Hello all, ever since I was eight years old I wanted to make games. I always thought about what music I'd use, what different weapons you could use, etc. I've always loved to play games, there's nothing better than relaxing with a good game. When I turned 13, I started to "hack" games for the PSP. I learned a lot about the MIPS assembly language and really enjoyed being able to alter the game in ways I wanted. While I was doing that, I started programming for the PC in Visual Basic, doing some small projects here and there. I was always told this was a bad language, teaching horrible programming techniques and the like. So, I moved on to C++ and learned a lot of the basics very quickly. I wanted to move away from console programs and I've started working with GUI programs. I've created several different programs that have a GUI, nothing too fancy as I'm still learning. I'm now 17 and looking into college for next year. I figured I'd take my love for games and programming and combine them. My question is, I went to the game store the other day to buy a new XBOX and was talking to one of the employees. Apparently, a friend of hers had started game development and went to Japan to be an apprentice. He would test games for quirks and learn about development while getting paid, now he's back and about to go to a college here in Austin, TX. When he gets his degree, he's likely to have a job in Japan developing games. I have ALWAYS wanted to travel the world and thought this would be excellent! I would get to travel to one of the countries they offered (Australia, Japan and a few others) while learning about game development. Then I would be able to snag a job in one of these countries working in GAME DEVELOPMENT, how great! I left my number to have the guy call me but he has yet to do so. I've turned to google to look for anything on the subject but can't find a thing. Does anyone know of any program like this or a college that offers something similar?

Well that's a bummer, I don't see why she'd have any reason to lie to me, but then again who knows. It's been two or three days with no call and nothing is coming up on google, so maybe it was.

A more likely route to executing your goal:

1.) Get educated (teach yourself, go to school, something)
2.) Build a portfolio
3.) Apply to, and gain employment with a company that has studios in multiple countries and operates with the concept of project missions.

You'll find that there's a lot less hoops to jump through if the company is simply moving you around within their pool of studios.

Thank you very much for the replies, everyone. She wasn't very good at explaining I guess. My goal is to make it as a game programmer, not to work in a foreign country, so I guess I'll stick to that for now. I won't be going to college for another year or so anyway, I just wanted to know if someone had heard of this so they could give me an idea as to which way I should be going. I do want to travel to foreign countries and considering my hobby outside of programming is learning foreign languages, I guess that makes sense :P. However, I'm NOT counting my chickens before they hatch, if I have the chance to go, I'll go, if not, there must be a reason I won't be on the plane.

To better my chances, when I go to college I hope to get the best possible grades and build an awesome portfolio. I'm just hoping the chance comes my way one day.

At my university, we had an international co-op program and a couple of my classmates went to work internships in Japan for 6 months just before our final year. Several others went to Germany. As far as I know, everybody in my class who applied for the international co-op got to go where they wanted. A friend of mine in Mechanical Engineering worked a normal co-op at a nearby Toyota plant, and after graduation they flew him and his wife to Japan to work for 18 months. I don't know if any CS students went to Japan though, as I didn't know too many.

So, you might want to look at the internship programs of the colleges you are looking to attend. They don't necessarily work for everybody everywhere, but where I went our co-op program coordinators put a huge amount of effort into trying to get everybody jobs, including resume critique and videotaped mock interviews in addition to communicating with companies everywhere, sending out feelers, etc. Just my opinion.