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Education Entertainment Games

Majoring in Video Game Design 44

Posted by Zonk from the one-way-to-do-it dept.
valdean writes "The New York Times has an article on how video game design is slowly but surely finding its way into mainstream academia. Whereas fewer than a dozen North American universities offered majors in game design five years ago, now that number is more than 100. From the article: 'Traditionalists in both education and the video game industry pooh-pooh the trend, calling it a bald bid by colleges to cash in on a fad. But others believe that video games - which already rival movie tickets in sales - are poised to become one of the dominant media of the new century.' Are video game design majors just slackers, or are they pursuing a lucrative and legitimate career?"
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Majoring in Video Game Design More

Majoring in Video Game Design

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  • It's so true. When I learned Prolog in my undergrad, the first project I did was to develop a text-adventure game. Man, that was sweet. It had like 16 different places you could go. Although, maybe it's kind of sad that this was only 3 years ago...

  • Lucrative? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by PIPBoy3000 ( 619296 ) on Wednesday November 23, 2005 @10:52AM (#14100754)
    I'd have a hard time suggesting that working in the game industry is a good way to make money. There's far more money to be made other places, except for a handful of lucky developers and designers.

    Plus, I'm not certain gaming companies are looking for game-related degrees. Instead, things like computer science, English, and business are often more desirable, depending on the position people are looking for.

    Most important is the ability to demonstrate your talent. After my Neverwinter Nights mods were released, I got three job offers, one from Bioware themselves. My background is in biology education, of all things. Still, I'd be foolish to take a job in the gaming industry. Working as a developer in the healthcare industry has less stress and pays better. I prefer keeping my developer tendencies as a hobby.
    • I'd have a hard time suggesting that working in the game industry is a good way to make money. There's far more money to be made other places, except for a handful of lucky developers and designers.

      this is true. the college i just graduated from, Columbia (Chicago) [colum.edu] is just starting a game design major [colum.edu] this year that branches out of the interactive media department. while everyone is excited about it, the first thing most of the faculty will tell you is "This industry will eat you alive." It's disappoint

      • Don't completely give up hope (Score:5, Interesting)

        by PIPBoy3000 ( 619296 ) on Wednesday November 23, 2005 @11:52AM (#14101242)
        The good news is that there are starting to be opportunities in the industry for "smaller" developers and designers. With digital distribution methods, the widening audience for games, and the failure of the large publishing houses cranking out endless sequels, there are ways for a handful of people with good ideas to make a difference.

        Don't aim for making the next Unreal Tournament game or the next big RPG. Instead, consider making something like Bedazzled, getting a contract with Bioware making a module for thier Digital Download project, or signing up for a new development group.

        You'll end up working long hours, have little job security, and paid a minimum wage. If you love that sort of thing, that's great. Before you get too gung-ho, you might consider working on a game for the fun of it. Few people have the sort of maniacal focus to debug day after day, work around the personality quirks of teammates, and the willingness to cut features to meet a shipping date.

        I decided to take the safer route, working a steady job and having game development be my after hours hobby. It's fun and challenging, and I love having the creative freedom to do whatever I want. The world needs more wacky creative game designers, despite the challenges it takes to succeed.
      • the [EA] rep said something along the lines of "we'll hire any animators we can find, but there's only 3 or 4 good designers in the whole business and we'd much rather pay them to design good games instead of wasting a lot of money of whatever you think up.

        And you beleived that? Apparently you've not played any EA games lately.
    • Absolutely NOT lucrative. Yes, people that work in the game industry do tend to make larger than average salaries, but compared to the amount of time they put in, the dollars/hour figure is more often than not, BELOW average.

      People who work in game development do it for the love of it.
      • The people I know in games make a hell of a lot less than average to begin with. When you factor in the hours, its horrible. But if they leave, there's 5 college kids who'd love to "get into games" to replace them, so the game companies can keep doing it.
        • Well, if they love their work, I'm sure the relatively lower pay doesn't bother them so much. That being said, I have a friend who works in the game industry, and works insane hours at times, but also has lull periods, and apparently gets paid pretty well. I think it is a matter of finding the right company.
    • It's not lucrative for the students, it's lucrative for the school. How much easier would it be to get up in the morning after a late night of your latest gaming obsession if you knew that you would be spending all day learning about games? A major like this will attract and retain new students, which is good for the school.

