Is A Game Idea School Okay (Game Designer School)?

I am thinking of joining a game development school, but I am mostly unlikely to join a game designer school. But, I am just wondering if the game designing school is not okay to teach a lot on about making a game idea.

I have find at least 3 game designer school that is mostly about analyzing game ideas and one of the game designer school is a very popular school in Canada. Game designer school is Game Design school not really a game development school.
Most of the game designer school teaches:
-- Storytelling Structure
-- Ancient History for Game Fictional Storytelling
-- Making a good card or board game idea
-- Testing if your game idea is great with other players
-- Produce a pitch document and template
-- Making a good game mechanics
-- Game Theory
-- Game Psychology
-- Other Game Stuff like Genres, Digital Culture, Aesthetics, Social Media
But, I think a Game Designer specialize school is a bit strange and wrong when the school teaches you on How to fix or create a game idea.

I think a game designer school that is all about fixing other people's game ideas or creating the game ideas is a bit too strange and odd, because...
-- I believe making a good game idea is mostly should be self taught instead of paying a lot of money on school to learn how to make a game idea.
-- The people who gets to make a finial decision of making the game idea come true is usually the Producer's job not really a game designer's job, because it is unusually that people will want to pay you to be a creative person instead of being a manual labour person.
-- I have heard other game designer only usually does math computer programming to do calculation to create the right game mechanic and the in-game balance mechanic (game metric) with Excel. They also said a game designer kind of need to do technical stuff in the most of the time to make a game mechanic is being more balance instead of making a game idea.

 

i think game designer is the branch that require the most experience if you want to do it correctly, throwing idea on a paper have no value, but organise them, eliminate early problems by experience, its better if the designer have knowledge in programming, art, general game experience on do and dont do, i think its quite stupid to say im game designer if you never worked on games as coder and artist first because there is tons of things you will miss. when you have enough background in game making, you can become efficient in game design and turn simple idea into complex worlds.
if it was me i would start first with general software engineering, or game development, then do the game design cursus

 

If all of your time at this school was spent on making ideas alone then it probably won't be worth your time - unless that's the role you plan to have in game development. I took a handful of game development & design classes at njit and the course material covered a lot more than just design.

 

From personal experience, I think you would get more out of a game design focused school if you have a couple of years of professional software (or game) development experience under your belt. I've found that the game design taught in books and school doesn't really reflect the actual design challenges you will face when working with an actual team of developers under strict time and budget requirements.

Again, this is just from my personal experience, but I would start with a more traditional field first (Computer Science, Art/Animation, Business etc) then jump into game design after a few years of professional experience under your belt.

 

This is true of most professions, I think. Very shortly after graduating with an Associate degree in Web Development, I realized I knew almost nothing about actual web development. This was okay, because entry-level jobs in web dev are relatively plentiful, and my education gave me enough of a base to qualify for those positions.

Professional roles as a game designer are, as others have said here, intended to be filled by experienced individuals. Bethesda does not a junior designer to come on board and help them figure out how Elder Scrolls VI should play. They may, however, be willing to hire junior-level animators, programmers, artists, etc. Those positions will still be fiercely competitive, though, and your skills and portfolio would need to be up to snuff to even hope to compete.

Absolutely agree. Find the aspect you like most (art, code, sound, etc) and focus on that skill set. Get a more general education in that field targeted towards an industry that is in high demand. Get experience doing that thing, and make games on the side. As you build your portfolio of personal and professional projects, consider taking some courses in game design, if you like, but don't think it'll give you any career advantage. Do it for your own educational purposes to improve areas you feel you're lacking in.

It's my personal opinion that Game Design schools or course programs are a sham that offer no real benefit, and merely capitalize on the desires of young people to get into a tough-to-crack industry to make money. There's a reason these for-profit institutes offer these courses and state-run or renowned private colleges don't. Examine the placement rates for any of these schools and you'll see almost all of their placements are in their film or graphic design programs, and never with their game design graduates.

