[Gamedev] This might sound unusual, but...

TL;DR How can I get into game industry?

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I always wanted to be part of a game developing since I was a kid, although I lack of pernitent knowledge and skills that are commonly vital for these kind of jobs. I'm currently on my 20's, high school just done, not a single grade since I'm clueless about the way to choose. And honestly this kinda disheartens me by the fact time seems to hasten whenever I think about it.

My current competences (that I think I'm aware of) are creativity, story telling, and *ahem* bug tester. This aside, if I learned anything about getting a job is that we live in a pretty competitive world, so these "competences" are just thrown away at this moment. So basically I need something more solid that could really get me a chance to get into game development. Diplomas, work practise, years of study... anything that helps.

All this boring stuff apart, I'm not saying that working in the industry is going to be a cakewalk. I'm aware that not all companies offer the same treatment to its employees, that they can get really time-comsuming, the amount of required effort (as well as patience, judging by the amount of work)... But you know what? I can't be bothered. It has been my fuel of life - cannot think of another job within my likings.

Because of this I've been thinking of starting a grade the upcoming year. Or literally anything else that could help too. But the question is, what to choose? Will a grade be even enough?

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Sorry if this post doesn't belong here, as well as for my WIP English.

Hope you have a good day y'all!

What is your location?

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erdelyii wrote:

What is your location?

well he said highschool so look in the english part of the world. but without a degree or even a higher education? nope. Writers are mostly studied writers. No skills in programming or design? also not good.

and while do not work in the gameindustry, i heard the word creativity as softskill at almost every interview^^ Get some real skills, yes, you have to work for them, and then try to find job openings or take the iniative and write to gamedevelopers.

what does a grade mean? I dont really know your school/university system^^ a bakk, a ms c/b/a whatever?^^

To get a job as a game developer, you'll need to be able to show that you can do the job and that you're interested in it. In my experience, college/university are really only useful if you have a specific goal in mind, so if you're not sure what you want to study, don't go there just yet.

Firstly, I'd recommend finding an engine with extensive development tools available to end users, so that you can get a feel for how games work, mess around with them a bit, and work out which parts appeal to you. This can provide experience that's directly relevant to the job, and show that you're actually interested in it (passing a course does not prove this, it just shows you understood the material). And if you find that it's not as interesting as you thought, you won't have paid course fees for nothing.

If RPGs are your thing, the Skyrim Creation Kit allows you to do quite a lot without dealing with the engine code. If you're more interested in building a game from the ground up, I'd recommend giving the Unity engine a look (it was free for hobbyists last I checked). You can work out the basics of these tools with online tutorials, and for the more advanced bits you'll need to research them as required for your projects.

My apologies about the late response, I'm from Europe and I was writing this before going to bed.

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tsunamikun wrote:

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erdelyii wrote:

What is your location?

well he said highschool so look in the english part of the world. but without a degree or even a higher education? nope. Writers are mostly studied writers. No skills in programming or design? also not good.

and while do not work in the gameindustry, i heard the word creativity as softskill at almost every interview^^ Get some real skills, yes, you have to work for them, and then try to find job openings or take the iniative and write to gamedevelopers.

what does a grade mean? I dont really know your school/university system^^ a bakk, a ms c/b/a whatever?^^

I'm from Spain! The thing is that universities are far from my reach (at least those what I'm interested about) but honestly I wouldn't mind moving if necessary, as long as it helps me reaching my goals. On the other hand, what I meant was that we have college grades (perhaps sounds different on your country?) that we can only study after achieving high school. We've also got some sort of alternatives to university that are more oriented to specific things, like programming, illustration... Which also gives you diplomas.

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Bk老虎 wrote:

To get a job as a game developer, you'll need to be able to show that you can do the job and that you're interested in it. In my experience, college/university are really only useful if you have a specific goal in mind, so if you're not sure what you want to study, don't go there just yet.

Firstly, I'd recommend finding an engine with extensive development tools available to end users, so that you can get a feel for how games work, mess around with them a bit, and work out which parts appeal to you. This can provide experience that's directly relevant to the job, and show that you're actually interested in it (passing a course does not prove this, it just shows you understood the material). And if you find that it's not as interesting as you thought, you won't have paid course fees for nothing.

If RPGs are your thing, the Skyrim Creation Kit allows you to do quite a lot without dealing with the engine code. If you're more interested in building a game from the ground up, I'd recommend giving the Unity engine a look (it was free for hobbyists last I checked). You can work out the basics of these tools with online tutorials, and for the more advanced bits you'll need to research them as required for your projects.

Yeah, that's what I've been told. Maybe it's not such a good idea when I don't even know where to start. However gives me the feeling I'm wasting time by sitting here and not studying a college grade, but at the same time, I'm fearing that I'd spend those years of learning for nothing. As you say, perhaps I should give it a different perspective.

By the way, game engines are great learning tools! I can really tell. I've put my hands on RPG Maker, Unity, GameMaker and Unreal Engine 4 while watching some tutorials. To be honest I just know about the basics, so there's still a long way until I can even create a small game to start with - but hey, if things were so easy this world would be boring. In any case, my biggest issue is that my patience on self-learning is sort of low. I definitely should work on that if I ever want to achieve anything.