Hello, I am a 22 year old Math student. I am interested in taking game development up as a serious hobby, possibly more. I currently go to school but have about 8 hours a day of time I am willing to dedicate, due to a low workload (Cal B & Physics w/ Cal A as my only classes). I have come here seeking advice on two general fronts to start off on, and once I get some feedback I will go ahead and ask some questions that are more strictly related to game development. I have no noteworthy formal training in programming beyond the high school level (my high school actually did a good job of teaching that, though) and am not exceptionally auto-didactic, but I do understand the OOP paradigm, polymorphism, and am experimenting with DBMS. I have a strong understanding of logic and have some small level of insight in using simple mathematical principles to create uncommon solutions. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Q: Will I be able to learn how to create quality, visual game components despite my limitations? Professional testing a view years ago revealed that I express -2 standard deviations of fine manual dexterity (-2 standard deviations of intelligence is the level for retardation, hence the joke that "my hands are retarded"). This was no surprise because I have difficulty drawing anything more complex then charts or stick figures. I scored +0 to +3.4 standard deviations on macro scale manual tasks, and all other functional and intellectual tests. I can use a mouse without limitation. I am a high functioning autistic. My fine motor control skills suffer as an aspect of that. My primary difficulty is perceiving certain things from a proper frame of reference (ie, recognition rather then cognition). One similar aspect of this is that I have a hard time telling when things look good, or not good. In my day-to-day life I base my aesthetic decisions on past compliments and my esoteric personal taste. While I am a visually-oriented person, that approach seems untenable for the creation of visual game components. How will I know if a model is proportioned properly or if their smile is believable or if the color scheme conveys the mood? Can such a thing be taught? Can it be taught in the presence of a handicap? How do I go about learning it? What investment of time to what level of return can I expect? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Q: Should I seriously consider majoring in game development, or is its competitive nature unsuitable for me? I hear that game development schools, such as Full Sail, are extremely intensive and require basically 100% of your time. In public school I learned zero studying habits, and was left without any other aspects of a good student. When I hit college I started having anxiety problems, that resulted in me dropping out. It took a couple years, but I hit my 'rock bottom' and turned around. I am now back in college, have good work experience under my belt, and am doing fine. I control my anxiety with a low dose of a medium strength anxiolytic and regular Tai Chi. I have little ties to where I live, and would like to move, but my mother insists I remain nearby so I can have a 'safety net'. I am capable of my best work when external forces provocate extreme investments of time - in so long as my anxiety doesn't over ride my calm, at which point I have a hard time remaining on top of things. I haven't had a severe anxiety episode in almost two years, and have learned many techniques for successfully recovering from set backs. I ponder if placing myself in a situation where I have to study /constantly/ would be beneficial to me. When I begin to focus on something intensively I can easily stay up all night working on the same problem/project. I have difficulty doing anything halfway. If it requires only a modicum of my attention/effort/insight it is easy to allow it to slip below my radar entirely. I have been subverted by such problems in the past. (ever walked out of a final holding the test?) My current school is a state university with good Engineering and Physics programs. I am interested in pursuing a career in some combination of the following: Math, Education, Programming, and Physics. I prefer to constantly be amongst a very small group of friends (usually me and one to two others), but my social amiability has been on the rise and I believe I can work with a small team without problems... in a non-inter-competitive atmosphere. I try to find myself elsewhere (with zeal) when faced with infighting, especially if it is motivated by group politics. (As mentioned above, I am a high functioning autistic. Social competitions are not my arena.) On average I require 0-2 hours of down time a day in order to keep myself feeling sane. The rest I am willing to dedicate to tiring activities (socialization is included here). Would I be foolish to seriously consider intensive game development schools? Are there any schools that employ a different paradigm of teaching that you think would be more appropriate for me? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Please excuse my verbosity. I would have made this post shorter but I did not have the time. I thank you for your help and consideration.

If you want to take game development seriously, then you have to specialize.
You should either become a programmer or an artist/modeler.
If you want to be a programmer then you have to be good in general maths (geometry, algebra, probability and calculus).
If you want to be an artist I don't know what it takes, cause I'm a programmer. I am not good with colors nor drawing, so I always outsource the art I need.

When I think of all the complaints about games/software with inconsistent visual design I begin to understand the need for an obsessive mind that can effortlessly perform repeated and routine, perhaps mundane, tasks consistently.

I suppose that you would work under a visual director who would already have a design for the game and you would just have to execute their vision; in which case you would just be following instructions, perhaps mapping colours and moods to your own complex charts and stick figures. I don't think anyone would force you to think in their way as long as the result is what they require.

I'm trying to answer the question:

"Q: Will I be able to learn how to create quality, visual game components despite my limitations?"

You would already have a drawing from an artist or a model and you would then be asked to draw the computer version which is all about small shapes combined to make more complex ones; pixels become textures and polygons become 3D models. Surely a team would have someone responsible for the details and creative aspects of the process.

I don't work in the gaming industry so I'm only offering a personal opinion. I think that some of the software I've used would have benefited from consistent technical design.

All the best!