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Who else here is studying to get into the game industry.

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Eternally
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20 Mar 2011, 4:21 pm

I'm almost done studying my first year of game design.



Snivy
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20 Mar 2011, 4:29 pm

Why bother, it's not like you're going to get the job anyway.The field's so competitive, it's impossible. Most gaming companies turn down degrees with Game Design on it.



Eternally
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20 Mar 2011, 4:32 pm

Snivy wrote:
Why bother, it's not like you're going to get the job anyway.The field's so competitive, it's impossible. Most gaming companies turn down degrees with Game Design on it.


Its not impossible, not if its level design. Being a character artist or a environment artist is much harder to finding a job. The 2 year course I'm taking on game design here in Norway is that the first year we learn allot of the basics of modelling, rigging and animation, and then the second year we learn about Unreal Engine 3. And then after those two years we have can take one more year in England or Australia. We learn about a hole allot of different things.



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20 Mar 2011, 4:45 pm

Eternally wrote:
Snivy wrote:
Why bother, it's not like you're going to get the job anyway.The field's so competitive, it's impossible. Most gaming companies turn down degrees with Game Design on it.


Its not impossible, not if its level design. Being a character artist or a environment artist is much harder to finding a job.


A lot of game designers and project managers started as testers. Most companies look for experience but they also need young people to train, so if you're good and committed you have a chance. But keep in mind that you'll probably end up working for a large company where you'll have to put up with a lot of extra hours and highly competitive people who won't hesitate to trample you on their way up.

Good luck!


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Eternally
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20 Mar 2011, 4:52 pm

Thats what the game industry is allot about these days working allot of over time. I've read it really depends on how big the projects are, if its AAA games its allot of over-time sometimes but it really depends on how good the planning is on the teams. Not all the AAA studios work over-time.



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20 Mar 2011, 5:01 pm

Eternally wrote:
Thats what the game industry is allot about these days working allot of over time. I've read it really depends on how big the projects are, if its AAA games its allot of over-time sometimes but it really depends on how good the planning is on the teams. Not all the AAA studios work over-time.


My husband has been a game designer for 14 years now. He worked for several companies across Europe on very different projects, each lasting between 1 to 2.5 years. All I can tell you is that the last few months were always exhausting and involved working long hours and weekends, no matter how well you plan things, you always push for more before the release. Most people who do this are very passionate about it so they do it quite willingly :)


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Eternally
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21 Mar 2011, 12:44 am

Sallamandrina wrote:
Eternally wrote:
Thats what the game industry is allot about these days working allot of over time. I've read it really depends on how big the projects are, if its AAA games its allot of over-time sometimes but it really depends on how good the planning is on the teams. Not all the AAA studios work over-time.


My husband has been a game designer for 14 years now. He worked for several companies across Europe on very different projects, each lasting between 1 to 2.5 years. All I can tell you is that the last few months were always exhausting and involved working long hours and weekends, no matter how well you plan things, you always push for more before the release. Most people who do this are very passionate about it so they do it quite willingly :)


14 years damn thats a long time, yeah its true people do need to be very passionate also. I'm not gonna make any statement about this because I'm not sure but I guess it really depends on what type of company your working for, one thing I do know is that allot of Sony's 1st party studios can at times be pretty good organized because they also get good support from Sony. Although the third party's studios it really depends on sometimes. I am more then willingly to work overtime when the times comes to that.



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21 Mar 2011, 2:10 am

All I'll say is I hope it's a good school you're going to with some emphasis on deeper stuff and good foundations in the non-gaming technical aspects involved. Because from all I can tell a lot of game design courses are in general not regarded terribly highly by people in the industry due to the high number of game design degree mills that spit out people with minimal skillsets and high expectations. I've seen more than a few times comments from people in the industry that it can be so bad they'd honestly rather get non-game design degrees that somehow relate to the job because of how low many of the schools teaching game design set the standard. Not all of course, but enough that I get to hear some very entertaining stories at times.

And yeah, you can expect to work long hours at times. Every friend I have in the industry will just disappear for months as they get close to the release date and the crunch gets worse the closer it gets. Still, they do love it even if the hours can be near inhuman at times. So I do hope that you can get a job in the gaming industry, everyone I know who's been in it or is still in it seems to love it even though at times it's very stressful with big workloads.



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21 Mar 2011, 3:50 am

i'm in the third semester of my game design education (actually it's CS centered on games), but the plus side with this one is that you can use the education here to become something else, like an IT consultant, programmer or a project leader. Plus, we get lessons in company management so we can start our own companies and work from there.

