Thinking about studying game designing

[ShiroyoOchigano]

Hello I had joined this forum a few weeks back and had come here to learn coding and stuff to become a game designer. Now I have to choose a university and I need advice from people like all of you know stuff about game designing.

I have kept my mission of learn how to code on the side now since I am searching for a university, which is getting hard since my grades are poor. Please advice me on what course to take, gaming is my passion and I wish to open a company like valve, blizzard etc that makes games. Ok so here are my skills are flaws:
skills:
1. Good at public speaking. Never lost a competitions in debate, speech etc since 2011.
2. People say I have good leadership qualities.
3. People say I have the ability to brainwash like hell lol.
4. Average artist, nothing out of the ordinary.

flaws:
1. Have absolutely 0 experience in coding or using any software related to game designing.
2. Bad at math and science.
3. Have very low attention span, my attention gets diverted very easily and find it hard to focus on 1 single thing for too long but sometimes i succeed.

Please advice me whether or not I should take up a game designing course or just pursue courses in business management? My dream is to open a company that designs games. If you all would advice me to take up game designing courses then can also please refer me to any university that you may know within the USA that is not too expensive, also my grades are not top notch, its absolutely poor to be honest.

[srachit]

I do not mean to be rude, so if anything I say from here on wards sounds rude, you have my apologies.

Firstly, what exactly to you mean by you are interesting in game designing?
In the coding side of things, or the level design and graphics side of things?

These are two completely different sections, and if it is graphics and level design you are interested in, you are in luck, your math skills do not have to be exceptionally awesome.

On the other hand if you want to program for a game, you need to have a good foundation in mathematics and physics, you mention that you do not have a good foundation in maths, that can be determental to your education.

Now you also mention that you are interested in business management degree? Well if you feel you have a better foundation for that degree, then I would suggest you go ahead and get a business management degree, you can always learn to program as a hobby on your own, or do a minor in computer science. You might be able to join a game company in a managerial position and help with game design every now and then.

In the case you decide to choose to learn programming, I'd suggest either the computer science, or even better the computer engineering course and not a pure game programming couse. The reason being that getting a computer science degree opens up more job opportunites for you in the future( not exactly sure how good game designing degree is for this). Computer engineering in my personal opinion is even better because it combines computer science and electrical engineering, opening up even more job opportunities for you.

Now regarding colleges, I cant help you much there, are your SAT scores any good? Do you play any sports? I hardly know anything about you to give an insight to which university you should apply to.

Disclaimer: All I have said here is personal opinion, I myself am going to be a freshman in university next year, but I have done my homework, and this is what I believe. I would give you the names of the colleges I applied to, but my application had sports, leadership, good marks and a passion for programming included, so unless I know more about you, I wouldnt be able to tell you how to go about it.

[a_bertrand]

Actually I completely agree with srachit:

The first question is, why do you want to start a career in game creations? You don't like the math (and programing does involve generally a lot of them, specially game code), you don't know how to code, so you don't even know if you like it or not, and you say you have an hard time to concentrate on the same subject for a long time? Sorry but game creation at least technically speaking doesn't fit even a bit to your profile.

Content creation and art creation could be more of your kind, but that I can't answer, even if you say you are not even a good artist.

Sorry, but unless you explain your reasoning behind why you would like to enter this kind of (hard) business, I hardly see your profile matching with the kind of job you would find there.

Do you believe that making a game involves playing the whole day? Well, honestly beside at the end of the project, usually you don't play much or not in a fun way...

[tboxx]

I do not mean to be rude, so if anything I say from here on wards sounds rude, you have my apologies.

Firstly, what exactly to you mean by you are interesting in game designing?
In the coding side of things, or the level design and graphics side of things?

These are two completely different sections, and if it is graphics and level design you are interested in, you are in luck, your math skills do not have to be exceptionally awesome.

On the other hand if you want to program for a game, you need to have a good foundation in mathematics and physics, you mention that you do not have a good foundation in maths, that can be determental to your education.

Now you also mention that you are interested in business management degree? Well if you feel you have a better foundation for that degree, then I would suggest you go ahead and get a business management degree, you can always learn to program as a hobby on your own, or do a minor in computer science. You might be able to join a game company in a managerial position and help with game design every now and then.

In the case you decide to choose to learn programming, I'd suggest either the computer science, or even better the computer engineering course and not a pure game programming couse. The reason being that getting a computer science degree opens up more job opportunites for you in the future( not exactly sure how good game designing degree is for this). Computer engineering in my personal opinion is even better because it combines computer science and electrical engineering, opening up even more job opportunities for you.

