<p>I go to UC Davis and was thinking about switching to the computer science/engineering major(currently in bioengineering right now) with the idea that I could get into the video game programming/development world. I have had limited experience with coding (just some minor things to control little systems in my high school engineering class) so I'd be starting from a little more than scratch.. Is that just a dream job or is this really possible?</p>
<p>I’m currently in my first quarter of my freshman year so changing majors would not be a big deal</p>
<p>bummmmpppp</p>
<p>Well, let me tell you something about what you’re getting yourself into. First of all, game development is building on top of strong programming skills and software design. Chances are that most employees at a big game development company such as Activision or Blizzard, Zynga or DICE, or any other company have already worked as software engineers, gained a lot of experience in the field through previous internships, job positions, etc. In fact, software engineers don’t appear right away once they’re given a piece of paper that says “Bachelor of Science, Computer Science”. I think that’s true for any career you’re trying to go for. It’s not as simple as cake, and it’s certainly not wise to go for a degree for the sake of high salaries, especially not if you don’t have the passion for it. </p>
<p>In case you’re asking if it’s possible to get a degree or to get a job in game development, then certainly everything is possible you put in your mind. The best way to get a sense of what you’re getting into is by starting programming yourself. Start off with simple web design and development, (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP), and go from there. Object-oriented PHP can most definitely prepare you for the most demanding programming languages in the industry, that is, Java, Objective C, C, C++ and C#. Once you’ve developed a few applications yourself, get a good grasp on what it’s like to be developer, you can start thinking about how a game is developed. All of the skills you’ve gained up to that point will play a critical role in game development - your skills are put to the test, and this is where your strong programming, mathematical and physics skills come into play.</p>
<p>Don’t misunderstand what I’m trying to say, just interpret it in the most positive way. Switching a major can be deadly, but it could also be promising.</p>
<p>I’m not sure starting with web development is the best if you want to get a feel for programming logic; you will spend a lot of time doing things like fighting with CSS. To get a better sense of programming, I would recommend Python or Racket. Both have some straight-forward packages that can also be used to make games quite early on.
You might also try taking an introductory computer science class to get a feel for what you would be getting into, before you decide to switch.</p>
<p>Without getting into the usefulness as in another topic, either route will give you a good perspective on what it’s like. From personal observations, most people already give up after some web development.</p>