What is necessary to become a game designer?

[Mercer]

Thanks for the good advice everyone! Maybe I can find a QA job someday worth taking. Hard to convice people who don't know you that you can help them make thier game so much better that it would be a great deal for them to pay you 50 a year though.

 

Time to dust off the old WC3 maps and see if I can turn them into something really spectacular I guess. I'd rather chew glass than work within the confines of DnD,and NW is a really clunky, dirty editor anyway. I think putting a few 100 more hours into the NW editor would have saved map devs millions of hours around the world. I thought it was really cool until I played with the WC3 FT one, and I just asked myself "were they tring to make it as diffucult as possible?" But then I also haven't updated it in over a year so...*rambles on for a while and then goes and makes a cool mod*

[Hydrogen]

I would stay far, far away from QA if you have a decent career. If you are interested in development, I'd keep the day job and work on mods, maps and writing for the rest of your waking hours.

 

Entry level QA can be very frustrating. Your job is to find bugs - yet you are not allowed to fix what is broken. Your bug reports will invariably be mocked, disregarded or insulted by development - but you are not allowed to even communicate with the developers, let alone critcize their work subjectively. Your own bug reports should folllow a strict pattern and be very clear and precise...but developers and producers will often write up bug reports that are often wrong or incomprehensible. There are reasons for all of the negatives, of course, but the job involves a lot of humility, patience and swallowing of pride.

It depends on the company you are working for, and the dev team you are working with. Sometimes the dev's like the feedback and will even encourage it.

[Rise]

so, do mechanical engineers have any place in making games?

[Monte Carlo]

Pay. I don't want to be an overpaid upstart, but I don't want to be taken advantage of either. I actually want the most average pay avaliable so I WON'T be noticed when checks are passed. Noobs need to pay bills to.

Then you don't want it badly enough, bud.

 

My wife works in journalism. Jesus, people will rip off your arm and beat you to death with the soggy end to get a staff gig in the Media in the UK. How d'you do it? Well, roughly the same way, in principle, as the way the developers here describe breaking through into another popular and over-subscribed creative field. That includes a stint as a runner: the unpaid dude who grabs coffee, sends emails, works the photocopier and generally dogsbodies to get their face known and learn the basics of a cut-and-thrust industry.

 

Except, of course, the kids of the early 21st Century. They want their dream jobs, but heck they also know their rights. Minimum wage. Health & Safety. Blah balh blah. They still don't get their dream jobs, the narrowing number of bright sparks who realise that all these rules are created to make inadequates feel better do instead. But they're a minority. I suggest public service might be the way forward with somebody with your work ethic.

 

You really don't want it badly enough, I'm afraid.

 

Cheers

MC

[JohnPnP]

The problem is not with wanting it bad enough. I would love something where I can throw myself into programming. The problem is age and location.

I can't do anything till I get out of highschool, and when I do, I can't just up and go to California. I live in TX and not near any big metro area, so its nigh impossible to find any "coffe boy" job.

[J.E. Sawyer]

I would like to add this for anyone who chooses to pursue something that they love as a vocation: do whatever you want in life, and do it how you want to do it, but do not expect anyone to pay you for it, nor to respect you for it. When you become a professional game developer, you are almost assuredly going to be an employee, working for someone else. The time will eventually come when you will need to choose between doing what you want to do, and doing what others want you to do. Keep that in mind.

 

EDIT: I should probably explain that I've been in the industry for five years and I still can't make this decision easily.

[Chile]

I think one of the hardest things is to decide exactly what you want to do in the industry, work and learn toward it, and understand that the first place you interview with may not hire you right away.

 

example:

 

I had an interview with a company we all know here. Well, I did not make it past the phone stage, and a big part of why, I believe is because all of my education path leads to another place in the industry in spite of my non professional experience related to the postition for which I applied.

