The Education of a Game Designer

"First, you must make a major career decision: training or education? Training gives you specific skills that you can use to get a job straight out of school. Education gives you broader skills that won't have immediate application, but will in the long run serve you better. It's basically a choice between a quickie approach and a strategic approach. If you're in too much of a hurry to plan strategically, then go ahead and attend a school where they'll teach you the details of handling the latest, greatest computer technology. Energy, not patience, is the strength of youth, so I can understand if you just can't stomach the thought of not plunging straight into your avocation. When I was your age, I too was impatient with all the irrelevant courses that the University forced upon me; now I blush at my impertinence and thank those teachers who pushed me so hard." - The Education of a Game Designer

Sure, in Uni I didn't learn anything directly to game developing. Instead, I learned foundation of programming with Java and C, very little bit of C++. I learned a little bit of math, but nothing near 3D algorithm. Didn't learn any API, only a glimpse of OpenGL, and that's an elective. I did heaps of documentation and software engineering practice!

I never had to use someone else's functions that much, everything was built from scratch, everybody was so nice and forgiving, no program was bigger than 20 files, my lecturer and supervisor would tell me exactly what to do when I had any kind of problems.

But you can't say that this is not useful. Uni is a stepping stone, and no matter how crappy is the stone, you can't say you don't need it. Because of that stone you can be where you are right now.

You learn to be idealistic optimistic fresh newbie when you're a student, and be a smart wise strong somebody when you work. Everything at its own time. Just don't rush to get somewhere, because you may miss the pretty view along the way =>

Uni was good. I learned a bit of everything, object oriented programming, web page construction, server script, machine language, operating systems, math foundation, software engineering, database, and a lot of other concept and theory. I learned how to work in a team, although we argued heaps number of times and I often did most of the work. I learned to communicate with different people, although everybody was so helpful because we're students.

I learned how to put my commitment on something for more than 4 years.

People say that this is about the biggest reason why in game industry degree is still so important. You show that you can consistently put your mind on something and finish it, even when it's getting difficult, boring, and tiring.

After all, making games is not just all about the fun =)