<p>CardinalFang- great info</p>
<p>Cardinal Fang: emailed it to my son as well. While he is currently a junior, mathematics major at a well-respected east coast private U, his intention is to pursue a career in the video game industry. That blog is certainly an eye-opener. He has made a number of contacts, but has had absolutely no success in identifying a summer internship, even with the assistance of someone already working in the industry. He’s not been effusive with his plans post-graduation, but I sure hope he has a Plan B (that doesn’t include grad school).</p>
<p>Great article - I think my H could have written it (in fact I had to look twice to make sure he “hadn’t” written it). As I type this, H is in the process of hiring two new entry level folks for his dept - and they both have Master’s degrees! He routinely warns new hires that this job will be incredibly hard on any relationships they may have. He’s seen a lot of marriages crash and burn. And, as I said before, he’s seen a remarkable number of game studios close in the last few years. Many are moving overseas (Asia and Canada) where programming “drones” are cheaper. </p>
<p>On the plus side - it is a very creative industry, much like making a movie. There are opportunities for script/story writers, level designers, artistic designers, composers, voice actors, etc.in addition to artists and programmers. My H is on the research end of things so, as I always joke, he gets paid to watch people play games. And our kids always had a steady supply of new video games and platforms at home to impress their friends with. </p>
<p>Best of luck to anyone trying to break into the industry! Get a good education but be open to lots of careers. My H has, in addition to working in video games directly, been a consultant, a university professor and a website designer. A new job every 3 years!!! I’ve learned to be flexible.</p>
<p>I very much endorse the blogger’s idea that students who aspire to get into the game industry should get a computer science degree from a regular college or an art degree from a regular art school, and if they do not have the ability to do one of those things, they should think about a different career.</p>
<p>I don’t know about the rest of you, but the kids I’ve known who became artists always were artists. From a tiny age, as soon as they could hold a crayon, they were always drawing and creating art. If you have one of those kids, you know it; you can’t keep them away from doing art. And it would be odd for a boy who wanted to write game software not to be already writing software, and loving it, as a high school student.</p>
<p>I can concur with that last statement^^. My older son was writing game software in high school, taught himself a number of programming languages, and maintained a web site of a game he collaborated on with a hs friend. He did not go into gaming, but pursued an aerospace engineering degree, always concentrating on the programming aspect of group projects. He spent one summer writing apps for the iPhone, including a game that is still available in the iTunes store. That game, and a couple of on-the-spot programming “tests” earned him a summer internship with a start-up in SF which then offered him a full-time job after graduation. It is clear that programming is what he was always meant to do.</p>
<p>Now S2 is the one interested in the video game industry, but not as a programmer – altho he has taken a couple of CS courses and likely will take more next year. His interest is in game-play development.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>This may be practical advice for a field that is difficult to break into, and in fact characterizes my own son.</p>
<p>However, there is a gender bias in this assumption, a deeper bias than your use of “boy” for this example. I had a successful career in software engineering, including some games work, with a degree from a prestigious program. Both at my college and in the workplace, about 1 in 10 computer scientists were female - a statistic which holds today, I believe. I noted that many of my male colleagues did in fact become interested in programming in their teens. Often they had a TRS-80 at home and had been filing tax returns since the age of 14 for their computer consulting work.</p>
<p>My women colleagues tended to discover their interest in programming later. I’m sure there were many factors involved - gender expectations, perhaps other interests, peer support - but the fact is that if we had been told not to bother with the computer software industry because we weren’t programming until late high school or college, the number of female software engineers in the workplace would have been closer to 0 in 10. And many companies, as well as people, would be the poorer for this.</p>
<p>I used the word “boy” on purpose. I’m a female software engineer, so I know that boys who will be programmers are usually already programming in high school, but girls who will be programmers might not start until college. </p>
<p>If you have a boy who wants to get into gaming, but is not already an artist or a programmer in high school, then you should be skeptical, because the boys who end up in gaming start in high school. If you have a girl, she might not program until college, but she should still be good at math and like logical thinking and problem-solving.</p>
<p>(And if I had either a son or a daughter going into programming, I’d tell them to stay away from game companies. They have reputations as sweatshops.)</p>
<p>Actually I have a son and a daughter going into programming. D decided on CS in her second year of college, and has no interest in writing games… S is still in high school, and has been really into writing games for a few years. He loves the programming/problem solving part of it, and does understand that he needs to get a BS CS for general utility.</p>
<p>I’m finding this discussion quite interesting. Truly scary economic times no matter what our kids choose to major in!</p>
<p>Gaming is very narrow but the skills learned from a gaming progam could be a door opener for the new interest areas such as gamification. Gamification touches on how people are motivated or influenced. It also might be an interesting entre into cybersecurity and of course other military operations. </p>
