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Hi, I know similar posts to this have been made before but my question is slightly different. I dont want to be a programmer I want to get into computer game design. Ive been researching this and heard of several different ways of getting into it they seem quit round-about. Though I would love to do the games design course in Abertay I dont like the prospect of moving to scotland for various reasons and since no courses like that are in Ireland what should I do? Can anyone reccomend any courses I could do that whould help me? What methods have others used to get into the industry?
Any help is really really appreciated.
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If you wanted to go for the direct approach…try get a game testing job. Let them you you’re interested in design, then work your magic from within a company to the position you desire.
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Ivan went down that road. All in all its worked out great for him. From what I’ve been told it’s an excellent way to break in.
On the Resources area of this site you can find a list of courses that you may be interested in. Would you be willing to move anywhere on the island? If not, what region are you from now?
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http://www.gamesrecruits.co.uk or something like that has alot of testing jobs advertised.
But i guess it involves a move to the uk\scotland, but flights are cheap and london rocks bare in mind..
On a related matter is Abertay’s course totally non-programming? Surely theres a certain amount of programming etc. Because you hear alot of stories of people who start in testing and move to development. Would I be right in saying that theres few people in a games company that do no programming (excluding artist,sound etc) whatsoever? Is there a role in a games company where they do only 100% design. If so sounds very nice indeed, possibly a dream job.
To borrow the classic programming line “The best testers\debuggers are the best software developer\programmers”.
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On a related matter is Abertay’s course totally non-programming? Surely theres a certain amount of programming etc.[/quote:e5b9c5760b]
The honours degree is all programming/maths/technology, the few modules in ‘creativity’ are thankfully being weeded out. There is no teaching of game design other than technical structure and such.
Maybe the masters is different but I doubt it, Abertay’s Computer Game Technology is all about the programming.
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Well in the masters we had to do a full design doc for a game but it was more about the doing a proper design doc than about doing a good game design.
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Programmers know what a design doc is????
wowsers.
I started out localisation testing in microsoft dublin then moved to test lead role in vivendi dublin then to a level design role in visual science dundee (after taking a year ‘off’).
For Level Design – Get yourself into Unreal Ed, Radiant and other editors – mess around with any 3D apps you can find (there are free learning versions of maya)
For Game Design – Progress through a company, be a script writer or impress the pants off of someone important. Know about games (duuh) and be able to convey your ideas verbally and in written form.
This is a flakier role – there is no clear route – as I know some programmers who are sort of designers…
I sort am sort of anti Game Designers.
They seem to be able to ‘talk the talk’ but cannot walk the walk. Be practical – know what a dev team can and cannot do in real world terms – this requires experience . Dont be vague in your descriptions of game mechanics – ofcourse alot will need to be worked out ‘on the fly’ when you play and adapt ideas.meh. I don’t know if this is any help to you – its just stating the obvious.
If I was looking to get into the industry today – I’d apply to the companies in Ireland. I’d really like to work in some of them myself ;)
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Thanks for the replies. I was talking about this course.
I would like to think I have a bit of a head start as I have been playing games since I was about 4 and have been moding games since 99. So I at least have some small idea of what a designer would do. Im planning on taking a year “out” to work next year. Would it be hard to get a testing job for that period? would mentiong Im a student and want to get into the industry help? Id say they’re flooded with prospective employees as it is.
Oh and Im currently living in Dundalk. Id be prepared to move yes, Dublin would be preferable but Ill take what I can get.
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Ah…the new course…its production more than design. Heard about that. Heard about that, just started this year. I’d be interested in doing it if I hadn’t spent too much time in uni already.
As fro programmers being designers….well, I could do some better designs than some of the ones I’ve seen recently!
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So its looking to me that there is no college/uni course that will help me become a games designer (except for programming courses with a heavy math content)
The thing is, I wouldent like to get a job at a company as a tester and then be unable to work my way up, or to spend years doing working my way up only for the company to go bust or have to leave for some reason. Then Im looking for a job is possibly a radically different industry with no qualifications and have to go back to education.
Im getting pressured to make course choices and write a personal statement and I dont even know if any course would help me. And Its not going to be easy to explain the games industry to the career guidance teacher :(
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You shouldn’t worry to much about it. I told my teacher when I was in school (lower sixth) that I wanted to go into games industry, but I didn’t want to commit myself to say I definatley wanted to. They should be pretty informed about it so don’t worry to much, I think the success for some Irish companies has let teachers see that it’s not as mad an idea as it once seemed. They probably expecting it from at least one person.
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I would imagine Game Design would be a very hard course to plan for, especially if it was a 4 year degree course! I don’t know if they exist due to it being so specialised. I think its probably something you learn through experience by getting tools and trying things out and going to a company with it. Maybe…
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well according to the doom 3 manual. they had a fact that some tim guy i think he’s called, used to make maps and levels at home and release them on the net for everyone, and the guys at id liked his ideas and work so much they hired him. Consequently, he became the lead level designer on doom3.
id say a good start is using unrealedit or qtradiant ?(is that what its called, anyway the one they used in doom3 , you can access it via the command line on booting up doom3.exe) A google will find the exact parameter line.
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Yeah Ive done alot of that kind of stuff (from JED for Jedi Knight 1 up to recent)
Im currently helping to co-ordinate the efforts of people working on the Homeworld 1 source code. (Homesource)
Im planning on taking a year “out” to work next year. Would it be hard to get a testing job for that period? would mentioning Im a student and want to get into the industry help? or talking about the various modding and editing things Ive been part of? Id say they’re flooded with prospective employees as it is.
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