Ok, first off I want to say like many of you I've been playing video games since as far back as I can remember, I've always loved them with a passion and played hours on end, during the early stages of my childhood I knew I wanted to grow up to write and create video games. As time passed my love for video games remained, but I guess I fell into other career interests, so I didn't prepare in high school for a career in games. (Meaning I took no art or programming classes.) As life would have it the college I was recently enrolled in didn't cater to my interests, needless to say I was very depressed there and decided to come back home and change my major to Game Design. Now, I'm just asking for general opinion as to whether or not I'd make it in the game industry and become successful. I have no experience in art, nor do I have experience in programming. I want to go to college for Game Design and Development and I have a huge passion to learn, but I never started drawing or programming from a young age, I will be a total newbie going into college. So, I basically want to know if there's hope for a future in the game industry for me? Or am I completely hopeless? I do want to stress though that I am a very good writer, and very creative with lots of ideas, I was just hoping that I didn't need to be naturally gifted from birth in programming or art to succeed, I'm hoping it's something I can learn, and with practice, get good at. So, is there hope for me in the future or should I consider a new career? Also, I picked up a book on C++ so that I have a decent understanding of the language before I start classes at college. So since I'm basically teaching myself right now I was wondering where I could possibly get a good, easy to use Compiler? I downloaded Microsoft Visiaul C++ Express but I can't figure out how to compile and link my source code with it (Yeah, I'm a n00b) Any help would be appreciated, thank you! Sincerely, Aspiring Game Developer

Sure! A willingness to try hard and spend time with somthing is more important than natural ability at it.

Keep in mind though, that if you are choosing the programming route, there will not be much artsy kind of design for a while as you learn programming basics. If you work hard though, you'll get there [smile].

I know nothing of the commercial side of games however, so I don't about getting into the industry or anything.

As for your compiler issues, I would really reccomend sticking with MSVC; it's just the best. Post your specific errors, and we should be able to help you with that.

Thanks a lot! I really appreciate it. I'm not sure what route I want to take just yet, the course I'm taking is a mixture of programming, art, animation and creative writing, so I guess I'll find what I'm the best at and work from there, but I really want to have a nice good concept of game design as a whole.

Yeah, that's what I figured. It's a two year course for Associate in Science and I was planning on transfering for a bachelor's or even a master's if I could afford it in a more specific field, like Animation or Game and Simulation Programming. My main aspiration is possibly to write scripts (Like stories, script, etc..) and maybe one day a Director or Producer. I'm probably just dreaming, but I'm trying to find the best way to learn and what path to take for what I want, it's just confusing when I'm starting out. Those are my aspirations, but I guess it'd be better to start small and just pray I get a job as anything in the game industry. Thanks for the help and input.

So do you think it's better to focus on the art aspect or the programming aspect, as opposed to design as a whole?