Going to school for Game Development
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I have recently decided to go to school for Game Development. Although I have a few questions. From the little research I did into the industry it seems programmers are the most sought after by employers. Game designers seem to be right behind them. Most of my exsisting college credits are in CIS. So I'm leaning to the programming side of game development. There seems to be a lot of different types of programming positions related to game development. So my questions are as follows, what is the most common programming job associated with game development? How hard is job placement after college? With game design what are the most common positions? Thanks in advance.
well i cant answer all your questions, but as a student of computer game technology i have a couple of pearls of wisdom. Firstly though, what do you mean by "game development"? ive come to learn that often words like design, development etc seem to mean different things to differnt people.
I'm a recend DigiPen Grad, In my experience and that of those I know from school, the most common just-out-of-school positions on the programming side are entry-level positions such as scripting, localization, tools and gameplay programmer, unless you show a particular aptitude for some specialization such as graphics, physics or network programming, in which case you might be selected for that.
On the game design side, testing and level design are good ways to set you on that career path, as well as designing a mod, or independant game project. I don't really trust 'game design' degrees though. It seems to me that a good designer has to have some level of unteachable aptitude. It might make a good designer better, or a non-designer into a competant designer, but its not going to turn every joe shmoe into the next big thing.
On the game design side, testing and level design are good ways to set you on that career path, as well as designing a mod, or independant game project. I don't really trust 'game design' degrees though. It seems to me that a good designer has to have some level of unteachable aptitude. It might make a good designer better, or a non-designer into a competant designer, but its not going to turn every joe shmoe into the next big thing.
I would strongly recommend getting either a Computer Science degree, or a Masters in Computer Science...(even a CS diploma should your school offer it).
That way should you become bored (or severely burned out) after working in the industry, you have something to fall back on when you do the family thing later on.
Working 80+ hour weeks might seem like fun right now, but it sucks just a little bit when you're 40 and trying to enjoy your kids.
hth,
That way should you become bored (or severely burned out) after working in the industry, you have something to fall back on when you do the family thing later on.
Working 80+ hour weeks might seem like fun right now, but it sucks just a little bit when you're 40 and trying to enjoy your kids.
hth,
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