Poll: Anyone here thinking about a career in gaming?

[C117]

Actually, that is what I am studying right now!

Okay, I am studying videogame music, but it basically means that when I'm done in about 18 months or so, I will be a full-fledged composer, with a speciality in video games. And on the way there I have met several other people within different fields of video game creation that I hopefully will have the opportunity to join up with, since they are all students just like me.

Also, I'm trying to figure out Game Maker in order to make my own games. So, yeah! Video game industry, here I come!

 

[thesilentman]

Hell yes. I don't mind the long times it will take me to code, or the high learning curve. I think I've found something I want to do in my life, and game design is it.

The most common mistake from aspiring developers is saying you want to come up with ideas and have someone else implement them. That doesn't have a lot of weight as the industry as heard of a vast majority of them already. Neither do we care about what graduate school you went to for some piece of paper. We do care about results, actual portfolio samples, game demos - to see you actually do the work to implement said idea.

So, what are you doing to make yourself more attractive to the game studios? Sitting around posting on forums, or picking up Unity3D or UDK and learning how to use it?

Any tips on how to actually get the ideas out of my head? I've been learning to program in C++ for a while, but I haven't really done anything yet besides some terminal programs. I just had a game idea, but not only do I have no idea where to start and how to get myself into the mindset of making a game.

 

[UniversalRonin]

Having done some odd bits of coding in my time, nothing seems like it would suck the fun out of games more than writing them. But still, if you want to get into it, look up C++ and (don't get upset for this people..) Visual Studio. Just get one of the express distributions. But for real, it's not something I would consider making a career from.

 

[Tohuvabohu]

If my initial forray into the Film Industry taught me anything; it's that turning your passion into work may not end up being as good as you think.

Turning games, my most revered and time-long passion, into a career is something I've never really considered. It just doesn't seem like the kind of work that I'm cut out for.

Not that any of you asked, but! My plans for the near-future are.... getting started in commercial diving and preparing for work as a saturation diver/aquanaut.
The further away I get from desks and helping customers, the better.

Safe to say that a career in creating videogames does not suit my needs.

Although I do have an interest in producing written material. Realistically I'd like to focus on writing novels and various stories. But writing a story for a game would probably be something I'd call a Dream-Come-True.
As far as writing goes, writing a game story is not on my radar and probably never will be. But I sure would like to.

 

[uchytjes]

If I ever did do something in the gaming industry it would likely be a solo passion project. Either that or try to sell one of the MANY crazy stories I have in my head.

One such story involves immortality and what would happen if we were to try to attain it. What would make it unique, however, is that the player is the person that is to become immortal, but the problem I've been facing is this: how do you make it so the player chooses the story without knowing that they are doing so. I've been thinking that maybe using a test like the G.O.A.T. in Fallout 3, but I don't think that would be very fun.

 

[VeneratedWulfen93]

I'm on a game design course so hell yeah. Just finished a modelling unit using 3DS Max. Creating and animating things is awesome. I've made levels in UDK and made 2 games using Gamesalad. I hope I do get into the industry otherwise this course will have been a waste of time.

 

[Bazaalmon]

I originally wanted to go into 3d design and animation for movies or video games, so I got my degree in computer drafting after I saw the college advertise it as 2d and 3d modeling, including special effects and animation. Turns out that's for engineering and architecture, and there's little-to-no animation and zero special effects involved. Also it's not super creative, mostly just blueprints and stuff. And everybody wants you to have 8 years of experience in it before they'll even look at you, so yeah, job hunting is a *****. I wonder if I'm entitled to a refund on my degree?

 

[RobfromtheGulag]

Definitely not. After reading developer stories, from the top down the The Trenches, it just sounds like the easiest way possible to ruin the enjoyment of playing games. You'd be playing something and think 'I could have coded that better', and vice versa you could unconciously be copying other games' settings in your work.

 

[Kevlar Eater]

I've thought about it, but I figured I'm neither smart nor creative enough to get my foot in the door. And even if I were either of those things, without connections I'd spend my career coding Dora the Explorer games in a deep depression and looking at the pistol on my desk, contemplating either suicide or murder/suicide.

 

[bananafishtoday]

Any tips on how to actually get the ideas out of my head? I've been learning to program in C++ for a while, but I haven't really done anything yet besides some terminal programs. I just had a game idea, but not only do I have no idea where to start and how to get myself into the mindset of making a game.

How far are you in your C++ studies? (I'm also learning C++ on my own. It's fascinating, but tough!) If you have a good grasp on pointers, object-oriented programming, and the rest of the foundational stuff (not just knowing the syntax but understanding how/when to use things), you can use a library like Allegro or SDL to do most of the heavy lifting for you.