Now regarding colleges, I cant help you much there, are your SAT scores any good? Do you play any sports? I hardly know anything about you to give an insight to which university you should apply to.

Disclaimer: All I have said here is personal opinion, I myself am going to be a freshman in university next year, but I have done my homework, and this is what I believe. I would give you the names of the colleges I applied to, but my application had sports, leadership, good marks and a passion for programming included, so unless I know more about you, I wouldnt be able to tell you how to go about it.

There are game designers for AAA games which don't particular relate to programming or art. These people and jobs are rare and its easier and better to break into one these fields with a good base knowledge of something. If you really want to be a game play designer and want the best shot than I suggest you take a double major in computer science and business management. If math isnt your thing get, a tutor. If paying attention is hard, go to the doctor and get diagnosed and treated for ADD. You will be surprised at what you can do if you find enough help and really don't consider giving up. The high school me would never have thought I could have became an attorney. Law school was 100x harder than college but with help and a no giving up attitude it was doable. "Not good at math" does not mean cant do math.

Better to have a computer science degree and be looking for work than a game design degree and looking for work.

[srachit]

Oh we have an attorney here? Thats awesome to know! Get ready to be bombarded with law questions

[ShiroyoOchigano]

Thank you for all your help i really appreciate it.

[ShiroyoOchigano]

I do not mean to be rude, so if anything I say from here on wards sounds rude, you have my apologies.

Firstly, what exactly to you mean by you are interesting in game designing?
In the coding side of things, or the level design and graphics side of things?

These are two completely different sections, and if it is graphics and level design you are interested in, you are in luck, your math skills do not have to be exceptionally awesome.

On the other hand if you want to program for a game, you need to have a good foundation in mathematics and physics, you mention that you do not have a good foundation in maths, that can be determental to your education.

Now you also mention that you are interested in business management degree? Well if you feel you have a better foundation for that degree, then I would suggest you go ahead and get a business management degree, you can always learn to program as a hobby on your own, or do a minor in computer science. You might be able to join a game company in a managerial position and help with game design every now and then.

In the case you decide to choose to learn programming, I'd suggest either the computer science, or even better the computer engineering course and not a pure game programming couse. The reason being that getting a computer science degree opens up more job opportunites for you in the future( not exactly sure how good game designing degree is for this). Computer engineering in my personal opinion is even better because it combines computer science and electrical engineering, opening up even more job opportunities for you.

Now regarding colleges, I cant help you much there, are your SAT scores any good? Do you play any sports? I hardly know anything about you to give an insight to which university you should apply to.

Disclaimer: All I have said here is personal opinion, I myself am going to be a freshman in university next year, but I have done my homework, and this is what I believe. I would give you the names of the colleges I applied to, but my application had sports, leadership, good marks and a passion for programming included, so unless I know more about you, I wouldnt be able to tell you how to go about it.

There are game designers for AAA games which don't particular relate to programming or art. These people and jobs are rare and its easier and better to break into one these fields with a good base knowledge of something. If you really want to be a game play designer and want the best shot than I suggest you take a double major in computer science and business management. If math isnt your thing get, a tutor. If paying attention is hard, go to the doctor and get diagnosed and treated for ADD. You will be surprised at what you can do if you find enough help and really don't consider giving up. The high school me would never have thought I could have became an attorney. Law school was 100x harder than college but with help and a no giving up attitude it was doable. "Not good at math" does not mean cant do math.

Better to have a computer science degree and be looking for work than a game design degree and looking for work.

I have considered taking your advice. I do not know how far I can do this but I am going to give it a try. THank you for you help.

[hallsofvallhalla]

Start with trying to create a few games from scratch. Coding, art, design, ect.. and see what you like the most. See if it is something you want to do for a living or not.

I am no master at programming whatsoever. If I would have based it on my first time trying to learn I would never have done it. It took me a while to grasp it and love it. Now I do it daily. 12 hours a day.

Art on the other hand I leave to the professionals

[Jackolantern]

You may want to consider possibly going to a traditional college and majoring in Computer Science with a focus on Software Engineering. The reason for this is that if you know how to make games (which you can learn on your own time), you can easily get a game dev job with a CS degree. However, you have a back-up of traditional software development that you can use anywhere, at any time.

The reason I say this is that not everyone wants to develop games professionally for the rest of their lives. It is a lifestyle completely foreign to most people. The 18-hour-a-day "crunch" periods where some people just sleep in sleeping bags at the office every night and the fact that almost everyone is laid off after every project completes sounds OK when you are young, but one day when you have a family and children, it may not be that appealing. You may one day want regular hours with job security. With a CS degree you can do game dev professionally for as long as you want, and then easily fall-back on traditional development if you get burnt out or your family life requires it.