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Ooooh boy. It's that day of the year now in Sweden. Most college/university applicants receive notice of where they get accepted this fall, and I'm one of them. Two minutes before work starts, I log on through my phone and check the status of my application - it had changed from 10 minutes earlier (lol).
I got accepted.
Fuck yeah.
Computer Game Development.
It... it just feels so GOOD to be able to say it. I'm going to study how to make awesome games. Well, ok, it won't be that easy, and the competition will be fierce, but I have the passion, will power and experience (in college) to make it this time, and I will do my best to get straight A's.
Though there's this oooone teeny tiny little thing that will hinder (not prevent) my success.
My programming skills are... how should I put it... nonexistent? (except for some Matlab and ActionScript 3.0 stuff)
Some of you will laugh at this, some of you will feel sorry for me, but I don't mind.  I am focusing on the design part, and will be spending most of my awake time just doing whatever the courses throw at me. This time there's no family at home, no gf, and no best friends joining class. I'm free. This time it will be me and my computer (and classmates) pushing our limits to the max, 24/7.
So... My gaming life started with such games like Commander Keen, Whiplash, Pandemonium and Descent 2, all some 15 years ago. Now, I'm (soon) 21, and I will try my best to open up my mind and pour out all ideas I have to make wonderful games that people will love. My plans will, if realized, mark human history. Though that won't happen for at least a decade or so, of course.
So. TL. Maybe the next *insert famous successful name in gaming* is typing to you right now. My full name might be harder to spell though. We'll see. I'll try to keep record of my progress - starting with some minor programming, and an update whenever I have a date of when my first class will start! First though, three weeks left with physical labor at work!
  
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Congratulations! It must be so cool to create games. What genre do you wish to specify in? I don't know if RTS would be a good option, as nothing is or can be better than SC2, unless you want to work for Blizzard, which would be nice. I think you should make an FPS or RPG. Good luck with your career!
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Between RTS, FPS and RPG, definitely the latter. Epic adventures is something I love in games, and RTS would just be too hard, I'll leave that to Blizz.
Though whatever genre it will be, I'll hopefully be able to bring some really interesting things to life someday! And thank you!
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I'd start learning to code if I were you, it'll definitely help seeing it a few times and working it out by yourself. You're going to have to learn quite a bit.
I've always been interested in game design too. When I researched into it and realized all the parts that go into the game like graphics, sounds, clients, game engines, the actual game etc. I realized it was too much for one person to do and if I were to go into that field at all I'd want to be able to have control over a lot of those areas.
Do you have any idea what area you want to go into?
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Nice man. I hope to be where you are someday. I'm still in high school, but I want to study game design and development when I'm in college.
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I'm doing the same thing at Georgia Tech right now. Although my major is "Computational Media" and actually focuses very little on actual games (only 3-5 classes deal strictly with games :\), I still plan on working in games as a designer. Make sure you learn as much programming as possible, it not only makes you better at the job, but it will allow you more freedom with your own projects while in school. I'm pretty shitty at programming still (my 4th year) and so my personal projects take FOREVER becuase I'm just slow at it :\.
Ideally since your major has game right in the title you will be doing a lot more game-focused classes, and if so I envy you  . I pretty much have to do all my game-related research and reading on my own since none of my classes really deal with the actual philosophy or technique of game design. the only ones related to it that i've taken have just been programming classes.
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Razith: Already started looking up tutorials for some C++, going to begin going through them before school actually starts in late august.
About area - graphics would probably fit me the best, but design and sound is something I've just recently begun to find interesting. In the program I'll be taking you get to choose between programming and design(graphics) as your major in the second year, so design seems like what I'll be doing. And yeah, it's waaay too much to handle all by one person, you need a team of people for any game. ^^
ClysmiC: Give it your best to get there! Took me two failed years in college to realize it myself, start learning as soon as possible and the sky is the limit!
Ideas: Yeah, as mentioned I'll start asap with it, I will probably also be way behind the rest of the class otherwise. ^^' And yeah, we'll focus heavily on games! First month will be "Introduction to Game construction" where I read that we will be basically just comparing different genres and how they are built differently.
