Opinions on Game Design

Question

I am currently a Junior in High School and I am currently researching colleges to go to. I am particularly interested in Video Game Design, and I would like to know what classes in High School would give me a nudge to that goal. Also, any ideas on OUTSTANDING Game colleges? I would prefer something in the Missouri area. Thanks.

Answer 1

The best school for game design is your own self-taught programming endeavor.  Going to a fancy school for game design won't really help you all that much, although it may help you get into the more corporate programming end.

Actually, I guess I should clarify that.  Nowadays, games are VERY in depth.  "Design" can refer to the graphic design (working with game art), interface design, game flow design, and programming design.  If you're going to go after a job at (say) Blizzard or something, you'll most likely need a specific area of design that you're good at.

But to that end, if you really want to get to the forefront of game design, you need to be STRONGLY self motivated.  This means if you're even bothering to ask this question in Y!A, you're already probably not working hard enough.  I'm a programmer myself, and I've known a few people who have wanted to get into game programming, and it was TOUGH.

One person (as a competency test) was basically given a rudimentary graphics engine and was told to use it to build a particular type of application.  He couldn't even get it working, and had to enlist other people to help him, at which point he had difficulty getting through the rest of the usage of the engine.  It didn't come with a nice piece of documentation that he could read up on-- he just had to pretty much wing it, experiment, and get it done.

School will only teach you so much.  The best stuff you'll learn on your own.  What a school does for you primarily is get you a degree (which often is a requirement for many businesses before they'll hire you), but as far as the prestige of the school, it's not all that important.  What's more important is what you know.  Firms will usually test you with a few levels of interviews to see where your knowledge level is, and they'll use that as a basis for hiring.

My advice is to do some programming on your own.  Flash games would be a good start, since Flash is simple to start with and can give you some results quickly, but still have room for genuine coding.  If your high school has any classes in computer programming (probably C++), that's a good idea. But once you've done some programming, take a look at some of the free 3D rendering engines out there and get some experience using them.  Hang on to your better games and use them as examples you can show to employers.

Ultimately, experience is the best teacher.  Time and again you'll come back to projects that you've done in the past, and refer to them for ways to solve problems, demonstrate solutions, or learn from past mistakes.  By far, it's a better teacher than any school will be.  The best thing the school will do for you (besides your degree) is force you to gain experience by giving you projects to work on.

DaveE

Answer 2

Actually, the most helpful subject (at least in high school) is probably going to be an advanced mathematics class. At the very least, you should be familiar with algebra, geometry and trigonometry. Calculus wouldn't hurt either. Games and game engines are HIGHLY dependent on mathematics so the more math you know, the better off you'll be.

You might also want to take a couple of Physics classes if available. "Reality" physics are a big deal with modern games.