Get a Major in Game Studies

While biased, I sometimes wish that more people in the gaming industry studied at a four year art college. In my three years here I've learned more about critical thinking, consistent creativity, and innovation than any of my CS classes, or six years in the IT industry. Everything else (major wise) seems to be rote learning. Learning a tool, or a method, but little on how to develop and flesh out a concept/idea or apply the theories that drive the tools and methods. As a result it seems like we have alot of people in the industry who are really really good with a hammer but don't really know what they want to build. When how one swings a hammer - instead of what one wants to build - becomes the sole means for innovation it becomes concerning.

That's where my little metaphor starts to thin.

Basically, as I said in another post, I hope these programs are teaching them how to think and create and are not simply four years of Maya or DirectX tutorials. I expect this to be true from major universities, but my own state uni has already proved me wrong on this. It has become a vocational school in many areas.

Such a waste of great minds. Why blow your talent on making video games?

yay game design majors! and my mom said i wouldnt get anywhere playin games... only 2 more years left til i get my game design degree.

Can we get some developer opinions here on how much those degrees are actually worth to get you a job in the industry? Are there statistics showing how many absolvents actually end up in the game industry?

I am a graduate from New York University with a BFA in film. While school offered me a chance to meet many other people with a passion for film (as well as many slackers), I really feel like it bought me time while I tried to hustle for a real job in the outside world. Film school gave me a chance to work on many projects and make mistakes along the way, but it didn't give me any idea of what working in a professional shooting environment would be like. None.

I got that through working on real sets as a student, whether it was interning or working in a lower capacity. Anybody I know from school who is currently working did the same thing. When I was done with school I was positioned to at least do some work when I was done with it. But again, any sort of real education was on the job working under other professionals who knew what they were doing in a day to day work environment. School doesn't give you that. It does give you a broad liberal arts education, which is good and I'm thankful for. At the same time, anyone expecting to go into a film program and expecting that that alone is going to land you a job on the outside is nuts.

I can only assume it is exactly the same when it comes to game development.

Would this really help you get a job in the game industry?

maybe the same way a degree in Film Studies would. You'd just end up as a movie reviewer for the local paper. Like Chris said, alumni of some film schools mature into the industry. But think of the thousands that go through those schools and get their certificates of completion. Where do most of them go?

Mods and creating your own projects have always been the way to step into the industry. These degrees are probably just a way to suck in the talent and spit them out under the universities Computer Science department.

I don't mean to nitpick Remo, but DigiPen really isn't a design based school. I'm not sure of the term to use in describing it, but it's entirely focused on how to make the games as opposed to designing them. Yes, you have to design 4 games and then make them, but the design process is such a short thing compared to all the other classes we take here.

This is really a way for schools to make money and nothing else. Get a degree in art (3d emphasis) literature or computer sciences and you are good to go. If you really want to be in the biz just look at the bios of some of your favorite developers and see what degrees/training they have.

I really hope that any of the people who are in these programs don't have unrealistic expectations of graduating from college with their game design or game production degree and then just waltzing into a design or production job.

You get this degree, you may get a job as a production assistant. You'll have to work your way up like everyone else. Because no matter what you learn in school, 95% will be useless in the "real world."

If I am looking to hire a production coordinator for my game, the first place I am going to look is Quality Assurance and Customer Support. Because at least I know that they have a passing knowledge of the way this company works, and they've probably seen at least one product cycle (in QA).

A good tester is worth ten of these kids clutching pieces of parchment.

Colorado U sucks! unless you like getting recruiting with sex and booze to a program on the downward slope

If I were to teach game design I'd simply have my students play and study Mario Bros., Fallout, Planescape Torment, and Half-Life. That's all and that's everything.

"colleges are essentially businesses"

sounds so much more harsh as..

"colleges are essentially corporations"

that always upsets the wife! (she's one of those crazy phd, gonna be in school forever peoples.)

The headline is a bit misleading. It isn't game studies, but game design or game programming that is being taught here. Games studies is much more like film studies in that those of us who study games and game players don't necessarilly want to make them. Sure if someone were to offer me a job out of the blue, I would take it, but Games Studies is much more interested in the culture of gaming and the themes of the games than in actually applying it to make games.

"Some believe the trend is a positive one, and will bring to the industry a wider range of perspectives, drawing in gamers who may otherwise not have felt a career in development to be realistic; others believe it will have a harmful impact as inexperienced graduates with by-the-book perspectives are let loose into the industry."

I think it'll be worth discussing when game companies actually start valuing these "game educations" over a traditional education on a resume. Right now, they don't. Maybe some of these programs will eventually prove to be worthwhile, but for now, you're going to get much further with a traditional degree, coupled with a strong portfolio of side projects that prove you've got the motivation and a knack for what you want to do.

This is still an industry where your chops matter more than your paper. However, there is a trend (especially in programming) to filter out people without degrees first and I think that's a bad idea.

The fact that all schools offering these programs are public universities should give a hint about these programs results and wether they are really necessary...