Game Companies

[Guy In Rubber Suit]

I need some connections, badly. I'm going to the University of Advancing next fall and I'm majoring in thier Game Design program (Interactive Media). However, from what I heard from somebody who work as an programmer, being a "game designer" is a bit bad if you don't have much skills.

I'm doing Music Composing at a local community college, so if any skills are needed in Game Design, I am perpare.

University of Advancing Technology? I went there.

Yeah for game design you want to pad it out with something like level design, some knowledge of programming and/or scripting or maybe some art of some sort.

Depending on the size of the company you might wear many hats. At a smaller company it'd be expected that people know several disciplines whilst at a larger company it'd be best to specialize in something. And while it's good to do some scripting with an exciting game engine, a lot of companies will have their own proprietary software to work on. But in general it's good to know the fundamentals of programming and scripting.

[TheSnowStorm]

University of Advancing Technology? I went there.

Yeah for game design you want to pad it out with something like level design, some knowledge of programming and/or scripting or maybe some art of some sort.

Depending on the size of the company you might wear many hats. At a smaller company it'd be expected that people know several disciplines whilst at a larger company it'd be best to specialize in something. And while it's good to do some scripting with an exciting game engine, a lot of companies will have their own proprietary software to work on. But in general it's good to know the fundamentals of programming and scripting.

I was thinking on level design/world building, and maybe writing for games. I may study art, programming, and music to get a general idea in each subject.

How UAT? Is it a nice school for game design?

[Guy In Rubber Suit]

Some of the teachers are cool. But most of them unfortunately teach via giving you an online tutorial, one that could be found at home without going to school, and using that as the teaching assignment. Most of them know their stuff, just don't know how to really teach. However you do have a ton of software at your finger tips such as Unreal, Neverwinter Nights, Torque, Source Engine and more. They might've added more software since I've been there. I haven't been there since December 2006 so quite a bit might of changed.

That said, the best thing for you to do is find some dedicated students, that could be tough and do a mod project. A simple one. The best thing to have on your resume is a finished mod regardless of how small. I have the unfortunate fortune of being on a few unfinished projects but I did get on board a couple of finished ones as well. Granted it won't be your fault all the time if they fail, companies just love to see that you see things through to the end.

[TheSnowStorm]

Some of the teachers are cool. But most of them unfortunately teach via giving you an online tutorial, one that could be found at home without going to school, and using that as the teaching assignment. Most of them know their stuff, just don't know how to really teach. However you do have a ton of software at your finger tips such as Unreal, Neverwinter Nights, Torque, Source Engine and more. They might've added more software since I've been there. I haven't been there since December 2006 so quite a bit might of changed.

That said, the best thing for you to do is find some dedicated students, that could be tough and do a mod project. A simple one. The best thing to have on your resume is a finished mod regardless of how small. I have the unfortunate fortune of being on a few unfinished projects but I did get on board a couple of finished ones as well. Granted it won't be your fault all the time if they fail, companies just love to see that you see things through to the end.

Thanks for the insight once again!

I'm speaking with a few students via the Intranet about UAT and one of them stated some of the issues with some teachers.

I have a question to ask about music composers and the video game industry: How many hours do they work? What's the entry level sallary?

[richter]

Who I know: My brother was recently promoted to a senior graphic artist position at EA. His current project is Dead Space. A good friend of mine is the Nintendo editor at Games Radar. I also work with a product manager at Yahoo! Games.

My brother spent a lot of time designing Quake levels and the like from the ground up before he was a professional graphic artist. He ended up using stuff like that as his portfolio, which got him hired at Outrage.

My advice is don't even try. It's so unbelievably competitive and high-stress and the music end of the industry is getting increasingly smothered right now. If you want to compose music professionally that's one thing but I would say don't get your hopes up on VGM and focus on just refining your compositional and production skills as much as possible first.

Shame on you, zircon! You and I both know many people who make game music professionally. It's not the primary source of income for all of those musicians, but it's still doable. Sure the competition is nuts, but "don't even try" is lousy advice. Everything else you said is good stuff though. (Seriously people, really know your shit before you try doing it professionally.)

For programmers: learn C++ like the back of your hand. Keep in mind that game programming is the most complex, difficult programming out there. Physics, AI, 3d libraries... you've got your work cut out for you. But if you're good at it, you shouldn't have any problems finding employment (so long as you're willing to relocate ).

[Nohbody]

Who I know: My brother was recently promoted to a senior graphic artist position at EA. His current project is Dead Space. A good friend of mine is the Nintendo editor at Games Radar. I also work with a product manager at Yahoo! Games.

My brother spent a lot of time designing Quake levels and the like from the ground up before he was a professional graphic artist. He ended up using stuff like that as his portfolio, which got him hired at Outrage.

Shame on you, zircon! You and I both know many people who make game music professionally. It's not the primary source of income for all of those musicians, but it's still doable. Sure the competition is nuts, but "don't even try" is lousy advice. Everything else you said is good stuff though. (Seriously people, really know your shit before you try doing it professionally.)

For programmers: learn C++ like the back of your hand. Keep in mind that game programming is the most complex, difficult programming out there. Physics, AI, 3d libraries... you've got your work cut out for you. But if you're good at it, you shouldn't have any problems finding employment (so long as you're willing to relocate ).

Can I trade families with you? My dads a neurosurgeon, it will be fair.

[The Pezman]

Anyone do much programming with the C# XNA framework? I've been working with that this summer...

[Guy In Rubber Suit]

One thing I've been reading from various professional game designers via Game Developer magazine, Edge, etc is if you're going into programming get a computer science degree. It'll teach you more and it's basically the same thing as game programming. So far not many game design specific schools have the programming aspect cut out with the exception of maybe DigiPen. Regardless it'd probably be best to get into an actual computer science class.

Oh yeah and any ads from Collins College, Westwood, UAT, etc are generally bullshit and crappily done. I've heard a lot of things about Collins screwing people out of money and such from the guys I work with. So just do your research carefully when picking a school.

[Nohbody]

One thing I've been reading from various professional game designers via Game Developer magazine, Edge, etc is if you're going into programming get a computer science degree. It'll teach you more and it's basically the same thing as game programming. So far not many game design specific schools have the programming aspect cut out with the exception of maybe DigiPen. Regardless it'd probably be best to get into an actual computer science class.

Oh yeah and any ads from Collins College, Westwood, UAT, etc are generally bullshit and crappily done. I've heard a lot of things about Collins screwing people out of money and such from the guys I work with. So just do your research carefully when picking a school.

Sweet, Software Engineering and Computer Science are basically the same thing. Actually with adding another semester I could get both majors. Obviously fate guided my hand as I arbitrarily selected a major.