Do I need a degree to be a game designer & maybe sooner or later start my own gaming company to design my own games & if I choose to

[DragonLord1921]

Allow me to explain why am I asking ahead of time I'm asking ahead of time due to my love of computers,gaming,anime & manga, But however like I said the main reasons why I wanted to be a game designer its due to my love of computers,gaming,anime & manga.  & like I said & I'll gladly say it again. I admit that I'm a otaku,I'm a gamer,I'm a final fantasy fan/huge fan aka final fantasy nerd,I'm a hentai fan,I love hentai both vr & non-vr & I love hentai stuff too. So I was curious if I needed any degrees to study to be a game designer & maybe sooner or later start my own game company to design my own games & if I choose to.

 

Pathetic to ask I know I know & knowing current year but however it's not my main reasons why I wanted to be a game designer. If you guys think I should study & if I needed any degrees feel free to tell me your opinions & your suggestions thanks.

 

Thanks for reading,thanks for your opinions & thanks again for sharing your suggestions :).

[Guest]

If you are choosing your path to your future, then consider that "game developers" are many different jobs.

They can be split mostly in these categories:

* Pure developers (code, and graphical code. They are not exactly the same but for sack of simplicity I will list only one)

* Game designers (from high level, to scene definition, to stories)

* Graphic artists (2D and 3D and UX)

* Audio people (sounds, musics, etc.)

Plus a bunch of side people that will do collateral work (administration, marketing, financing, testing, distribution, etc.)

 

It is quite impossible nowadays to do a good game if you think you will do everything alone.

Also small indie companies are often a dozen people.

 

So, chose well one of the categories and specialize in it.

And then find people with other skills and build your own game industry.

[iJaVaFx]

Maybe you shouldn't be on the defense like that... i didn't read your entire post, but my opinion concerning if you need study, of course not... if you have the aptitude for it and the talent you can easily find a job if you can back your talent, maybe with a game i wouldn't recommend tho, nobody know how your concept could get spoiled. But if you start a enterprise remember you will be your own boss, that mean your producing your own product, in other word a degree in something is a piece of paper that prove your knowledge of the subject, that doesn't mean that without a degree you don't qualify, it's only a proof that you acquired the knowledge for the job you would apply for.   

[dharvinia]

Please do not take this as an insult, because I really know nothing of your abilities.

The first and foremost thing you will need is Talent.  If you have artistic talent, then all you will need is to master the various game engines.

A couple of courses in programming would not hurt and mastery of a graphics design program (ie: blender)

If you have all that, then all you would need is capital investment in order to design your own game.

 

A university degree alone will not guarantee anything if you do not have the natural talent. (it might help you get a job)

I personally know several people with as much as three degrees who are presently unemployed.

 

But, know this, if you have a talent for organizing, and a business degree. 

You would probably be able to start what ever type of company you want, and have others make your game for you.

 

 

[spoonsinger]

No you don't need a degree to become a game designer/programmer/developer or even, nowadays, publisher.  However depending on scope there are some physical/time constraint aspects which will stop you nowadays. e.g. You may be a great designer/story teller but know jack about art resource aspects. You might know how to code, but can't carry a narrative. The major problem will be funding the product you wish to develop which conforms to current day expectations. In the 80's you could send a listing off to a magazine publisher and ,from my experience, it got published, (if it fell it an appropriate length to actually print), and then you got paid, (in like actual money for beer and driving lessons and keeping your g/f happy with stuff).  Basically because very few people had the get up and go to just take the dive with very little risk in time or outward expense you could earn money from adhoc work. However expectations are way way more extreme than thirty years ago, (and my I am really in extreme awe of people who do stuff which is a factor of a bizzilion more complicated than what you could actually get paid for in the past but now is done for free or as a portfolio piece.

 

A degree is actually just a foot in the door, (i.e. something human resources in a corporation use as a check box item to reduce the thousands of people who will be applying for the same position. There will still be hundreds with the same qualification).  Horrible as it is, it's a a plain choice between personal expenditure and expected reward. That said I had fun for my degree, (but was poor, so got a grant - also sorry for people nowadays. In fact the power group of my generation are apparently gits).

[serPomiz]

while the absence of a degree is not a limitation, it may be a heavy handicap if you're trying to get in the industry from pre-existing companies, where the basic rule is that you always have to climb every step from the bottom

 

it may be a lesser problem if you start indie, but that is a whole other can of worm in itself;

 

the other point is divison of work: you need 3 different parts to work together, a story/resource team, a  developing team (and that is one of the biggest problem), and a graphic team

 

I couldn't code to save my life, so I won't talk about that

 

from the graphical point, you need both talent and work ethic, plus varied artistic abilities. focal point, you DO need all 3, just costant work will not cut it for work

 

about the designing itself, is considered an advanced job, you need both the ability to write the story, the gameplay and all the varios media, but also to TRANSLATE all of that into math, so that those function may be coded

[ISNAN]

Your best bet is to get a computer science degree. That degree will cover a lot of different fields just in case you change your mind in the future or can't find work in game design right away. Learn the 3D/2D graphical on your own time. It's actually better to do it that way because you can narrow in on what you need to know and weed out the rest that doesn't apply to game development. It's also easier to learn as opposed to programming. You don't want to get a "game design" degree from some art school. You want a degree that will pay back the student loans, while teaching you the core of game development. 

 

It sounds like you want to be able to create a game from the ground up and design it your own way. If that is your goal, then you want to be a "Jack of all trades" type. So treat your learning as such. No reason to be a master unless you are focusing on one specific thing and with game design, there are several areas that need focusing. 

 

Game design is a very competitive field. But only competitive if you are trying to work for a big named game studio. The downside to working at such a place is that a lot of people realize that they wont be making the games they want. It will be the games the studio wants and it will be done their way. If your expertise is 3D modeling, then that is all you will be doing. You wont have any say on what those 3D models will look like, what characteristics or actions they might have. This causes people to get discouraged or burnt out. 

 

Indie game developer is the way to go.