I've been learning Allegro, and I'd recommend it as long as you know C++ well enough to use it properly. (I don't mean this as self-aggrandizement. I say it b/c I started before I knew C++ well enough, so I'd often just get depressed and frustrated and give up because I lacked the skills to solve my problems. Situations like throwing shit in the main method b/c I didn't know how to fit it in a class, then later finding out it made my code essentially impossible to expand. The problem I wasn't "I can't learn this," but "I have absolutely no idea what I'm supposed to learn, or even how to find out what to learn.") You do need to understand the fundamentals of OO design, but if you do, Allegro removes a ton of barriers. Allegro handles graphics, sound, I/O, puts it all in an event queue, and generally makes all that stuff very easy to work with. (link [http://alleg.sourceforge.net/])

(Tbh I still think I'm prolly out of my league though. I'd love to find something more like GameMaker or Unity, but I refuse to use anything but free [as in speech] software b/c I'm obstinate about the politics of it.)

OT: I dunno. I'm "thinking about" a career in games but not "planning on" it I suppose. Basically, I'm trying to pick up the skills I need to make games on my own (possibly with friends helping on graphics/sound, should I eventually code/ design/write something worth asking on behalf of.) If I eventually get good enough that I can support myself doing it, that'd be spectacular. If I don't, that's fine, I'll just keep working on stuff in my free time.

I'm certainly not qualified for or interested in a position in the AAA industry. Above all, I think of myself as a writer. I want to write for games because I think interactivity allows stories to be told in radically different ways and be far more impactful than any other artistic medium. The possibilities are so exciting.

 

[MidLman]

As somebody who's been in the industry for 8 years now, I'm currently looking to get out. Probably going back to school in the fall to start a programming degree. If I continue to work on games it will likely be on my own in my spare time.

I don't want to dissuade anybody from going into it though. If you've got the skills and the dream, go for it! But for me, I've found the job doesn't suit the lifestyle I want to live. It's an incredibly volatile, competitive, and unstable industry. And it doesn't lend itself well to transferable skills (at least in my case - depends on the individual and the position). I love games as much as anybody, but I'm no longer willing to sacrifice my own happiness for the sake of having a cool job. So it's time for a change.

And so I'd advise anybody who's considering it to find some people who are in the industry, ask them questions, and make sure they really know what they're getting into. If I'd known 8 years ago what I know now, I might have made different decisions.

 

[Anathrax]

Yes, game developing is a subject that I'm interested in. I'm just not sure where to start. Every time I have a go at flash development I just forget and start over again.

To anyone who already has a job in the gaming industry... is being 15 years old too early to start? This is considering I'm in one of the currently unstable countries right now.

 

[Davey Woo]

When I started uni (year and a half ago) I was absolutely certain that I wanted to start a career in the games industry. But that ambition has faded away, especially after looking at the requirements for junior developer roles at a few developers.

Now I'm more inclined to have a 'normal' coding job and then try and make games in my spare time.

 

[TheProfessor234]

It's what I'm currently working for now. Applying to a college for a video game development degree.

It's my dream to give other people the same fulfillment that video games give me. The pull from real life where you dive into something more.

 

[Innegativeion]

Hell yes.

Aspiring game designer since the age of four. Just getting out of high school now, but I'll be taking a dedicated game design major fairly soon.

 

[mateushac]

For a long time I thought I might have liked working with 3d modeling and things like that, but I never really went on to actually learn the trade. Being halfway through law school now, I guess it's a tad too late. I look forward to learning a little bit of it just for fun later on, though.

 

[GeneralFungi]

I'm trying to get into graphic design, as it's one of the things I believe I'd enjoying doing. I also love video games. I'm going to pursue my career path and try to become an artist in the industry, but I won't be too heart broken if I have to use my craft outside of video game creation.

 

[The Unworthy Gentleman]

So, what are you doing to make yourself more attractive to the game studios? Sitting around posting on forums, or picking up Unity3D or UDK and learning how to use it?

Does dolling myself up in a pretty dress and shoes help at all? If not then good because I'm not sure I'd be able to pull off women's clothing. Glad this "there is no ideas guy" was near the start of the thread.

Back when I was deciding which uni to go to the only open day seminar I attended was about a degree in games design. I didn't really do my research well and figured games design was going to be actually making them. Turned out it was the closest you can really get to ideas guy; leading the project, keeping things spinning and making calls on what would happen in the game and essentially what boiled down to 'game theory'. The guy speaking even said that chances are it would be a long time before anyone actually got into being a part of the development process and most would end up in games journalism and we all know how honest that job is, though The Escapist runs a pretty factual ship website wise from what I see. The first thing the guy said was that we wouldn't actually be learning how to make the game itself.

That's when I decided to quit that path and took a course in animation for 3 years with an option to do a year in the industry. 5 months on and I don't regret the decision. The only change is that I've went from wanting to focus on video games to thinking about film too.

Long story short, if I get off my lazy ass every now and then I'm already headed down that road.

 

[Ashhearth]

Currently going to college and majoring in Game Design so its a pretty safe bet about what I plan on doing. My college focuses on the programming base first and the more technology aspect of the job so that I would be able to get a job elsewhere at this point.

 

[Krantos]

I'm a software developer. I had originally thought about getting into the industry, but... yeah, I heard some things....

Anyway, I had to stick to an area with no convenient developers nearby(except Stardock), because of my wife's job. Looking at the industry now? I'm glad I didn't go into it. It's a slaughterfest. I want job security and there is none (or next to none) in the Games industry right now.

Besides, I enjoy my job now, so why take a chance on an extremely uncertain industry?