      I agree that the current industry probably only needs a few real designers. However, in the future, the programming aspects will be reduced and hopefully there will be some breakthroughs
    • You're right about the limited job market. I went to my nephew's commencement ceremony at Academy of Art College (now University [academyart.edu]), and about 30 kids lined up to get BFAs in game design. I doubt if there were that many new game design jobs in the whole industry that year.

      On the other hand, having the right degree is becomming more and more important. I'm a tech writer with a resume that includes experience at some of the computer industry's leaders. But there are lots of companies that won't even look at m

  • Better than Film-making (Score:3, Informative)

    by HugePedlar ( 900427 ) on Wednesday November 23, 2005 @11:01AM (#14100825) Homepage
    Like any industry, particularly entertainment, there's excellence and there's shit.

    Some video games contain the most innovative and brilliant code - think AI and shader routines. Not to mention some of the fantastic artwork, both 2D textures and 3D sculptures.

    If people can study film-making at uni, why not game-creation? I'd argue some of the techniques needed for the latter are far more academic.

  • I posted this before, but... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    ...I hope it's okay if I dupe myself! I actually started my major in game design (Bachelors of Entertainment Software Development) at the University of Michigan almost 4 years ago now. Because it was not offered in the regular curriculum, I had to make it up. I included english, film, animation, programming, media violence, and other classes in my custom concentration. I was supported and endorsed by the chair of the CompSci dept and noted AI researcher John Laird. Even if your school is not one of the
    • I wish this was how it were done in the UK - if i could have chosen my subjects, i wouldnt have felt so dejected upon graduation!

      Although there are actual VG courses (Computer Animation and Special Effects, CASFX, and Interactive Systems and Video Game Design, ISVGD, are just two that i know of that are/were on at my old Uni), the content was either outdated, poorly constructed or badly taught - or a combination of the three, with other unsightly monstrosoties thrown in.

      VG courses are the next big thing, an

  • How many designers do we need? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by screwballicus ( 313964 ) on Wednesday November 23, 2005 @11:06AM (#14100867)
    And so my question is, how many game designers trained in the high art of game design itself do we realistically need in the modern world? We certainly need lots of modelers, graphic artists, coders and testers who will often employ their skills working on game projects for game companies, but by comparison, what kind of market is there out there for a 'game design' graduate who isn't an expert either in the business end of game design (a gaping hole in the collective expertise of many a small game company, who believe they can succeed in the market on design talent alone) or the particular areas in which one needs well-developed specialised skills. There are certainly great designers out there who just do design and they're the ones we tend to celebrate most from the various great dev teams of history, but is shooting for 'designer' shooting for too small a target market?
  • Universities offer degrees in film making, screen writing, music, and a host of others that were probably looked down upon at first. As games become more and more complex, I definitely see the parallels to film degrees. I'm sure if a university offered a degree in film in 1930 its accreditation would have been yanked; The Tisch, the nyu school of film, was only inaugerated in 1965.

    I'm sure the degree will be more useful than a BA in Art Therapy, or some other nonsense. (Of course the people drawing pictures
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • ...from the article:

    Because to me, there is no significant difference - except for clothing preference - between people who are making games and people who are manipulating huge database systems to try to figure out where the markets are headed.

    Well said. Game programming is great stuff - for me, even writing a little DOOM utility [rubyforge.org] was a very rewarding task. I learned lots about Ruby bit-packing, bitmap formats, and so on. And it's a great conversation piece...

  • I think that's more schools than offer my major (cognitive science), for undergrads, at least. When I was applying (8 years ago), I only found like 15-20, but I think there are more now. (Probably were more then, but not many.)

    Makes me wonder what the least-offered majors are...