<p>“Gaming” industry is just beginning to see the possibilities so make certain the game design program is not stuck in an old paradigm. The shootem up games are really just the beginning of a new understanding.</p>
<p>So make sure the education is broad enough to leave doors open for allied directions.</p>
<p>The power of the human/computer interaction is the essense of the gaming industry. That understanding is applicable to many industries.</p>
<p>However, does a video game design major give any advantage over a computer science major with the appropriate elective courses? The computer science major would be just as acceptable for game related employment, but more easily hired in non-game situations.</p>
<p>I think it depends on the program. Game design programs no longer follow the same path. As someone mentioned many are called interactive media which pulls from a broad range of disciplines including CS. It is considered an interdisciplinary degree. I agree that CS is a critical component but I caution others who are looking at this question to go beyond the black and white. There is more to this gaming phenomena than the likes of Halo. </p>
<p>Sure my son wants to work for Bungie but this industry is changing so rapidly, we are looking for a program that provides the broadest education and flexibility as possible with a CS minor tacked on. It is looking as though a Masters is becoming increasingly important so we are building that into the equation. </p>
<p>Gaming is much more than programmiing and art. If you are talking about getting your first job, having good CS skills are critical. To succeed in the industry i think will take much more.</p>
<p>I asked 8 game designers on LinkedIn about game schools and programs. Each one said he did not care what school, what degree someone earned or even the persons thoughts. He only cared what games the person had produced on their own time, the thinking behind them, and what skills you can provide the team today. They want to see passion, ability and CS skills. That is the word in 2013.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Meaning that a CS major will have just as good a chance at a game job as a game design major, assuming the passion, ability, etc…</p>
<p>But the CS major will be taken more seriously for the much more numerous computer jobs outside of games. A game design major who fails to meet the passion, ability, etc. thresholds in the game industry may have a harder time finding other kinds of jobs than a CS major.</p>
<p>Possibly. </p>
<p>My DS at this point has no interest in any other CS directions. He earned a 35 on both his reading and science ACT scores so he has options. I think it depends on where the child will thrive. If I force him into CS because of job prospects in 4 years, I am making huge assumptions that might backfire since CS is not his passion. The point I am making is be careful with black and white thinking.</p>
<p>The point seems to be to broaden the education because we do not know where the gaming phenomena is going. Traditional games may not have the capacity to handle all those interested so have a back up where your interests or skills are. If a student enjoys and thrives in CS, it is always useful but know what the goals are and keep your eyes open. Well trained multidisplinarian degrees in interactive media may be excellent training for cybersecurity. Knowing the minds and motivations of hackers, cyber criminals might take more than just CS.</p>
<p>I get concerned when</p>
<p>ucb, I see you’ve taken your anti-video game design major to the ‘useless college major’ thread also! My S is in game design at RIT. It has always made me nervous, but it is all he wants to do and he is a stubborn kid. I have advised him to double major in CS, which he may do because he has AP credits, but he may not. He knows he is going to have to get a job and support himself somehow when he is done. Do you feel the same way about grad programs at the ETC at CMU?</p>
<p>From what I have observed, the vast majority of people working in the technical side of the video gaming industry were just CS major graduates, although an interest in things like graphics, AI, and user interfaces seems to be self-selected for (these types of courses would be useful electives for a CS major interested in game development – though certain core CS technical expertise like algorithms, operating systems, networks, databases, and security are as important in games as well as other computer software).</p>
<p>It is true that CS is somewhat easier than many other fields to self-educate, and people with degrees in physics, math, etc. can enter the industry. But there does not seem to be any advantage to majoring in game design versus majoring in CS with appropriate electives when it comes to gaining employment in computer gaming, but a game design major would be a few steps back of a CS major for other computer jobs (i.e. would need to do more self-education of things that a CS major would have learned in college).</p>
<p>Here are the job descriptions for new graduate, intern, and co-op roles at a computer game company:</p>
<p><a href=“Careers at Electronic Arts - Start your Job Search - Official EA Site”>Careers at Electronic Arts - Start your Job Search - Official EA Site;
<p>I’ve seen a couple of links here now that indicate math and physics is very important coursework for a game designer. This comes as a surprise to me, but makes the field better suited to my son than I would have thought, since he’s a dual applied math/CS major who’s also taking a fair number of physics classes – for fun.</p>
<p>The advanced math requirement also provides a pretty high barrier to entry for this field and may ultimately determine which graduates readily find decent positions and which ones don’t</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Math helps in understanding computer graphics. Physics helps in understanding things moving around “realistically”.</p>
<p>Well it is good for everyone to know the reality of the industry at present and move forward with eyes open. Knowing where you shine is also important as a student but also as an entry level applicant.</p>
<p>Getting into a top graduate program is our goal.</p>