Poll: Anyone here thinking about a career in gaming?

[AngloDoom]

Nope.

I'm going into nursing: the closest I've come to wanting to be into the games industry is to create a game in RPG Maker for a friend of mine because he made a Pokemon style game about my life and I realised I could never do something like that back for him. Then I got side-tracked by life.

 

[Belaam]

I think it would be fantastic to do game writing, or even just Beta spell checking as grammar/spelling errors in games drive me nuts. But it's not a job in my area, and I enjoy teaching English, which is what I do now. When my kids are older and more capable of entertaining themselves, I may look into it as a part time gig.

 

[Cpu46]

Wrapping up a computer aided drafting major this semester. Picked it because I loved the process and because it is a relatively easy transition between the engineering based 3D modeling programs I use now and game modeling programs. Actually I'm pretty sure that the program I have been using has a file export option that makes it compatible with game modeling format. Also have been tinkering with some free game modeling software here and there during my free time.

So to answer your question OP, Kinda. I'm not actively looking but I have the skills required to hop over to it if I want too.

 

[Chemical Alia]

Currently on a university course to get into that area.
So far it has pretty much convinced me that I'm lazy and talentless.
I barely have time to complete the work, so I can't really do a portfolio.
And the people teaching me 3D modelling are quick to just put it down to you being a programmer if you don't grasp everything straight away, and basically give up on you. No, it couldn't possibly be that I've never done it before, but to be fair, I don't have much artistic skill. Still, modelling is easier than drawing.

Urgh, that's terrible. I took a 3d modeling class as an elective while I was still studying fine art, and I found it frustrating and confusing. My teacher basically explained to me that it wasn't a big deal, since girls aren't known to be good at modeling. It turned out, he was actually just terrible at teaching! (and a terrible artist, I learned years later when I found his portfolio.) I didn't grasp things at first when that one teacher would explain them, because I didn't have a good understanding of how those different tools were supposed to be used to achieve something. Keep up your confidence and don't lose your patience, and focus on learning what the tools are for, and eventually, it will start to make a lot more sense. Kind of like learning to ride a bike.

 

[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.