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Gratulations i'm happy for you I applyed for that as well but got accepted into Advanced Web-programming instead. I dont know if i'll go through with it because i'm first in queue for a Web-development program wich i think will suite me better. The only sad thing is that both of them are web based wich means that you can do them wherever you want wich means that i'll have no classmates that i will meet IRL. Really want to move away from mom and dad this autumn and meet new people =(
Where are you going to study?
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Weson: Aw man, sorry to hear that, would've been awesome to have a TL'er as a classmate! :D I'm gonna be studying in Kista, at Stockholm University's campus there.
About moving out, are your classes fulltime or only part-time? If full-time you can still get a loan and move into a dorm or something I bet.
On second thought, don't take a loan unless you REALLY need one. I owe CSN 50.000 sek for one year in college that failed xP.
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On July 15 2011 06:16 Dee-Kej wrote:Weson: Aw man, sorry to hear that, would've been awesome to have a TL'er as a classmate! :D I'm gonna be studying in Kista, at Stockholm University's campus there. About moving out, are your classes fulltime or only part-time? If full-time you can still get a loan and move into a dorm or something I bet.
It's full time. Yeah i've thought about that but taking loans when you dont have to, im not a big fan of that. Im getting quite old though When you are 22 you dont want to say that you live at your parents house ...
EDIT: Just saw your edit
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Congrats on getting into a field that you are motivated for and interested in. Like you said, lacking programming experience is not great. But in college there should be lots of time for you to work on that. In the end what holds people back in college is lack of motivation, not what they know when they start. Often the students who struggle at the start will create good work habits that help out later on.
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Commander keen such an awesome series I remember playing that
I am also starting out school towards game design, good luck to you!
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5/5 because I want you to succeed in your dreams and remember us fondly
Good luck!
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If you are going to design something. Please, please design something that is different from today's crap. Be original mate. I believe in you!
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Gratz! When I went to study IT I couldn't write code at all, but it wasn't that hard to learn it once you put some work into it. Doing every single programming exercise you're given and trying to write some little programs by your own is a great way to learn.
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I'm going to Rochester Institute of Technology this fall, and i want to go into Game Design as well. I know that i'm good with gruntwork once i know the engine(went to a tech camp last summer for the Source SDK), and I've got some java under my belt. I'm also glad to be able to work on games that (hopefully) people will spend countless hours on, like how i did with Morrowind.
I hope i can deal with 'Crunch Time' though :/
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you might want to look into GameMaker // Unity3D // Unreal Development Kit
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congrats dude! i dropped out of my computer science studies because it didn't work for me and right now i'm doing some game developing with a friend (iphone game) which is really fun. i'll pick up studying in a years time again and i will do something like animation/game/interactive media. looking forward to that and i wish you best of luck with your gaming studies <3 i don't think you can study something better than that as a lifelong gaming enthusiast.
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Ah, another industry hopeful... I remember when I had the passion you do now. A few questions I'd like to ask you before I say too much.
1) What specific role do you want to play in the making of games? Design, Programming, Art, Sound, Production, etc?
2) What size company do you want to work for? Huge AAA, 100+ person studios? 20-30 person indie or mobile game companies?
3) What platform do you want to work on? Consoles (X360/PS3/Wii), PC, mobile, etc?
As someone that put in countless hours and sacrificed much in the way of mental and physical health over the last 3 years at a AAA multi-million dollar studio only to have it shut down and watch my dreams be crushed shortly after we released our game... I'm a bit biased. But I do know a thing or two about this industry now.
I'll probably have more to say after you answer the above questions but one tip to start.
You seem to be leaning towards becoming a designer. If this is the case you probably already know that getting a job as one is highly portfolio driven so you will need to make some games during your college years to hopefully show off come job hunting time. In order to do this you need to either a) Learn to program and make your own games or b) Work with a programmer + a team.
If you want to learn how to program, that's awesome. It will make your much more independent and marketable for teams. If you don't want to program and you want to do strictly design just realize that ideas are a dime a dozen. Everyone has game ideas in this industry, they wouldn't be working here if they didn't.
Coming into a small unpaid team and expecting them to execute on your vision is highly arrogant and won't win you many loyal team mates. A programmer can do without a designer, not vice versa. If the rest of your team isn't happy with the design they can easily remove a designer from the team and have someone else that already brings something else tangible do the design instead.
