Game Design Worth Studying

ThatGuySA

Hello all.

I am completely new here ( just signed up ), although I've been browsing the forums unregistered for a while now. I have a question for you all.

I am currently a 3rd year Psychology Student and thus will be getting my BA degree this year. I unfortunately can only work as Psychologist with Masters Degree and the possibility of getting there is quite slim. I've been looking at alternatives for a while now and found 2 Game Design courses. 1 at Wits, and the other at Open Window Institute. My question is, is it worth studying Game Design in South Africa in the current state that it is in? Since we don't really have that much game studios here, not even speaking about the 20+ teams, is it worth actually following a career path in it? Or should I rather do Game Design as a hobby and follow a different career until that lucky break ?

Elyaradine

I studied for a couple of years at the Open Window. The "game design" course there is very much actually "game art". When I was there, we made some game environments, game characters, and put them in a game engine, and while there was some thinking in terms of narrative/design content, these were very much only the aesthetics rather than game mechanics. The Wits course I believe to be much more game design oriented. I figured you might want to know that if you're not actually looking to be an artist.

I don't think anyone can actually answer the question of whether it's "worth it" for you, because that's pretty highly dependent on your own personal situation, and your passions.

I've been able to make a success of it, and I've certainly worked my butt off to get here (and still will be), but there's a lot of stuff that worked in my favour that made it easier for me to work hard. I imagine I'm pretty successful at the moment, though obviously there's a lot of room to grow and a lot more work to do.

• I had bursaries and scholarships, so my studies didn't cost much at all.
  
• My parents are amazing, and paid for the remainder (which was still not insignificant).
  
• I could focus exclusively on my studies, not having to work a part time job or anything to pay for my school fees. (And by "studies" I mean learning in general. Lots of time was spent on school work, but arguably an even larger part of my time was spent learning outside of assignments.)
  
• I had internet, and could get my learning from a multitude of online resources, which was especially useful when I realised how little my school actually knew about making games.
  
• I had made contacts with people working in the game industry who fed me tutorials and gave me crit, and I prioritised learning from them over stuff I learnt at school.
  
• My parents let me live with them rent-free while I was studying, and for the first couple of years of working when I was paid very little. This allowed me to save almost all of my salary, which allowed me to sign up for online courses and fly to GDC.
  
• I had a car so I could drive to work.
  
• Work-wise, I genuinely don't think I could be happier working in anything other than games. I mean, yeah, if I had to choose between building websites or working in a bank, and starving, I'd go do the boring work to pay the bills. But I've just had to work super hard, take some calculated risks, to try and make it that I'll never have to make that choice.

The industry's in this weird funk right now where there's certainly not enough steady work to absorb all of the people who're studying game-related courses, but at the same time there's a bunch of potential contract work that's been coming in to various contract studios that they've had to turn down because of not having enough (good/experienced) game staff to be able to accept the work.

I also think that while it may be quite difficult to get a game job because of how many people want them and how few of the stable ones there are, there's this weird hump you've just got to get over. There's a point at which you're so skilled that you really start to stand out, and once you get to that point, it's pretty easy for you to get work in any studio (because the value you bring is far greater than what they're paying you), whether it's local or overseas. And at that point it's relatively easy to be paid well, because if you're not happy you have several other options of employment. How quickly it takes you to get over that hump and start being undeniably valuable really depends a lot on how much self-discipline you have and how strong your work ethic is, and, maybe, how willing you are to sacrifice other parts of what people might normally call a "balanced" life until you get there. Whether you're able to endure the relatively low pay until you start being irreplaceably awesome is, again, dependent on your situation.

ThatGuySA

@Elyaradine, Thanks for the reply. Animation/art/level design was what I had in mind.

What is the possibility of me ending up with the degree but no job in it? Not making millions but making enough money to put food on the table for me. I'm planning on doing the double major Game Design/3D Animation. I thought that if I can't get a job I still have the 3D Animation to fall back on.

If I may ask, what exactly do you do in the industry? And do you only work in the Game Industry or do you have side projects/jobs as well as a xxx (insert whatever your job in the industry is)

Elyaradine

Cool! In that case, TOW's a pretty good place I think. In the time I was there (which was around 4 years), I've seen at least 7 graduates get employment at Luma Arcade (although the studio name's changed since), and 4-5 of them are still there. You should maybe try get in touch with them and pop in over lunch, maybe have a look at what they're doing and chat with some of the artists there, so you can get some more opinions and a larger sample of answers. :) (If you really struggle to get a hold of them, I can ask for you.)

What is the possibility of me ending up with the degree but no job in it?