 

Ya, in a few weeks ago, I was actually thinking that I should be a game programmer to learn how to make more video games before applying into a game designing job. I was just making sure is the game designing school sounds right.

I find this link from a few weeks ago. It told me that I should learn on how to make more video games before applying into a game designer job.

 

When it comes to advice on becoming a professional in the game industry, look no further than our own @Gigiwoo's excellent Game Design Zen podcast. Specifically, Episode 003 covers this topic exactly.

 

Going further, we have an entire Game Design forum here. If you want to do a better job of learning how to design games, come read the topics and participate in discussions with us. We also have a "Feedback Friday" system where we put up prototypes and get design-oriented feedback on them.

 

Interested in coding? My recommendation is to learn to code, at least a little. Use those skills to build games, with a side focus on design. Though there are game designers in the industry, there aren't nearly as many as there are coders, and a degree in game design is not that sought after. After all, Will Wright, Jonathan Blow, and Jenova Chen all started as coders.

Gigi

(PS - Also, see my podcast in sig)

 

Disclaimer: I'm not actually working in the industry, nor have I attended any sort of game school.

I've been distinctly unimpressed by the game design graduates at our local IGDA meet ups. Game programmers normally have a simple game they can show. Game artists normally have some animations they can show.

Game designers on the other hand fall into two camps. They either have 3000 pages of lore and character designs and rules for the next WOW or Skryim. Or they have no ideas at the moment. Both seem pretty much useless.

A graduate game designer should have the skills to optimise the difficulty on a match three game. And they should have dozens of balanced paper prototypes to play.

 

I am maybe thinking of going into one of the best game design school, because that game design school also teaches you on how to build a full game that will looks nice. I have find a few good game design school with students that can actually make a game that looks even better than some other game development colleges.

I am just wondering if I join that good game designing school that teaches you a lot of the general game development, game art and designing skills. Is it very hard to get a generalist, game artist, or a game designer job? I am still not sure it is very hard to get a game designer job. I am hoping their game design school will also teach you enough general game development skills to work as an other job like being an animator, modeller or programmer.

I got some other opinion questions if I plan not to join the game design school.
-- Do you prefer Game Programming University with some computer science courses -OR- Computer Science? I only know a little bit of the game programming. I already know taking all computer science courses will be safer to get a job when you can apply to any types of the computer programming jobs. But, I am wondering does the game programming university teaches more game programming than the computer science school.
-- Do you prefer Computer Animation College -OR- Game Development College to be a modeller, animator, illustrator, or a rigger inside a game industry? I already have enough art and animation skills, so I prefer not to take any computer art school anymore.

 

You have to remember that a game is not just a story, or some weapon designs, or some enemy behaviour patterns. A game is a complex set of technical processes and art assets that need to integrate seamlessly. As a game designer, you need to design that and then communicate it to a team on their level.

This is why all the most successful designers have several years of development experience. I don't believe you can just go on a course on how to design a game and become a designer any more than an architect can just go to some drawing classes on how to do blueprints and start designing buildings.

 

A school focused on game design, and the ideas associated with it, would be great as an academic endeavor. It wouldn't be of much use for the industry at large. But academia would love it. Such a school would be able to focus on ideas, research, and writing/reading papers. And that's 90% of what makes up academia anyway. It would be a great means of slipping games into an academic context that would sit well with the existing academic institutions.

As far as the utility of such a school, that is a different matter. It's primary value to the industry as a whole would be providing a safe place for ideas to percolate, outside of a commercial setting. There is real value to that, and it is something that the industry is currently lacking. Pair it up with some academic computer-science students for some game-design experiments, and then we'd really be talking turkey.

 

Cool, thx for telling me the purpose of being a game designer should do some research, experiments, and theory to make a game idea or a pitch. That will help me a lot that I should be a game designer or not.

 

I made a game with unity 4.3 that used any microphones connected to your machine to listen for real sounds to lure a monster to your location. Would that have impressed anyone?

Oh and I made the art myself. It was before I knew what normal maps were so... imagine domo modeled in blender and painted in blender without any real textures or maps.

