Originally posted by Redcoat_Kezz:
quote:
Originally posted by stonelance:
I'm guessing 99.9% of pro gamers never had the time to learn how to program a game.
As for video game programming, I am a fan of good ol' computer science and computer engineering degrees as well as developing a portfolio of work you have done in your free time.
I wouldn't recommend the fluffy video game specific degrees because they are very narrowly focused, and let's face it... not everyone can be a video game programmer and it is good to have something else to fall back on. Video game programming is not as glamorous as it seems. It generally doesn't pay as well as other programming jobs either.
I agree totally. Being a pro gamer and being a game developer are both careers and, to some degree, lifestyles all on their own. If you are one then you will not have time for the other.
Programming in particular is very dry and can really suck sometimes. The crunches that programmers (and other game development roles) do is not something to be taken lightly. You will also need a degree in comp sci or software engineering or something similar. I got a game development degree from Full Sail and I can recommend them very highly as there are a bunch of our grads working here. Most Game dev degrees are a bit fluffy though, and it just seems like every school is starting to cash in on a field that makes a lot of money. Weather they deliver the goods? Well, you should at least be weary of them.
There are also alternative roles you could look into to get into the game industry developing games. If you're more artistic then you could go that way. QA is always a good starting point too (and really the only other starting point for someone without artistic ability or a college degree). But even QA game testers sound much more glamorous than they really are. Playing a game for 40+ hours a week is really not as fun as it sounds when that game has thousands of bugs that you have to report on.
In reality there is no easy way to do it. You can't just wake up one day and decide you're going to make video games. It takes a lot of hard work, dedication and passion, so if you want to develop games you should seriously ask yourself if you have that dedication and passion and are you prepared to put forth all the hard work it will take?
Being a pro gamer is something completely different but equally tough, though there are better, more qualified people on the forums here than me to talk about that
