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[mount4o]

Hey guys,

I'm new to the forum. I'm not an experienced game developer as well. I discovered my interest for developing games relatively soon (almost 1 year ago).

My question to you is how important do you think a university degree is ? Especially for game development. Is the knowledge you get in the uni worth those 3-4 years ? Or learning on your own and from your work more worthy ?


Regards

[ProgramGamer]

Depending on where you live, I would advise you to go to college. Game development is more of a hands on thing, and colleges tend to be better at providing that kind of teaching. Just make sure to research your program and make sure that its courses are up to date, because my program still teaches flash as part of it curriculum haha

Also, college programs tend to be shorter. Mine is two years.

Lastly, independently from post-secondary education, you should always just be learning on your own in your spare time. It's good to tinker with stuff, and the things you make will look good on a resume.

[voidSkipper]

In my opinion this depends entirely on your goals.

If you just want to make games as a hobby, there's no real reason to get any kind of formal education in it. All of the resources needed for self-teaching are freely available, there's practically zero cost to trial-and-error experimentation, and if you need someone to explain something specific, you can almost always find that someone.

If, on the other hand, you're thinking you want to pursue game development as a career, I would suggest you go to university to get a bachelors-level (or higher) degree in computer science. This is not because it gives the skills required, per se (though it should), but more because many positions require this qualification as a prerequisite to applying. I also suggest avoiding game design-specific degrees. Mainly, this is due to the fact that just because you want to be a professional game developer now, doesn't necessarily mean you'll want to be one later. Computer science as a degree gives you many other options within software development for times when you either don't want or can't get a job in actual game development.

A computer science degree will always be recognised when applying for computer science positions, including game development positions, whereas a game development degree or diploma will not be recognised in non-game development positions, and may even be considered not acceptable for some game development positions either.

TL;DR: Wanna go pro? Study CS. Wanna be a hobbyist? Read a book.

[The Armorman]

Just start making videogames. Maybe you could make a hypercard game, and bring it back. I am all for Hypercard Erotica, I am standing behind you 100%

[mount4o]

Thank you for the replies guys. What about if you are an artist?I found that a lot of job applications for artists do not even say anything about education.

Regards

[ｂ∀ ｋｋｕｓａ]

to be an artist all you need is a good portfolio, no ones look at your art degree

[Winnie the Pooh]

Hey guys,

I'm new to the forum. I'm not an experienced game developer as well. I discovered my interest for developing games relatively soon (almost 1 year ago).

My question to you is how important do you think a university degree is ? Especially for game development. Is the knowledge you get in the uni worth those 3-4 years ? Or learning on your own and from your work more worthy ?


Regards

Why don't you think of studies in Germany. In Germany, computer sciences are one of the most desired fields of studies. A friend of mine is a second year student at Jacobs University Bremen. He pays about €115 semester fee but basically studies are free. Classes are either in German or in English. The degrees are accepted everywhere. Still you'd better decide what's the core skills or head and google to find more. This might be of use I guess  https://tranio.com/germany/education/

[michaelplzno]

University is about more than getting a job, its part of being a well rounded person. I wouldn't think of it as a means to an end but something to do to just get more out of life b/c you know about more stuff than just your job.

Edit: it will also help you write grammatically.