some game design questions

[Kratenser]

Right so just to set the situation, im 17 years old, currently attending a college (UK) and im aspiring to be on a game development team some day. Im aware the odds are against me simply due to the sheer amount of people who have the same goal. I know my chances of getting in are low, but I'm willing to take the risk rather than spend my life doing something else and wondering "What if?"

My first question is about parts of the development team. Given the choice, I would be a level designer. Honestly i cant find the words to describe why, its just what appeals to me most. The reason i mention this is because universities offer two different courses, game design and game development. I'm not really sure which of these level design would fall into, does anyone here know? I would assume it would fall under the design category but I thought id ask just to be sure.

Secondly, to try and improve my chances, I thought I would try out making a game on my own to go along with my application because as aforementioned, odds are not in my favour so I'm going to need all the leverage I can get. I looked it up on the internet and the most common results I received were telling me to use either Python or Java to make my first game. I looked in to python and well, the tutorials i found were somewhat vague, I had no idea what the hell i was doing. Then i tried Java. Java seems like a more reasonable option but, in all honesty, i don't know how to use it. I downloaded the Java Development Kit but I don't know how to open it, It hasn't appeared on my program files and I'm not really sure what I'm meant to do here.
Does anyone here know what programming language/tools i should use to make a game? Try to keep in mind I'm only trained to use Visual Basic, I don't know any other programming languages but I'm a reasonably fast learner.
Also im thinking very simple here, If i can make a game where i move a little man around on screen or jump onto a platform or something, i would be content.

Thanks for reading, and also thanks to anyone who responds. I appreciate it.
Also i apologise for any grammatical errors.

 

[Matthew Dunn]

Hi there
I would like to welcome you to the wonderful world of games development and i can give you a few handy helps.

A little background info of me: Current 2nd year games design student in Teesside University. I want to specialise in Cut scene design

Games Design is part of the development so dont worry, in my uni they have three pathways:
Desgin
Games Art
and Games Animation

there is also games programming but i dont count that

I see you also want to go into level design. Use Unreal development kit rather than any programming tools, because its fast and easy to learn But beware it will pull a fit sometimes but with time you can tame the beast Its the best choice because its free and allows you to do nearly anything and everything you want to.
It also comes with its very own language and scripting systems, but you will want to look at the scripting called kismet

Making a game is more work than you think it is said that there is around 350 jobs that can be done within a game.SO rather than trying to do the whole thing why not make an elaborate level for unreal or any other games uses that engine ? because you want to focus on the design part of it instead of learning unessential skills. Its handy to know basics of animation and art.
Also draw out your ideas, you will need to know how to draw to a good level so you can show ideas rather than explain three paragraphs of text.

And BOOM my final bit of advice is use the website 3D buzz to help you get started with exrtemely helpful tutorials on getting started

Thank you for reading and i hope to work with you in the future

p.s in england the best university for games is Teesside University XD