Infiltrating the Game Development Industry

Hey bronos. Just looking for any input at all from those who know about the industry, as I am relatively clueless. I've recently realized how much I would enjoy a career in game development, and find myself at somewhat of a crossroads. I was originally planning on doing an audio engineering course (which has implications for both my main hobbies: music and video games) but then thought it might be worth it to check out a degree in computer science, learn how to code, and ultimately get a job at the creative forefront of game development. As I said, I have little idea how this all works, if my logic is sound, etc., and I'm sure there are tons of people vying for similar careers.. So I'd really appreciate any info/guidance/derogatory humour you guys can throw at me. Thanks!

Do both. Start with the audio engineering course, then moonlight as an audio engineer while you take a degree in computer science.

Infiltrating implies sneaking in. You don't want to sneak in, you want to blow the fucking door off the hinges when you enter.

You cannot realize how much you would enjoy a career in game development without having a career in game development. There is usually a gruelling amount of work involved, there is no puppy and rainbow scenario.

Regardless, an audio engineering degree will net you an array of possible jobs, and in the game industry it would relate to audio design (obviously). I myself am a level designer, and most people in my department have computer science degrees (I don't, but most do). Getting a computer science degree opens you up to a pretty wide job market, which is relevant because the game industry is immensely competitive to work in.

Infiltration? Is assassination stage two?

I'm not looking into getting into the gaming industry, but I do like to make games on a hobbyist level. The CS degree is nice because it is frighteningly easy to find job opportunities with it (I have one), but getting a job and getting your ideal job are two very different things.

I think a good start would be to try making games yourself. You don't need a lot of coding experience to make a game, and I know that sounds counter-intuitive. Your first game will likely be crappy. Everybody's first game is crappy. But you take the lessons learned there to make another, better game, and along the way you figure out what works, what doesn't work, how to scope your work, what ideas are worth nurturing, and which ones need to be killed quickly.

That said, it'd be pretty pointless to say, "Hey, try this out!" without actually pointing you somewhere. So:

• http://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/ Of particular note are the links on the side. They can get you started.
• http://unity3d.com/ Unity is free, and will run on pretty much everything (although you'll have to pay to deploy on anything besides a PC/Mac). There are tutorials in there, and it's a pretty powerful tool, despite being so intimidating.
• https://love2d.org/ I used the Love engine to make a game using the Lua programming language with two other friends last weekend. It's frighteningly easy to pick up. You can even see the codebase I contributed to here: https://github.com/bobsomers/remote-game-jam

Make a game. Have fun making it. The degrees you speak about will do wonders for your career development, but having a game that people can play that you've created will speak louder than anything else.

Do both. Start with the audio engineering course, then moonlight as an audio engineer while you take a degree in computer science.

Infiltrating implies sneaking in. You don't want to sneak in, you want to blow the fucking door off the hinges when you enter.

You cannot realize how much you would enjoy a career in game development without having a career in game development. There is usually a gruelling amount of work involved, there is no puppy and rainbow scenario.

I work in the games industry at the moment, and for the most part the best way in I'd suggest is developer QA (not publisher QA)

If you get in with a good team you'll end up being an important part of the process of making a game and can have a large impact on the day to day work, eventually you'll probably get trusted to do something a little more complex (especially if you have a background in code or audio for example) and if you prove yourself you may find yourself with a role outside of QA. It's different from company to company but at the company I work with they value QA and about 60% of the design and development team started out here in QA.

@Soap:

I am currently doing a Computer Science degree and is quite interested in QA roles, what kind of tasks does QA usually have?

@ShadowConqueror said:

Infiltrating implies sneaking in. You don't want to sneak in, you want to blow the fucking door off the hinges when you enter.

Couldn't have said it better, this is game development in a nutshell. If you're not well known you have no option but to blow the fucking doors down, otherwise you'll end up as some bug crunching code monkey that has no creative freedom.

Ah, where's that Extra Credits episode about getting into the gaming industry? I can't remember if it was on journalism or actual development, but I think it might help you either way. I've got to find it first, though, and I'd like to hear it again myself.

Personally? I'd like to work on the journalism side of things, doing what Jeff and Co. do. But that's just as, if not more, competitive than being a designer or something of that ilk.

EDIT: AHA! Right here! This ought to help you a good bit:

http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/so-you-want-to-be-a-developer-part-1