The main difference is that we do not delve on the graphics but the code instead, as we make or modify game engines and implement the concepts and rules in code, except we mainly work with C#, XNA and the Unity3D engine.

the thing is, my education is there to refill the void so to say, as many Danish game companies are moving out of Denmark (among those are IO interactive, those who made the Hitman series and Mini ninjas), meaning the competition will be rather small at first. Also, IO Interactive and co. usually has to find coders etc. across the borders, as there aren't enough here. On the other hand, 3D animators and modellers are an oversaturated market (many leave Denmark to work overseas, especially in American game companies and in Hollywood) while the rest usually have to go for other jobs, much like web designers pretty much everywhere (many of my classmates are educated web designers).

Many game companies are looking at us right now because of our potential to adapt across multiple programming languages and engines, which is rarely taken into consideration in the 3D and game design schools, such as Eternally's school. The thing is, you learn to script an engine, but you don't learn how to MAKE an engine. This has become a large concern for many a game studio, as they may not be able to afford the high costs of licensing, say UE3.



The_Green_Ego
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21 Mar 2011, 10:51 am

6th grade through about 9th or 10th grade i wanted to be a video game designer. After 10th grade, I realized this was just a pipe dream and that i would be sitting in a cubicle all day if i had pursued a game designing degree. That's why back up plans are good, I also have interests in Cartooning and Improv.



Eternally
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21 Mar 2011, 11:08 am

KBerg wrote:
All I'll say is I hope it's a good school you're going to with some emphasis on deeper stuff and good foundations in the non-gaming technical aspects involved. Because from all I can tell a lot of game design courses are in general not regarded terribly highly by people in the industry due to the high number of game design degree mills that spit out people with minimal skillsets and high expectations. I've seen more than a few times comments from people in the industry that it can be so bad they'd honestly rather get non-game design degrees that somehow relate to the job because of how low many of the schools teaching game design set the standard. Not all of course, but enough that I get to hear some very entertaining stories at times.

And yeah, you can expect to work long hours at times. Every friend I have in the industry will just disappear for months as they get close to the release date and the crunch gets worse the closer it gets. Still, they do love it even if the hours can be near inhuman at times. So I do hope that you can get a job in the gaming industry, everyone I know who's been in it or is still in it seems to love it even though at times it's very stressful with big workloads.


Yeah its a pretty good school we go threw allot of different things. although my class can be very quiet at times for me it can be hard sometimes. The thing is a class studying for the gaming industry, the communication in the class should be like a game company working in the industry so people help each-other out if they have a problem.

Communicating like a game company I believe could be a good training for the future. Hopefully the communication and group work will become better next year.

Do you mean the big crunch thats famous in the industry.



Last edited by Eternally on 21 Mar 2011, 12:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Eternally
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21 Mar 2011, 11:11 am

Foxx wrote:
i'm in the third semester of my game design education (actually it's CS centered on games), but the plus side with this one is that you can use the education here to become something else, like an IT consultant, programmer or a project leader. Plus, we get lessons in company management so we can start our own companies and work from there.

The main difference is that we do not delve on the graphics but the code instead, as we make or modify game engines and implement the concepts and rules in code, except we mainly work with C#, XNA and the Unity3D engine.

the thing is, my education is there to refill the void so to say, as many Danish game companies are moving out of Denmark (among those are IO interactive, those who made the Hitman series and Mini ninjas), meaning the competition will be rather small at first. Also, IO Interactive and co. usually has to find coders etc. across the borders, as there aren't enough here. On the other hand, 3D animators and modellers are an oversaturated market (many leave Denmark to work overseas, especially in American game companies and in Hollywood) while the rest usually have to go for other jobs, much like web designers pretty much everywhere (many of my classmates are educated web designers).

Many game companies are looking at us right now because of our potential to adapt across multiple programming languages and engines, which is rarely taken into consideration in the 3D and game design schools, such as Eternally's school. The thing is, you learn to script an engine, but you don't learn how to MAKE an engine. This has become a large concern for many a game studio, as they may not be able to afford the high costs of licensing, say UE3.


I thought the licensing for Unreal Engine 3 had gone down, damn I cant remember where I read that.



Foxx
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21 Mar 2011, 2:41 pm

Eternally wrote:
Foxx wrote:
i'm in the third semester of my game design education (actually it's CS centered on games), but the plus side with this one is that you can use the education here to become something else, like an IT consultant, programmer or a project leader. Plus, we get lessons in company management so we can start our own companies and work from there.

