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An Open-Ended Question to Video Game Developers/Companies and Those Experienced in Computer Science/

HoodriiicH·11/18/2014, 4:43:45 AM·4 votes·5,999 views

So, I've decided to rethink my career choice after graduating with a Biomedical Engineering degree with hopes of medical school.

My true passion has always been video games - I just always brush it off as a pipedream that I could make a career out of it. Now that I did not get accepted to medical school in the first cycle, I've thought to myself: "Hell, why not go for it?" So, my question(s) is(are):

what is the right direction to take to get into the video game industry?

Computer science vs. Computer Engineering vs. ?

What are courses I def need to take?

Go for Master's?

Internships?

Maybe a little more detail about my situation would help:

I have a Bachelor's of Science in BME with minors in Chem and Bio. I have taken a few courses dealing with computers and beginner coding (MatLab and a very small amount of C++), and a couple of courses dealing with CAD programs and models. In Senior Design, I was in charge of the computer models of our product and did stress and fracture testing etc. (not in great detail, but enough to get an A).

Assume money and time are not that restrictive. I'd like to think that courses I've already taken would help and/or count towards the computer field in some sense.

Please be as honest and open as possible, as any single response could greatly influence my future :)

8 Comments

Griftrix11/18/2014, 6:07:20 AM7 votes

OMG a thread where I actually have some expertise. (TLDR, this will be a long one)

First, congratulations on thinking you know what you want to do with your life. This makes you a step ahead of many. I say think because you could always change your mind later, but that's fine. As far as working on games, there are MANY options. As a quick list of some of the possibilities, may I humbly direct you to the following website as just a quick sampling of the many many many types of work available in making games.

http://www.riotgames.com/careers

Remember, making a game takes a bunch of passionate, focused, talented people. So many of those people are not in the direct development of the game, but in the VAST support network to make the game possible. There are many more Rioters outside of people who touch the things you load on your computer and connect to on the back end.

That said, let me focus my post on what i actually know, game programming. I am not talking about web, back end, front end, network (the deep down stuff), build, or automation programming. Computer Science is generally the way to go. You CAN learn stuff for game programming outside of school, but it will be many magnitudes more difficult. If you don't truly understand what I mean when I say many magnitudes, then definitely get a CS degree. If you do, that does not exempt you. There are also several graduate schools and undergraduate schools that specialize in game development specifically, in programming and other areas. These are a good way to get some more focused studies on game stuff, as well as a good environment to work on teams and get some good portfolio projects.

People in the games industry value what you can do and also experience. If you want someone to hire you to program games, then program a game. Write your own game engine. Then write a game in that engine. Find the area of game programming that interests you the most, and do research and earn deep knowledge in that area. People will find it valuable that you can do a little bit of everything AND have an area you are becoming an expert in. Go to conferences and try to learn what other people are doing. Then try it on your own and figure out which parts they didn't tell you.

It will be a lot of work. Everything worth doing is. It's also very rewarding.

-Griftrix

llamasx11/18/2014, 5:35:26 PM1 votes

How passionate are you about medical school vs going into the video gaming industry? While I can't offer much advice in going down the video gaming path, I can say that you should pursue what you have a passion for so you have no regrets later in life.

Almost every video gamer I know has hated med school, despite enjoying the medical profession. Many of them, while have no regrets, have wondered what life would be like if they had pursued an alternate career path. That said, not getting accepted to med school allowing you to think about your passions might've been the best thing to happen to you. While I have no experience down that route myself, I definitely think taking a year or two off before med school to "grow" is good. If you happen to decide a career path in video gaming is something you could do with the rest of your life, then all the better.

Do you have any friends/acquaintances that went down this path/ had this path open to them that you could talk to? Idk how your school is, but I felt like during undergrad I made plenty of friends who went into those fields just by enjoying video games.

Phaite11/18/2014, 5:50:54 PM1 votes

Some colleges offer degrees in game development. Factually, at the end of this semester, I will have my certificate, and at the end of this upcoming Spring semester, I will be graduating with my Associate's Degree in the Applied Science of Simulation and Game Development. It's a very generalized program, giving you a look into all of the processes involved in game development and design: software engineering, programming, art, 3D modeling, level design, etc., etc., etc. This allows you to find the parts of the process you enjoy doing the most and then choose what you'd like to specialize in. It's still an emerging degree program, so there are some things that need to be expanded on, and a wider assortment of classes would be great, but overall, I've found it to be a good program, both informative and enjoyable. If I knew of a University that offered a Bachelor's program in SGD, I'd already be signed up for it. Best of luck in your journey, and I hope I've helped at least a little.

Matthias911911/19/2014, 11:37:13 PM1 votes

I saw this post the other day but I didn't get a chance to respond to it before because I was busy prepping for a programming interview at a video game developer today. :-)

what is the right direction to take to get into the video game industry?

If you're looking to do game programming, for even an entry level position you're either going to need some experience or a degree in Computer Science (or maybe CE). It wouldn't hurt to have a portfolio of impressive software projects that you worked on.

If you want to do game design, you will have a hard time getting hired without a portfolio of (good) games that you have worked on. Design positions are very competitive in general -- everyone has ideas and opinions, so you'd better have OMGWTF amazing ideas and/or a track record of making things that don't suck. I don't know how much a game design degree will help.

Other ways to try to get your foot in the door:

QA/Testing/Tech Support positions don't usually require specialty degrees. Some companies will promote from within if you prove yourself. Or you could try to go to school part time while working and then apply to programming or design jobs elsewhere once you have a relevant degree and some industry experience.

Internships can be a way to get experience -- if they're available, and you can get accepted, and you can afford to work for little or no pay for a while.

IT is another whole career path you could consider, although it tends to require its own training/certification/specializations. Maybe a little less sexy, but somebody's got to run all those servers and datacenters.

Computer science vs. Computer Engineering vs. ?

Again, if you want to do programming specifically you probably want a degree in CS. CE tends to focus more on hardware, although this varies depending on the school. If you're interested in things like working on game console hardware then a CE degree could be the way to go, but that quickly becomes a very specialized field.

What are courses I def need to take?

Game programming really involves everything these days. You at least want the basics: Object-Oriented Programming, Algorithms and Data Structures, Networking, AI, Graphics, Systems/Operating Systems. Math, especially Discrete Mathematics (which usually includes some Probability) and Linear Algebra. Any Bachelor's program in CS should cover all of those even if it's not specific to game programming.

Games with a significant online component can also need stuff like Databases, Data Mining, and can run into the kinds of scalability issues that generally fall under the "High Performance Computing" umbrella. Some CS programs may have specific advanced courses in topics like game engines.

Go for Master's?

If you don't have an undergrad degree in CS, you probably couldn't get into a Master's program in CS without taking a bunch of undergrad prereqs first. Depending on the program (and exactly what you took getting your undergrad degree) you may just need a few additional courses to catch up, or you might be able to work towards both a Bachelor's and Master's degree simultaneously if you go back to school full time.

Entry level programming positions shouldn't require a Master's degree.