Studying computer game technology

[RosiLi]

What do you think about studying computer game technology? What university do you recommend for studying computer games?

 

[whatever I feel like]

Save yourself a lifetime of misery, disappointment, pain and zero job security and do something, anything, else instead.

Literally any other programming related job is infinitely more beneficial to its workforce than game development.

 

[NerdShamer]

Save yourself a lifetime of misery, disappointment, pain and zero job security and do something, anything, else instead.

Literally any other programming related job is infinitely more beneficial to its workforce than game development.

Going by the "game" that Zoe Quinn made, unless you're a tranny, whatever you made probably won't be a hit.

 

[whatever I feel like]

Going by the "game" that Zoe Quinn made, unless you're a tranny, whatever you made probably won't be a hit.

99.8 percent of "game developers" are texturing sidewalks, loading every Madden player into every stadium in order to check for crashes, translating someone else's writing into a foreign language, or shitting out "skins" for games that they personally despise. There's very little creativity in the actual job description for most developers. You aren't going to be John Carmack, you are going to be the guy spending 60 hour weeks remaking something that you already made because someone 1000 miles away wants to change the main character's name halfway through development.

 

[The Fool]

>university

uni's compsci is notoriously shit. out of every field of any study they are the worst at it.

like whatever I feel like said, games are made out of a variety of fields and technologies, there isn't a single "games" study or field. you texture, or compose, or script, or work on the engine, which in itself is different fields of rendering and physics. You need to be way more specific in what you're asking. Ideally you'd just pick up a language and start making text games in the console and work your way up from there as a hobby, actually get passionate about it, otherwise you're going to flop.

 

[Jonah Hill poster]

Shigeru Miyamoto was a graduate of Industrial Design and he never studied computer game technology until he met Satoru Iwata, the then-President Of Nintendo.

John Carmack and John Romero were well known video game programmers and graphic designers who didn’t even finish college and they went to make DOOM and the Quake series.

Masahiro Sakurai studied engineering, but decided to take a break from it by getting into computer science to make the Kirby games come to life, with the help of (again) Satoru Iwata. If I recall, he didn’t get a degree.

Even the guys who made Zelda and Dragon Quest didn’t get computer technology degrees. Their degrees were mainly in Japanese Literature and Art.

You aren't going to be John Carmack, you are going to be the guy spending 60 hour weeks remaking something that you already made because someone 1000 miles away wants to change the main character's name halfway through development.

Fun fact: the man behind the Metal Gear series, Hideo Kojima, had an Economics degree and desperately tried to get noticed by Konami to help create the series. He was successful because of knowledge behind how American cinema and action movies worked. Once their studios fired him, he created his own studios where he lets his own computer programmers that he hired create the story for him.

In short, I think OP learning about computer technology isn’t necessarily a bad idea, but it would be a little wise to study Computer and Information Systems, since video games are being looked as a business and not as a hobby anymore.

 

[MediocreMilt]

99.8 percent of "game developers" are texturing sidewalks, loading every Madden player into every stadium in order to check for crashes, translating someone else's writing into a foreign language, or shitting out "skins" for games that they personally despise. There's very little creativity in the actual job description for most developers. You aren't going to be John Carmack, you are going to be the guy spending 60 hour weeks remaking something that you already made because someone 1000 miles away wants to change the main character's name halfway through development.

This.

Make games as a hobby, not a job.

Then () you MAY one day have something you can turn into a big hit on your hands as an indie dev. If that happens, collect some cash for awhile and allow some corp to buy you out quick.

 

[Jones McCann]

Game development isn't a good career really, it's more of a hobby. You can look at any programming job for games and you'll make at most $20 an hour unless you rise ranks quickly. Everyone wants to be a game developer so there's new people waiting to take your place every second. Not to mention it's pretty fucking boring work 99% of the time unless you're just that into it. Pretty much any other job will be more rewarding and more engaging than pumping out the same AAA shit every year.

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole]

You can study computer games in your living room smoking weed, there's no tuition on that and creating a youtube channel is free. If you want to program, learn that. Art, music, sound same thing, learn how it works. There are vidya specific things to all of those but they are part of the larger whole. If you want to be a designer then make something, create a portfolio(applies to everything else as well).

 

[Pissmaster]

Toby Fox of Undertale fame got his start by putting out romhacks of Earthbound. Robin Walker of Team Fortress fame got his start making Quake maps. Icefrog of DOTA fame got his start making, well, DOTA, which was a mod for Warcraft 3. He works at Valve now.

Game modders can get hired onto companies when they make worthwhile content, because they outright proved they have real-world chops. Just mod your favorite game and enjoy everything you'll have to learn along the way.

 

[CrunkLord420]

I wouldn't recommend going to school, I'd especially not recommend going to school for gamedev. Instead I'd recommend making games for TempleOS.

 

[RosiLi]

Thanks for your recommendations, some of that gave me a new thought.

 

[Pissmaster]

Thanks for your recommendations, some of that gave me a new thought.

 

[Basil II]

I really recommend you do it as a hobby, as others have mentioned it's a terrible thankless career choice, I know a good channel on youtube named thebennybox who has tutorials on Game stuff but I haven't watched those specifically.

 

[Sage In All Fields]

School is where education goes to die. Get a job and use the money to buy game design & programming books and a computer then watch the entire series Extra Credits did on game design then watch talks from the demoscene.

 

[Eggplant Wizard]

The early seasons of Extra Credits, to be more specific, if you’re going to watch those videos. I would actually recommend watching only how-to videos on whatever engine you decide to use. That will help you in the long run because having solid mechanical knowledge and implementation skill trumps most everything else for one+man projects.

 

[Jeff_the_Thriller]

Take software dev classes and apply for gaming jobs. Employers will hire software dev majors in gaming roles but not gaming majors in non-gaming roles. I have a friend who is a game design major and she is running into that problem. Another thing to consider, there may be another gaming industry crash on the horizon in the next couple years. Try to keep as many options open as possible.

As far as universities, go to a technical college that has game design. A big state uni will have you focused on bullshit other than your major. You don't need Geology 234 for learning C#. Also stay away from Full Sail type places. You'll rack up an shit load of debt only to become an underpaid slave of EA making nothing but textures for grass. That's it for my old man rant. Good luck.

 

[Saigon63]

Start with assembly and then learn functional programming.

 

[Shroom King]

Remember, OP, if getting a "video game degree" was such a great idea, those schools wouldn't have to advertise on TV at 2 in the morning on Comedy Central.

 

[The Real Me]

Learn HTML and CSS to get a job designing websites, it pays good since it's hard to replace a coder when only they know how to read their style of code. Keep the game shit as a side hobby.