The main difference is that we do not delve on the graphics but the code instead, as we make or modify game engines and implement the concepts and rules in code, except we mainly work with C#, XNA and the Unity3D engine.

the thing is, my education is there to refill the void so to say, as many Danish game companies are moving out of Denmark (among those are IO interactive, those who made the Hitman series and Mini ninjas), meaning the competition will be rather small at first. Also, IO Interactive and co. usually has to find coders etc. across the borders, as there aren't enough here. On the other hand, 3D animators and modellers are an oversaturated market (many leave Denmark to work overseas, especially in American game companies and in Hollywood) while the rest usually have to go for other jobs, much like web designers pretty much everywhere (many of my classmates are educated web designers).

Many game companies are looking at us right now because of our potential to adapt across multiple programming languages and engines, which is rarely taken into consideration in the 3D and game design schools, such as Eternally's school. The thing is, you learn to script an engine, but you don't learn how to MAKE an engine. This has become a large concern for many a game studio, as they may not be able to afford the high costs of licensing, say UE3.


I thought the licensing for Unreal Engine 3 had gone down, damn I cant remember where I read that.


it's not a one-time expense, you have to give them a slice of your profits (30% afaik) if you go for the "cheap" licensing plan... only if you buy the expensive license ($50k+ i think), you can have all the profits to yourself.

still, it's pretty expensive for smaller developers and indies, which results in using cheaper alternatives (unity3d, cube engine). it's also worth noting that publishing incurs an expense as well (Steam also wants a slice of your profits), so if you want to start your own place or work at a small gamedev studio, you'll be at a loss unless you can program in something else.



Eternally
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21 Mar 2011, 2:54 pm

Foxx wrote:
Eternally wrote:
Foxx wrote:
i'm in the third semester of my game design education (actually it's CS centered on games), but the plus side with this one is that you can use the education here to become something else, like an IT consultant, programmer or a project leader. Plus, we get lessons in company management so we can start our own companies and work from there.

The main difference is that we do not delve on the graphics but the code instead, as we make or modify game engines and implement the concepts and rules in code, except we mainly work with C#, XNA and the Unity3D engine.

the thing is, my education is there to refill the void so to say, as many Danish game companies are moving out of Denmark (among those are IO interactive, those who made the Hitman series and Mini ninjas), meaning the competition will be rather small at first. Also, IO Interactive and co. usually has to find coders etc. across the borders, as there aren't enough here. On the other hand, 3D animators and modellers are an oversaturated market (many leave Denmark to work overseas, especially in American game companies and in Hollywood) while the rest usually have to go for other jobs, much like web designers pretty much everywhere (many of my classmates are educated web designers).

Many game companies are looking at us right now because of our potential to adapt across multiple programming languages and engines, which is rarely taken into consideration in the 3D and game design schools, such as Eternally's school. The thing is, you learn to script an engine, but you don't learn how to MAKE an engine. This has become a large concern for many a game studio, as they may not be able to afford the high costs of licensing, say UE3.


I thought the licensing for Unreal Engine 3 had gone down, damn I cant remember where I read that.


it's not a one-time expense, you have to give them a slice of your profits (30% afaik) if you go for the "cheap" licensing plan... only if you buy the expensive license ($50k+ i think), you can have all the profits to yourself.

still, it's pretty expensive for smaller developers and indies, which results in using cheaper alternatives (unity3d, cube engine). it's also worth noting that publishing incurs an expense as well (Steam also wants a slice of your profits), so if you want to start your own place or work at a small gamedev studio, you'll be at a loss unless you can program in something else.


Okay now I get it thanks for clearing it up, I plan to join a big company this indies stoff looks cool but I 'm more interested in bigger companies.



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21 Mar 2011, 5:33 pm

I want to be a game writer. But wouldn't know how to get or where to go for that



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22 Mar 2011, 10:26 am

Sallamandrina wrote:

My husband has been a game designer for 14 years now. He worked for several companies across Europe on very different projects, each lasting between 1 to 2.5 years. All I can tell you is that the last few months were always exhausting and involved working long hours and weekends, no matter how well you plan things, you always push for more before the release. Most people who do this are very passionate about it so they do it quite willingly :)



If you dont mind asking him... do game companies hire people who have no computer related degrees? I know they hire artists and programmers as well as experienced managers but who do they hire to be the creative content creators? aka those who think up the concepts, write the stories/plots, dialogue, etc? What degrees do they look for to fill those positions?