 

Where I was applying for a web related position, my training is in art and design and my future is in 3d modelling. To them, I would have been a gamble because, while I was perfectly willing and content to work in the position I applied for, they saw me as someone with goals contrary to the job description.

 

I could say it's unfair, but I couldn't lie either. I am as spellbound by game art as I was to D&D illustrations as a child, and game art is where I intend to be in a couple years. If not, I will be happy as a graphic designer and professional moderator until that break comes.

 

Chile

[Ferret]

I would like to add this for anyone who chooses to pursue something that they love as a vocation: do whatever you want in life, and do it how you want to do it, but do not expect anyone to pay you for it, nor to respect you for it.  When you become a professional game developer, you are almost assuredly going to be an employee, working for someone else.  The time will eventually come when you will need to choose between doing what you want to do, and doing what others want you to do.  Keep that in mind.

 

EDIT: I should probably explain that I've been in the industry for five years and I still can't make this decision easily.

I think Josh is right on the money with his comment, and it's great cautionary advice. Game development is a job - and that does mean you have to play ball and don't have complete freedom in what you do. There are all sorts of factors that limit what a developer can do. I think there is plenty of room to be happy and do what you love, but many times you need to be very flexible and roll with the punches. Sometimes that is difficult, and other times maybe impossible. But even with that give and take, there is clearly nothing else I'd rather be doing.

 

-Ferret

[Eurmal]

I think Monte Carlo is bit 'spicy' but his words have a truth. I have never dreamt of doing what I want to do and get paid although I didn't spend my childhood in a country where I would have needed to support my family by looting junk yards or begging in the streets.

 

Shakespeare is notorious of his

[mkreku]

My short venture into QA:

 

Me: "Uhm, this corpse-eating Staff Of Corpse Devouring can not only absorb dead bodies, but living bodies too.."

Programmer: "Stupid idiot, could you be any less specific?"

Me: "Well, you need to check the living flag, before running the absorb_Corpse routine or else the Staff Of Corpse Devouring will absorb anything you point it at. I'm supposing it was only meant to absorb already dead bodies, right?"

Programmer: "Are you f***ing trying to tell me how to do my job?! ARE YOU?! You're a f***ing NOBODY!! Don't you think I know what f***ing flags to check?! Are you totally blah blah blah" and so on.

 

If you can find a team that doesn't take your attempts at constructive critiscism personally, I'd say go for it. But it can be a very unpleasant and unrewarding task.

[Diogo Ribeiro]

My short venture into QA.

That sucks <_<

[djkillingspree]

The experience of doing QA is really variable from develoepr to developer, from QA lead to QA lead, and from publisher to publisher. Some go for a more checklist/methodical style, others go for more ad hoc testing. Some developers are great about recieving feedback/criticism, others are incredibly immature and unprofessional. Even from individual to individual it can differ. There was one mapper (wont name any names or developers) who would freak out if you mentioned any serious vis bugs on his maps. He insulted one tester in the bug database, it came off as very unprofessional. On the other hand, there are some people who are gracious and even thankful when you catch a good bug.

[@\NightandtheShape/@]

I would like to add this for anyone who chooses to pursue something that they love as a vocation: do whatever you want in life, and do it how you want to do it, but do not expect anyone to pay you for it, nor to respect you for it. When you become a professional game developer, you are almost assuredly going to be an employee, working for someone else. The time will eventually come when you will need to choose between doing what you want to do, and doing what others want you to do. Keep that in mind.

 

EDIT: I should probably explain that I've been in the industry for five years and I still can't make this decision easily.

I hear ye on this. I started out at 16 going to music college, but because of my views on music I could never bring myself to write anything that would sell. I just couldn't bring myself to do it, it felt wrong then and it still feels wrong now(it hasn't stopped me from playing music mind).

 

Now I'm set-up to do a degree in "Computer Games Programming", while it is a love for me gaming I find it much easier to treat it as a business. While I may detest business ethics in general I have found it easier to stomach them when it comes to gaming.