My feeling is that if you're asking that now, before starting the studies, then you're unlikely to be without a job. Most of the people I studied with who struggled to find work afterwards were people who'd call me up and say "I've got a degree! Why are they only offering me R6k per month!?" as if somehow a piece of paper was going to be worth a damn. If you approach your studies understanding that when you graduate, you're not competing with other students, but rather with other professional game artists, and allow that to raise your standards in all of your work, and regularly check your expectations by seeing what other professionals and students are doing on places like Polycount and GameArtisans, I think finding work won't be a problem. Worst case scenario, you work in advertising or film for a little while until a game job opening opens up or until you skill up.

If I may ask, what exactly do you do in the industry? And do you only work in the Game Industry or do you have side projects/jobs as well as a xxx (insert whatever your job in the industry is)

I've been a game artist full time for over 4 years. You can see my portfolio/resumé here: http://techartjon.com/. In my first year working I took a couple of webdev and graphic design jobs for some extra income because of how little I was paid. Later on, after I moved out, I reached a point where I was paid a little under 10x what my rent was. (I'm told that's pretty good, but I was also living in a pretty cheap place.) I'm definitely not struggling by any means, but I've been told I'm kind of an exception. :/

But yeah, all through the time I was working (and now), I've still been taking online courses, striving and learning to do better. I don't _have_ to do these things to hold down a job, but I think just being super curious and wanting to improve my skills is just part of who I am now. Also, I can do some programming, so while a lot of my work involves making game art, a not-insignificant portion is also spent writing shaders, doing some scripting, writing tools and other more technical things that pure artists usually don't do. I think that's helped quite a bit with making myself more competitive as a hire. I think it'd be pretty useful for you to find ways to make yourself a stand-out candidate too, offering skills that other artists are unlikely to be able to offer, and being able to match them artistically too.

Oh, and at the time I was studying at TOW, there was the option that I could leave the school after 2 years with a diploma, rather than being locked in for a 3 year degree. I don't know if that's still a thing there, but it's worth keeping in mind. I found that after 2 years I'd built enough of a portfolio that a game studio was willing to hire me, and jumped ship immediately, given that I already had a degree and had no real need for another one.

ThatGuySA

Thank I'll try to figure something out. I'll probably only be able to go to Luma Arcade in December due to studies.

I don't think TOW has that option anymore. They do have a one-year course in 3D Animation & Game Design. I emailed them asking the difference and they replied "The one year programme is aligned to a certificate level. You will gain a lot of skill which may allow you to do your own projects or work yourself up a company. A degree is NQF 7, with much more intense focus and you can do a lot more than elementary skills you get in a one year programme".

I thought that I might take this option and then take the Games Development course at Learn3D. Althought I'm not sure to what depth the C# is at the Learn3D course.

Elyaradine

Ah, that's a pity. :/

You can PM me if you want to hear my thoughts on the other courses.

dammit

If it helps, absolutely no one at RetroEpic is "qualified" officially for their jobs. Everyone is self taught - animation, artists, programmers, generalists etc. Our animator's advice is to take your money, buy the best computer you can, and then spend all of your time practising, learning from tutorials and youtube videos, dvds, whatever you can get your hands on.

Elyaradine

Oh, I ran into lecturers from TOW today. They actually are doing game design now, along with (I'm told) prototyping, having a game jam culture, and lurking around here, with the vision of being independent game developers with shipped titles when they graduate. Might be worth a look if you're certain you want to study rather than self-teach.

ThatGuySA

I've been thinking about it for a while now, and so far the decision is to continue my studies in Psychology and just do Game Design on the side. I'm currently learning Python ( to add it to my limited skills of Blender ) and I'm also learning Game Maker Studio at the moment. I know GM is limited but I feel it's at least a start. I might one day do TOW's One-Year-Course in Game Design if I have the time, but for now I think it's self-study.

@dammit, do you know any good Youtube channels that provide tutorials on Animation?

CrashElements

Yes try this guy he has sum good blender tutorials

Ya the self published games the lecturer was talking about is Jelly terror seeped and Ander I worked on all 3 and Ander being my solo project

Elyaradine

I had a quick scrub through his videos, and while they might be okay for getting more familiar with Blender itself, he uses a workflow that's now pretty outdated, and he's not a very good artist. I wouldn't recommend that series.

For art in general (I assume you mean that when you say "animation", the way that schools offer "3D animation" courses but actually teach storyboarding, modelling, texturing and the rest as well), there are excellent Youtube tuts by Scott Robertson, Feng Zhu and Anthony Jones. There's also a series of art talks called Level Up! that are pretty great. For learning specific skills, I'd look at doing courses, buying books and DVDs from places like the Gnomon Workshop, 3DTotal, 2DMA/3DMA, Schoolism, CGSociety, among others; the vital thing, to me, is that the material is fairly recent, and is taught by someone who's actually working or has worked in the game industry in the specialization that you're trying to learn, with a good few years of experience. And the Polycount wiki is fantastic.