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Majoring in Video Game Design
valdean writes "The New York Times has an article on how video game design is slowly but surely finding its way into mainstream academia. Whereas fewer than a dozen North American universities offered majors in game design five years ago, now that number is more than 100. From the article: 'Traditionalists in both education and the video game industry pooh-pooh the trend, calling it a bald bid by colleges to cash in on a fad. But others believe that video games - which already rival movie tickets in sales - are poised to become one of the dominant media of the new century.' Are video game design majors just slackers, or are they pursuing a lucrative and legitimate career?"
It's so true. When I learned Prolog in my undergrad, the first project I did was to develop a text-adventure game. Man, that was sweet. It had like 16 different places you could go. Although, maybe it's kind of sad that this was only 3 years ago...
Sometimes I feel like +1 Reasonable should exist.
I'd have a hard time suggesting that working in the game industry is a good way to make money. There's far more money to be made other places, except for a handful of lucky developers and designers.
Plus, I'm not certain gaming companies are looking for game-related degrees. Instead, things like computer science, English, and business are often more desirable, depending on the position people are looking for.
Most important is the ability to demonstrate your talent. After my Neverwinter Nights mods were released, I got three job offers, one from Bioware themselves. My background is in biology education, of all things. Still, I'd be foolish to take a job in the gaming industry. Working as a developer in the healthcare industry has less stress and pays better. I prefer keeping my developer tendencies as a hobby.
Like any industry, particularly entertainment, there's excellence and there's shit.
Some video games contain the most innovative and brilliant code - think AI and shader routines. Not to mention some of the fantastic artwork, both 2D textures and 3D sculptures.
If people can study film-making at uni, why not game-creation? I'd argue some of the techniques needed for the latter are far more academic.
Argh.
...I hope it's okay if I dupe myself! I actually started my major in game design (Bachelors of Entertainment Software Development) at the University of Michigan almost 4 years ago now. Because it was not offered in the regular curriculum, I had to make it up. I included english, film, animation, programming, media violence, and other classes in my custom concentration. I was supported and endorsed by the chair of the CompSci dept and noted AI researcher John Laird. Even if your school is not one of the 100 that do offer these classes now, chances are you can come up with something to suit your educational needs!
And so my question is, how many game designers trained in the high art of game design itself do we realistically need in the modern world? We certainly need lots of modelers, graphic artists, coders and testers who will often employ their skills working on game projects for game companies, but by comparison, what kind of market is there out there for a 'game design' graduate who isn't an expert either in the business end of game design (a gaping hole in the collective expertise of many a small game company, who believe they can succeed in the market on design talent alone) or the particular areas in which one needs well-developed specialised skills. There are certainly great designers out there who just do design and they're the ones we tend to celebrate most from the various great dev teams of history, but is shooting for 'designer' shooting for too small a target market?
To me, the best thing you can do is to get a CS degree and then come out of school with some major, game-related project to show off to people. I was lucky enough to get this experience through a job while I was in school. A lot of people won't be so lucky, so work on a mod or a tech demo or something.
The real think to remember is that there's nothing magical about working on video games. It IS a particularly cool job, but that doesn't change the fact that you are making software for a customer. Be smart, work hard, apply yourself and it will all work itself out.
Also play a lot of games, that always helps.
Over the past two years, the local Tech schools (I won't name names) have been coming to us looking for instructors for their new "game design" programs. I like to help out, but as I did I found that their approach to this wasn't realistic... and soon I found out why:
Essentially, for the tech schools, this is sort of a scam. I heard straight from one of the directors... Mom and Dad bring billy to a tech school because they don't want his slacking-ass sucking them dry anymore. He looks at the programs offered... oooow communications... that sounds easy... and dull. Then he sees "game design" and BINGO he's excited, enthusiastic... he envisions making Grand Theft Auto XXII or whatever... mom and dad see their son enthusiastic about school for the first time... and the school tells them about how the game business is a multibillion dollar industry... it's a done deal.
But who's teaching these courses? So far, in this area, they have little to no teachers who can do this stuff. No one who's A) an industry vet and B) who would put up with the academic BS, and C) who has a masters degree (most of the best have no degree at all) and D) willing to do it basically for nothing pay wise. There are people who have A, B and D... and would be invaluable in teaching kids exactly what it takes... but with no masters, no dice.
From what I hear, most of the big tech schools simply had this decision to have a game program handed down from on high (at the corporate level)... "You shall offer this program... ENGAGE!" In some areas, this isn't too hard... in others it's darn near impossible due to a lack of game deveopment company representation. They don't seem too concerned (except for the individuals responsible for starting up the program).
A lot of kids are going to waste time in sub-standard programs until this works itself out.
David Whatley
The good news is that there are starting to be opportunities in the industry for "smaller" developers and designers. With digital distribution methods, the widening audience for games, and the failure of the large publishing houses cranking out endless sequels, there are ways for a handful of people with good ideas to make a difference.
Don't aim for making the next Unreal Tournament game or the next big RPG. Instead, consider making something like Bedazzled, getting a contract with Bioware making a module for thier Digital Download project, or signing up for a new development group.
You'll end up working long hours, have little job security, and paid a minimum wage. If you love that sort of thing, that's great. Before you get too gung-ho, you might consider working on a game for the fun of it. Few people have the sort of maniacal focus to debug day after day, work around the personality quirks of teammates, and the willingness to cut features to meet a shipping date.
I decided to take the safer route, working a steady job and having game development be my after hours hobby. It's fun and challenging, and I love having the creative freedom to do whatever I want. The world needs more wacky creative game designers, despite the challenges it takes to succeed.
While getting my Associate's degree (on my way to a Bachelor's in Business Admin.) I picked up a certificate in Game Design. Not because I want to be a game designer, but because I want to have a grasp of how they think and part of the process, because my ultimate goal is to become a Game Producer.
:)
I don't know what the quality of these programs is like elsewhere, but at the school I got my certificate from, one class was taught by Jennifer Boespflug from Microsoft, and the other was taught by Hardy LeBel (on the Halo and Halo 2 teams).
So what did I learn? I learned a lot about the background of the industry (most of which I already knew as a journalist and fan), and I learned a lot about how much research a good game designer needs to do to make sure that they're really getting to the core of what will make the product resonate with gamers. But more than anything, I learned that I don't want to be a game designer.
I have just started taking a bachelor's program in Game and Simulation Programming, and where I am taking classes I have been fortunate enough to be instructed by an industry veteran who has been with the industry from the beginning and teaching skills related to it from the beginning.
I haven't been at it long enough to determine whether the skills I'm learning are different enough from a less specific degree, but it is clear that the school isn't fooling around.
The same cannot be said of most of my classmates, roughly half of whom signed up thinking that it would be a cakewalk and they'd get to play video games all day. I'm counting the weeks until they drop out and the rest of us can learn something. I can't imagine how much worse it must be in, say, a community college.
Game design does require a degree of creativity that many people simply do not have. The professor knows this, and so instead of trying to teach creativity, he has focused on teaching students how to turn that creativity into a full design document, and then how to turn that design document into a finished product.
You can't overlook the importance of modelers and animators - which is where the real demand is - and, noticing this, a number of institutions have begun "Game Art" programs, focusing on creating practical computer models. The game industry is becoming a highly-employing field for talented artists.
Ultimately, yes, I believe there are more people than normal who started taking programs like these because they thought they'd be easy and cool. But you can't overlook the people who joined them expecting to work - and found their expectations fulfilled.
...but is it art?