Is your quest to become a video game designer? If so, you might feel that you’re facing a difficult journey with many decisions to make. Should you go to a video game college, state college or private university? Should you focus on programming, design, or art? Is a 4-year degree enough or is more required of you?
There are many roads to take, and many educational paths to choose. Which one leads to your dream job making games?Read more »
Imran Khan Kaki is an award-winning game developer and early pioneer in India’s video game industry. He continues to play a role in the growth of the Indian game dev scene and runs a large studio in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh.
He speaks with us today about the growth of game development in India, and offers advice for Indian students who want to build toward a game dev career at home or abroad.Read more »
If you want a job or career making video games, you’ve got to understand how “deep” to go with your studies vs. how “broad.” Specialist or Generalist? It’s not that simple. The real answer might surprise you.
It’s easy to dream up an idea for a new game. Nearly everyone seems to have at least one great game design they’d love to bring into the world, given the chance.
But game design isn’t a single skill set. To become a good game designer, you’ll need to build a variety of skills such as cinematic storytelling, interaction design, level design, game engines, and more. Not to mention, learning all about the business of the video game industry.
That’s why I asked some of today’s top game designers for their must-read books for learning game design. Jenova Chen (Journey, Flower), Hal Milton (Marvel: Avengers Alliance) and Kelly Toyama (Assassin’s Creed: Bloodlines) are industry titans, and you’ll find their all-time best books for learning game design below. At first, some may not seem to be about game design at all. That’s because the game design skill set is bigger than just learning game engines. Trust the experts: dig in and find out why.Read more »
If you’re an aspiring video game designer, you already know a ton about games. And if you’re anything like the ones I know, you probably spend more time playing games than you’d like to admit to your parents, or your friends… or maybe even yourself.
But if you’re preparing for a video game design career, you need to do more than just play games and read design books. Just knowing how to build games isn’t enough. You’ve got to know how to build experiences.
I spoke with some of this decade’s top game designers to get their unfiltered advice on how you can prepare yourself for a game design education. Follow their advice, and one day you just might follow in their footsteps.Read more »
Art student Jessica Parker wrote in to ask: “How important is a degree vs a portfolio when applying for an art position? I’ve heard very polarizing opinions on that front.”
I’ve heard this discussed many times between artists as they plan out their careers in the game industry. It’s important because school is time-intensive and expensive, so the idea that you could skip the education and get a job just by building a kick-ass portfolio is an attractive option.
But the answer is more complicated than it might appear. As it turns out, “degree vs. portfolio” is a trick question – with an even trickier answer.Read more »
The role of technical artist is a fairly new career in the game industry. We’ve always had artists and programmers, but tech art evolved organically. As games got bigger and timelines got smaller, studios needed people who could program tools, rigs, and automation – but also have a deep understanding of the artistic process. Thus, the Technical Artist was born!Read more »