 

You had a product. That's what I'd expect from game school grads. A product, or preferably multiple products, that they can show off.

Artists tend to get a suite of models and picture and stuff. That's enough to impress. Programmers tend to get playable games. That's enough to impress. Design students tend not to come out with either. That's bad.

 

Oh haha, that kind of degree. That's barely an education. At least in the design classes I was in students had to produce like 4 games in the semester.

 

Sounds thoroughly amusing. Have you considered trying a similar concept with a VR game?

 

No I'll put it on my list of things to do in june. The only tricky part there will be the mic. If your headphones have one, great. If not, then what?

The mechanic was... while walking through an attic with random doors leading to random rooms (nothing saved, could go in and out of the same door forever and end up in different rooms), the floor would creak. If the monster was in the room when the floor creaks, you will hear a noise that is a growl that indicates the monster is listening. At that point the mic starts recording for a few seconds and sees if any noise made crosses a threshold set by the player on the main menu. Another sound later indicates the monster has gone idle again.

-jumping has a 100% chance to cause the floor to creak
-sneaking reduces the chance to creak the floor to 0%
-sprinting has an increased chance to creak the floor
-creaking the floor while the monster is listening will draw it to you as if you had shouted into your mic
-the monster runs to the location of the sound, not to you. If you jump and then sneak away in time, you'll see the monster run to the location where you landed and start attacking the air
-making new noises while the monster is chasing you or listening will interrupt any existing paths and make the monster come to the source

Those are the monster mechanics And to force exploration, I threw in a hunger and thirst mechanic, making players walk around collecting bottles of water and potatoes in order to satisfy hunger and thirst meters.

It's one of my favorite games that I don't have the source of anymore

 

I would definitely ask if they profile/track former students and where they go in the industry. Also ask a few perspective game companies what their view of the course is, would they or have they taken a game designer on from that course.

On the plus side if it has a good maths, basic programming and covers game theory you could probably get a job in the financial sector or working for a gambling franchise.

 

Having a Computer Science degree opens those paths up, as well as others including Government, Defense, and other sectors that may be less glamorous, but are definitely worth your time. Government jobs typically trade stability of the job for lower pay, while Defense can pay reasonably well, at the cost of being in a very unstable workplace (in my experience, you have about a six- to twelve-month layoff cycle in Defense.)

 

One other thing which would be a big problem with a purely design-focused course: very few companies ever have openings for an "ideas guy".

Generally speaking, creativity and design is expected to be an iterative process during development with all members of the team pitching in and collaborating based on internal play tests and observations. While ultimate responsibility for design decisions rests with one or two individuals, they also combine that role with producing and project management.

In other words, you will almost never find a designer whose only job is to come up with ideas and produce documentation on it. They will always have other roles, whether it be programming, art or managing the budget and the team.

Since project management is such an important and demanding job to ensure a project stays on track, they will only bring someone in as an experienced hire with a track record in project delivery, or with extensive experience of working on games.

The upshot of this, is someone graduating from a design course with no implementation skills will find it extremely tough to find a role, because no companies will have an open position looking for someone whose only skill is to come up with ideas, they would also expect that person to do other roles for which the candidate has no experience.

This course might be nice if you already work in the industry and want to improve your creativity and ability to design balanced systems, but as a fresh starter it will give you nothing that will make you attractive to a company as an entry-level hire.

 

My school must, because they called and asked for a donation -.-

They gave me a wonderful gift of 27k debt and wanted $250 donation from all graduating alumni. Where the mitt romney did my money go if the college needs more right after I left?

 

I do not really want to pick any game design school that is bad. But I think some game design school is pretty good at least like the 1 year Vancouver Film School game design school and the Sheridan College game design degree.

Do you think I should join this game design school, because their game design school is pretty famous and their student demo reel looks pretty nice?

https://academics.sheridancollege.ca/programs/bachelor-of-game-design
https://vfs.edu/programs/game-design

 

So, it turns out your school is buying Apple computers for all of its labs. The conclusion should write itself.