axillarypuma said:
renegade7 said:
Well, many people looking to go into the video games industry don't study "game design" itself, and in all honesty from my experience I'd be wary of such programs. Video games as a field of academic study is still a really new idea so there's a lot that's highly experimental and of extremely variable quality.
Many hopeful video game makers study computer science and/or some kind of visual arts or design, or computer science with a visual design minor. This is what I recommend over looking only at video game programs since CS is an extremely versatile degree.
There are other academic options for the industry as well:
Engineering of various disciplines, but especially computers and electronics, is what you'd want to get in on hardware design, making consoles, GPUs, hardware, etc.
If you want to make graphics or physics engines, you'll need an advanced (graduate level) CS degree and probably some physics and pure math education. It can be worth it though, as short of management these are some of the highest paying jobs in the industry.
Musicians can find good work in the game industry. Some studios actually contract orchestral performers and composers so there is room for classically educated musicians in the industry, but there are also specialized game musicians. You'll want to study a traditional music program and take plenty of sound tech electives, and a few media classes.
But if you just want to work on making games, my recommendation is computer science with a minor in visual arts.
Ah sorry I didn't quite understand your post, so sorry if this sounds redundant, I want to be able to, well, express my ideas and drawings and learn to use the engine properly to implement those ideas in there, so for that I should study Cs and visual arts?
No problem. But yes, if your interest is in coming up with ideas and implementing them in the game, then that's the path I recommend. I'm no expert, my academic background is electronics engineering, but I knew a fair few people in college who wanted to make video games and that was usually the path they took.
Computer science as a degree will cover a lot of programming, it will also go over stuff like networking, architecture and system design, operating systems, and data structures. All of this is necessary for programming video games, and it also gives you the option to get into software and computer engineering if game design doesn't work out (I don't want to discourage you, but it's it's a rough industry and CS gives you a lot of options to fall back on). CS will give you the ability to take your ideas for games and turn them into actual gameplay content.
A visual arts curriculum will teach you how to construct and communicate your ideas. It's useful for anyone working in a creative industry, but to actually get those ideas implemented you'll want a CS degree.
