What are prerequisites to getting a degree in video game design?
March 3, 2010 by
Filed under video game design degree
Is there any preparation or practice that a high school kid should concern himself (like art classes or computer classes) with before applying to a college for a degree in video game design, or should he just take normal academic courses?
if you have the chance, take humanities/sociology and creative writing classes. A game that has cool graphics is nothing compared to a game with a good story line that draws in the player.
I’m only aware of one state university offering a BA in multimedia. And, in my contacts with that department the conversation is theoretical and never practical.
In my opinion, when taking art courses, the most important knowledge is design.
In my participation at a specialized school for gaming, it was my observation that wannabe artists were blown over backwards with making a shaded ball in a 3D program.
In my contacts with the most successful movie studio, they offered a sheet listing of qualified universities and the degrees they were seeking with qualified applicants. Mostly BA, never a BS in CIS or CE.
A high school kid should know java and that way they aren’t blocked against any technology because of the framework imposed.
No one person conceives of, designs, creates and develops a game. Decide which area you want to work in and study that. Life’s too short to become an expert in 5 or 6 totally different fields.
A game designer uses a pad and pencil. S/he designs the elements of the game. Character, plot, location, “stuff” (weapons, species of the characters, that “Stuff”). That’s what makes the game sell. But that person doesn’t create graphics (a graphics designer does) or write code (a programmer does). Or get the financing needed to feed everyone during the 2 or 10 years it takes to get from “You know, I had an idea for a game …” to Blizzard.
You can be jack of all trades (and really know “jack”), or master one or, at most, two related ones. (Programming and graphic design use opposite halves of the brain, and you can probably count the number of people who can do both REALLY well on the fingers of one hand – out of more than 6 billion people.) Pick what you’re best at (art and programming aren’t or, if they are, you’re almost unique among humans) and get better at it. The best graphics designer is worth a lot more than a mediocre graphics designer who can also write a little code. So is the best programmer.