Career in Video Game Design

Career in Video Game Design

by Matt | Published on December 14th, 2007, 11:43 am | Life

Ok my 12 year old son approached me last night and announced he wants to design video games for a living when he gets older.

I don't know much about the schooling needed. But it looks like Computer Science is the path to take. ITT Tech looks to have a degree program.

Anyone know anything about the right schooling path? What stuff he could start learning the basics of now?

I'm hoping that as he goes through Computer Science schooling, he'll redirect into something other than video game design. Sounds like a pretty limited career field. But I don't know.

But if I can lay a clear path for him to get there, I can use that as a carrot for him to do better in school. He does ok. But doesn't give it nearly as much as he could. He's very smart. He can just listen in class and then take tests without studying and pass with Cs and Bs. We just want him to try a little harder.

Matt wrote:Ok my 12 year old son approached me last night and announced he wants to design video games for a living when he gets older.

I don't know much about the schooling needed. But it looks like Computer Science is the path to take. ITT Tech looks to have a degree program.

Anyone know anything about the right schooling path? What stuff he could start learning the basics of now?

I'm hoping that as he goes through Computer Science schooling, he'll redirect into something other than video game design. Sounds like a pretty limited career field. But I don't know.

But if I can lay a clear path for him to get there, I can use that as a carrot for him to do better in school. He does ok. But doesn't give it nearly as much as he could. He's very smart. He can just listen in class and then take tests without studying and pass with Cs and Bs. We just want him to try a little harder.

I speak from first hand experience here. Growing up I wanted to be a video game designer as well. And I actually did succeed in some respects as I created and had marketed several video games for the old Atari by the time I was 20. After my mid-20s I went in to other more profitable areas.

My advice is skip ALL of the trade schools period. Even though some may be accredited you can't really take any credits from them to a "real" college if you want to do so at some point down the road. Trade schools are the EASY way out of going to college. I know that first-hand as well before I went to college. I'm not up on the game industry like I used to be but I do know that several universitys do have such programs these days. Another piece of advice is to make sure that he certainly has a passion for doing that type of work and wants to do it not because its a "glamorous" job.

I don't play games too often anymore but I remember LOVING to watch somebody play a game that I created.

Well I'm not so concerned he'll get into that career. He'll find the specific type job on his own.

But I do want to use that desire to provide a clear schooling path toward a degree in that career field. So which to choose? Is Computer Science the general degree that can be connected?

A lot depends on what he means by 'design' video games. I suspect he doesn't know either - yet. A design team needs a variety of skills, from the gameplay, graphics, music, to of course the graphics engine itself. A lot of the skills are not technical.

My son, being a 3rd generation computer geek, was interested in computers since before he could read (He would come running into the room asking "What does C A N C E L mean?") He designed custom levels for Doom when he was 8 and later at 17 assembled a team over the internet to build a game using the Unreal Tournament engine. He was never in any doubt what he wanted to do and he's now at University doing computer science.

So to answer your question - he should already be building custom levels for his favourite games and learning how to program. He'll need to have a natural aptitude for programming, excellent math skills (calculus, graph theory, coordinate geometry, logic etc.) and a creative bent.

Then if he's good and determined he may get to work for a games company - but since this is what so many kids dream of, he'll find the competition intense, the pay lousy and the work demanding. They have people lining up for jobs so they take them in and burn them out.

My son did his co-op work term for a small company doing real time enhancement of radar images for military planes. He was using all the skills he learnt from gaming to write their graphics engine. They refused his offer to make the screens more interesting "No, we want a triangle - not a fireball or lightning strike - just a green triangle". But there was a lot of job satisfaction for him - it was a 'real' job, he was part of the presentation team to the military and he was treated a lot better than the ones who went to the gaming company who only got to work on isolated bits and never got to see the whole picture

ok so to answer my own question, Computer Science is the place to start.

Matt wrote:ok so to answer my own question, Computer Science is the place to start.

For Game Design: Computer Science
For Computer Programming (business focus): Computer Management

Call a professor up who teaches it and ask if he could sit in on a class or two...

I used to go to my parents classes all the time when I was little, and the professors didn't care... Perhaps he could get a feel for it?

My friend works for a company that does games for the Xbox 360. He worked on the design for the recent Gears of War. My advice? All the Computer Science and technical know-how in the world is great, but you had better get some heavy graphic design in there too.

The biggest thing? Do something that lets you stand out from the rest of the pack. I wont even go in to how he did his job interview.

BecauseHeLives wrote:For Game Design: Computer Science
For Computer Programming (business focus): Computer Management

I have not come across a degree in 'Computer Management'. You can take a joint degree in Computer Science and Business Management but a B.Sc. and MBA would be more useful.

Matt,

For a career in developing computer games, computer science is the way to go - it's not a 'programming' qualification - it will qualify your son in all areas of computers - it is a highly technical degree and does not suit everyone. If he decides he wants a business career a subsequent MBA will be a solid boost.

Another computer games stream is Digital Graphic Art and Animation. There has been and will continue to be, an increasing demand for these both in games and the movie industry. If he's of a creative persuasion and less technical this may be a more suitable option.

What he should be doing now is building games using one of the many engines out there, for example learning Unreal Script will make learning Java or C a doddle. Also he should be designing objects with 3D modelling packages, making animations, designing landscapes etc. This will help him determine his real interests. If he gets good at one of these, there are lots of collaborative projects on the Internet and he can volunteer to be part of a team designing game mods.

I have not come across a degree in 'Computer Management'. You can take a joint degree in Computer Science and Business Management but a B.Sc. and MBA would be more useful.

Computer Management degrees are quite common (google it). Those degree focus a lot on business lanaguages and business content heavy in accounting and finance. A computer science degree is overkill for a business setting as most developers will tell you that their degree is in something other than computer science.

Sanjuro wrote:My advice? All the Computer Science and technical know-how in the world is great, but you had better get some heavy graphic design in there too.

Graphics design and Software development are really two separate streams, without a lot of skill transfer. Developers usually command higher salaries (and qualifications) early on, but the best graphics designers can catch up and overtake.

One of the complaints from developers is that they don't get to actually work on the Games themselves - they're busy working on graphics engines, physics models etc. Their work is crucial but it's more backroom. The graphics designers do the cool work designing monsters and moving the game along.

A Person wrote: The graphics designers do the cool work designing monsters and moving the game along.

Please explain to me why anyone would want to do anything else in video games?? :lol:

University of Southern California - Video Game Design and Management Minor

http://itp.usc.edu/minors/minor-in-vide ... management

A Person wrote: Also he should be designing objects with 3D modelling packages, making animations, designing landscapes etc. This will help him determine his real interests. If he gets good at one of these, there are lots of collaborative projects on the Internet and he can volunteer to be part of a team designing game mods.

Well I can certainly show him some things in 3D design. I can't do animiation, but it'll be a start.

Get Maya PLE - loads of fun and if he uses it you can you can pretend it's needed for your business and pay the full license. (PLE puts a watermark over all rendered images so you can't publish them)