  • It all depends (Score:3, Insightful)

    by th1ckasabr1ck ( 752151 ) on Wednesday November 23, 2005 @11:21AM (#14101000)
    I work as a game programmer and have done a bunch of interviews, some of which coming from people out of these new game specific programs. Based on this (very small) sample size, I was a bit underwhelmed at the quality of the people coming out of these schools.

    To me, the best thing you can do is to get a CS degree and then come out of school with some major, game-related project to show off to people. I was lucky enough to get this experience through a job while I was in school. A lot of people won't be so lucky, so work on a mod or a tech demo or something.

    The real think to remember is that there's nothing magical about working on video games. It IS a particularly cool job, but that doesn't change the fact that you are making software for a customer. Be smart, work hard, apply yourself and it will all work itself out.

    Also play a lot of games, that always helps.

    • To me, the best thing you can do is to get a CS degree and then come out of school with some major, game-related project to show off to people.

      This is so true. I teach at a university and I have students work on game-related projects. But I always have to tell the students that they should remember that game design is not a subject of research of computer scientists. It is a subject of research for social and cultural scientists. If you want to build games, you simply have to learn to be a good computer s

  • ... but I would never work in the games industry. I like spending time with my family and earning a decent living too much to replace it with perpetual crunch time and "this 18 year old will work for half what you want, so a decent wage is out of the question" mindsets. Business software development may not be glamorous, but it pays the bills and I can (sometimes) spend time with my family at night.

    If these kids going to video game design schools think they are going to play video games all day, they will b
    • "If these kids going to video game design schools think they are going to play video games all day, they will be quickly disabused of such a nonsensical viewpoint. Game development is hard work." - QFT. I'm doing a degree in Computer Games Technology here in Scotland and while the first year was pretty light things are really started to get heavy. There's a lot of maths involved in the technical side of games and when you're programming games day-in-day-out the last thing you want to do when you get home is
      • You and all the other people looking to find employment in the gaming industry have the wrong impression about what happens in a studio. I work for one of the largest cell phone game developers and while for most of the day we program, we also play a tremendous amount of games. At lunch time, almost every computer has a game on it (CS, etc), and the same can be said at the end of the day, when people stick around a little more to play. This of course doesn't include the mandatory game playing you need to do
        • This is actually what I've heard about studios. I was more referring to the university course which manages to sap most of the fun from games for a lot of people. My comment was a general one based on the many people I know in this position, but personally I still love playing games. I was worried for a while from speaking to people in the years above me who would say "I haven't really played a game for over a year" and thinking...where is this fun for people who love games? Fortunately I have found that t

  • Tech School (sorta) Scam... (Score:3, Informative)

    by nsxdavid ( 254126 ) <{ten.yalp} {ta} {wd}> on Wednesday November 23, 2005 @11:47AM (#14101197) Homepage
    Over the past two years, the local Tech schools (I won't name names) have been coming to us looking for instructors for their new "game design" programs. I like to help out, but as I did I found that their approach to this wasn't realistic... and soon I found out why:

    Essentially, for the tech schools, this is sort of a scam. I heard straight from one of the directors... Mom and Dad bring billy to a tech school because they don't want his slacking-ass sucking them dry anymore. He looks at the programs offered... oooow communications... that sounds easy... and dull. Then he sees "game design" and BINGO he's excited, enthusiastic... he envisions making Grand Theft Auto XXII or whatever... mom and dad see their son enthusiastic about school for the first time... and the school tells them about how the game business is a multibillion dollar industry... it's a done deal.

    But who's teaching these courses? So far, in this area, they have little to no teachers who can do this stuff. No one who's A) an industry vet and B) who would put up with the academic BS, and C) who has a masters degree (most of the best have no degree at all) and D) willing to do it basically for nothing pay wise. There are people who have A, B and D... and would be invaluable in teaching kids exactly what it takes... but with no masters, no dice.

    From what I hear, most of the big tech schools simply had this decision to have a game program handed down from on high (at the corporate level)... "You shall offer this program... ENGAGE!" In some areas, this isn't too hard... in others it's darn near impossible due to a lack of game deveopment company representation. They don't seem too concerned (except for the individuals responsible for starting up the program).

