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What Are the Best First Steps For Becoming a Game Designer?

Posted by Soulskill on from the find-door-insert-foot dept.

todd10k writes "I've recently decided to go back to college. I have a lot of experience with games, having played them for most of my adult life, and have always toyed with the idea of making them one day. I've finally decided to give it my best. What I'd like to know is: what are the best languages to study? What are the minimum diploma or degree requirements that most games companies will accept? Finally, is C++ the way to go? ASP? LUA?"

5 of 324 comments (clear)

  1. Quick advice by kamapuaa · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Get out while you still can. I can't imagine a worse career path.

    --
    Slashdot: providing anti-social weirdos a soapbox, since 1997.
    1. Re:Quick advice by sys.stdout.write · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Get out while you still can. I can't imagine a worse career path.

      Seconded. You'll end up designing this awesome game, and then EA will be like "I don't think this plays well with our 13-year-old boy demographic" and force you to make changes which completely ruin it.

    2. Re:Quick advice by LrdDimwit · · Score: 5, Insightful

      To put the point more directly, don't try to get a job as a game designer, then start designing games. Once upon a time, in the late eighties, this is how things were done. Now, trying to become a game designer is like trying to become a movie star. Huge numbers of applicants mean the few entry level designer positions that ARE available, are snapped up immediately by people with better qualifications than you.

      You want to be a game designer? Then design games. If you have programming skills, grab XNA or Flash, or even (like I'm using) Java and start coding something. You don't? Then get an existing games with already-developed toolsets like Neverwinter Nights or any of the several FPS'es with level editors, and get cracking. Even this is beyond you? Go buy a pen and paper RPG system, and start desigining adventures.

      If you can't hack it, then this is a sign you have not got what it takes.

  2. A. A Trust Fund B. A Working Spouse... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    C. A taste for ramen.

    D. A willingness to update your resume every six months.

    E. The number of your State Attorney General's Labor Enforcement Division, to file a complaint when they suddenly decide to stop paying you and ask you to work for free until they close the next round of funding, which is always just a week or two away.

  3. We're off to a bad start already.. by synthesizerpatel · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If your approach to a new career is to find out the bare minimum you need to start... odds are you're not going to excel.

    There's not a lot of stories from successful game developers that start with 'When I got in at 8am' and end with 'Then I left at 5pm.'

    If you think you've got 'it', do what the guy who did Braid did -- make it. Don't wait for someone to give you a stamp of approval. Sing it loud.

    Otherwise, stick with your day job.