Design is the most fun part of game dev, make sure your team mates get to take part in shaping and influencing the design or they will walk. Part of a designer's job is not just to dream up fun things but to take feedback from the team and find how best to use it. A team that feels involved in the design is a happy team. A team that truly believes in the design is a motivated and vastly harder working one.
All that said, good luck achieving the dream. From someone that tried, failed, and doesn't know if they want to try again, I really do wish you good luck.
Edit: Just noticed you're from Sweden. Good place to be for game dev. Heard good things about Avalanche and Dice from friends that worked there.
Edit2: This might also be a good read for you. While the article is certainly valuable make sure you read the comments afterwards. A lot of game developers airing their grievances, things that you will most likely have to deal with if you make it into the industry. http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/AndrewGrapsas/20110713/7974/Game_Over.php
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stenole: Thanks! And yeah, that what I'm basically plan to do - make use of whatever minute possible to learn whatever I need to catch up or even get ahead of my class.
StuffedTurkey: I actually just bought it again on Steam during the summer sale! When I saw it, it all came back to me: "It's... IT'S THAT GAME! O.O ♥".
Good luck to you too! :D
Probe1: Haha, I promise, I won't be forgetting TL anytime soon! :D
WarChimp: Why do you think I want to get in the industry, if not to shake things up a little? Definitely will try to bring some good new stuff, be sure of it!
Sotamursu: Yeah, that what I'm hoping, that it won't bee too hard to catch up.
GigaFlop: Aw yeah, being able to make a game like that would be a dream come true! :D And "Crunch Time"... *shivers* Well, same here, hopefully I'll be able to handle it if it comes to that! ^^
zhurai: Have begun playing around with GameMaker, will look into the other two as well, thanks!
drooL: Thanks! ^^ ♥
Phyre: First, the questions:
1) Art or Design
2) Weather I want to work as a part of a small or big team I don't know yet. We will be doing some games in smaller teams in class eventually (in second or third year), probably won't be able to answer that with confidence until then. What I'm thinking would be best though is to start off small and go to something bigger after that, but time will tell how it actually turns out.
3) PC is what attracts me the most now!
For the rest of your post, I basically nodded by myself all the way through. Though my OP did get a little bit lost in translation - by "design" I meant art. However, I am interested in learning more to maybe focus on designing games instead of doing the art.
Concerning programming and such, I know it isn't exactly required for neither artists or designers, but it's something I want to learn and have under my belt anyway. I've come to know that (especially if you're a designer) it's good to at least have an idea of what kinds of problems any part of a team might come across. Even as an artist it's good to know what restrictions the programmers have so you don't come up with something physically attractive that's impossible to do in the programming.
And about the part of letting the rest of the team be part in designing the game, tell me about it! xD I've been working with enough groups (though no game projects) to know that that's vital.
Hehe, yeah, Sweden, and especially Stockholm, is a wonderful place to be for many things - designing games is no exception! ^^
Interesting read indeed. Hopefully one can come to change or even remove the unfortunately somewhat standard Crunch Time. I think it's mostly a problem with planning ahead, but I guess if it were that easy they'd been able to figure it out by now. :/ Will keep on reading more of those comments.
Thank you for the wellwishes and long response, and I hope you will find that passion and get back on track again! ♥
Edit: And sorry for the late replies, been working all day until now! ^^
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Congraz! I'ts nice that you have an opportunity to pursue what you love most. I'm sure you'll do great!
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Looks like I've ranted about all the wrong things. An artist that wants to learn programming... you are indeed a rare breed sir.  I know a few rare people can do both well and they can do some amazing things.
Let me know if you ever have more questions. I'd like to help make your journey a bit enjoyable than mine.
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xXFireandIceXx: Thanks, I hope you're right! :D
Phyre: Hehe, rant about whatever you want, any experience you can share would be invaluable And it's not like I have that much of a choice in learning programming - we'll be learning about all areas around making games: art, design, programming and even sound.
Past experiences tell me that I'm not experienced enough right now to know the right questions to ask, so I've got nothing for you right now.
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EPT