    A lot of kids are going to waste time in sub-standard programs until this works itself out.

    • Well, no crap. There are some notorious for-profit tech schools that make their money on poorly paid staff training flunkouts. Still, some schools are recruiting designers and "industry people", thinking (rightly) that a rigorous curriculum with quality instructors will attract the best of those called to make games.

      But you don't go into this field to make money, any more than people go into cinema (yeah, I had a film studies minor, thank you very much) to make money. Hmmm... But, well, video game criticis

  • I have a certificate in Game Design ... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by SuperRob ( 31516 ) on Wednesday November 23, 2005 @12:17PM (#14101405) Homepage
    While getting my Associate's degree (on my way to a Bachelor's in Business Admin.) I picked up a certificate in Game Design. Not because I want to be a game designer, but because I want to have a grasp of how they think and part of the process, because my ultimate goal is to become a Game Producer.

    I don't know what the quality of these programs is like elsewhere, but at the school I got my certificate from, one class was taught by Jennifer Boespflug from Microsoft, and the other was taught by Hardy LeBel (on the Halo and Halo 2 teams).

    So what did I learn? I learned a lot about the background of the industry (most of which I already knew as a journalist and fan), and I learned a lot about how much research a good game designer needs to do to make sure that they're really getting to the core of what will make the product resonate with gamers. But more than anything, I learned that I don't want to be a game designer. :)
  • Well... lets just put it this way, we all call it "Full Sail and three sheets to the wind" for a reason. Not a weekend goes by where you don't hear bottles smashed and drunken fools falling into the lakes. If these guys are "pursuing a lucrative and legitimate career" then crack whores must be CEO's in training.
  • I'm fairly sure that the schools offering this are doing so to get the money, but I know that at least a few of the students who take those curses are truly trying to make it into the game world. When I went to school, I went for computer art, (NOT graphic design) and the only two collages who offered a computer art degree east of the Mississippi were Savannah College of art and Design and Ringling. When I talked to the other schools about there computer art program they said I would be learning things l
  • Are video game design majors just slackers, or are they pursuing a lucrative and legitimate career?
    The ones who switch to CIS after the first year are slackers. The ones who graduate are pursuing a legitimate career. In very few cases will that career be lucrative.
  • Anyone going to college because they think they can get a job doing what they study there is going for the wrong reasons. I happen to have worked in online games for the past 4 years, and before that worked in factory automation. My college degree has nothing to do with what I do for a living, but it helped me develop ways of thinking that would never have been available in the working world. My undergraduate degree is History/Mathematics/Classics, my Masters degree is in Late Ancient / Early Medieval Hi
  • I'm currently attending Full Sail [fullsail.com] and getting my bachelor's in Game Design and Development... so yes, it is entirely possible, and I plan to make a career as a game programmer (maybe designer, but I doubt it).
  • The game development field is probably the hardest field to get into, and enjoy it. You have to have both strong programming skills AND a creative edge over the millions of people that want to design games for a living.

    No college degree is going to give you that.

    Game companies are looking for people that don't learn how to design games from a book or from a degree, they want those people that started designing games on an old TRS-80 in basic at the age of 6, text adventures and stick graphics. They want p
  • i suspect, rather, that computer game development degrees are a combination of two things.

    1) supply and demand: there are lots of geeks who'd like to make games, so colleges are selling them degrees in it.

    2) jaded, cynical business: encouraging point (1) above and offering subsidizing/donations/$$$ to college who do so is a good way for companies, like, oh, say, EA, to keep up their herds of programmers that they can abuse for 80 hrs of work a week until they break and then throw away. or, in other words, d
  • I have just started taking a bachelor's program in Game and Simulation Programming, and where I am taking classes I have been fortunate enough to be instructed by an industry veteran who has been with the industry from the beginning and teaching skills related to it from the beginning.

    I haven't been at it long enough to determine whether the skills I'm learning are different enough from a less specific degree, but it is clear that the school isn't fooling around.

    The same cannot be said of most of my classma

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