still no guarantee I'm going to be able to get a game development job. A "game design" course is completely useless. I haven't heard of a single case of someone coming from one of those courses and ending up successful. Anyone can design a game, everybody has ideas. The programmers will design code better than you, the artists will design assets better than you, composers will design music better than you, and ALL of them are capable of coming up with game ideas. A designer position is aquired through years of working through the company into the position. Not by some course which by the way will be pretty much useless in every other area of life, especially in the eyes of employers. If you're really serious, you need to pick an area of game development and work on it, work on it and work on it. Either that or work your way into manager positions so you have valid experience. A game design course will get you nowhere.[/QUOTE] I kinda disagree with your point of the course being useless. The content of the course may be very broad. I was in one and in the beginning we went through basic programming, 3d, storywriting, making documents and things like that. But everyone [I]did[/I] pick their own trade from the palette, resulting in a class full of people specialized in different things. A studio of a kind. Now about half of the students are employed in the games industry. I'd say that that's a pretty darn good percent for a "useless course". Then again, his courses content may vary a lot.
Game design would be like the dream-job for me... If only my math grades weren't shitty, and I would know something about programming. But without these qualities, my best chance is choosing some "serious" profession.
[QUOTE=PLing;29015741]I kinda disagree with your point of the course being useless. The content of the course may be very broad. I was in one and in the beginning we went through basic programming, 3d, storywriting, making documents and things like that. But everyone [I]did[/I] pick their own trade from the palette, resulting in a class full of people specialized in different things. A studio of a kind. Now about half of the students are employed in the games industry. I'd say that that's a pretty darn good percent for a "useless course". Then again, his courses content may vary a lot.[/QUOTE] I think it's really a case of where you go and what course you do. I have a friend doing games programming at derby and that's definitely a good course. Unforunately the label "games design" is just so vague and unimpressive. It doesn't give you much indication of the course content. The actual piece of paper you get at the end of it is essentially useless. If you are able to get good skills and build an awesome portfolio along the way though, then it's valuable. If really what people want out the end of it though is to be a "game designer", I can't see them being successful. If they are aiming at programming, modelling, texturing, art work or whatever, then I think as long as they build a great portfolio, they have a chance.
If you don't have any previous (modding/indie) experience, it'll be pretty pointless. trust me.
You can also do this with no knowledge at all (GL Rotterdam does this) But there are schools that start from a certain point
I'm not sure what the games design courses are in the US, but we only have one Game Design class during the week for 3 hours and the rest are actually learning how to make them. [IMG]http://i56.tinypic.com/ka64q0.png[/IMG]
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