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[PlasmaMan]

Yeah, pretty sure this topic goes here. It's like business.

Anyway, I want to become a game designer. The problem is, I have no idea what to do for college. I suppose a devoted school like Digipen or Full Sail is an option, but both are very far from me and I'm not sure if they're worth the nonresident fees. My question is, what sort of courses would best bolster my game design skills?

[Soulliard]

The best way to bolster your design skills is to make games. You'll learn far more about game design with a simple flash game than you will in any programming course.

If you're looking for a job in the industry, I'd avoid schools like Digipen and Full Sail, and specialize in either animation or programming (or music), depending on your strengths and weaknesses. Nobody ever gets hired as a 'game designer' right out of college.

I'm not an expert on this topic, but that's the advice I've always heard. And it's the advice I'm currently following.

[Charcoal]

Nobody ever gets hired as a 'game designer' right out of college.

I did 
But I got lucky.

As for the original question, you should be making your own games.
That's really the only way to learn.
If you have a problem with one area of game development then you could possibly look into taking a course for that.

But yeah, just go and start making some games!

[___]

If you're looking for a job in the industry, I'd avoid schools like Digipen and Full Sail, and specialize in either animation or programming (or music), depending on your strengths and weaknesses. Nobody ever gets hired as a 'game designer' right out of college.

I know of a few people that been hired as designers out of college, but they demonstrated skills with actual projects.

[TeeGee]

I actually quit my university education to have time to focus on games and get a designer's job. So yeah, college doesn't make you a game developer - making games does.

Just pick whatever floats your boat for the education and create games in your free time.

[GregWS]

A basic design education, the more interdisciplinary the better, will really help your game design abilities (even if in that education you don't design a single game).  Although it may seem otherwise, game design isn't nearly as unique a design medium as it may seem, and a great deal of aspects of design in other fields transfer over very nicely.

My favorite bit of info regarding this is Miyamoto: he went to Industrial Design school and got a degree in that before being hired by Nintendo (basically products/objects; I still don't get why it's called "industrial").  Personally, I think it's his time in design school that's allowed him to be the powerhouse he is when it comes to game design.  From what I've seen of his process/approach, he asks certain questions and views things in a way that's very common in other design fields, but still very uncommon in game design.

At the end of the day, design is design; it's not art, and it's not science, and it's not even something in the middle of those: it's absolutely its own thing, and one that really benefits from an education tailored specifically to it.

[aeiowu]

A basic design education, the more interdisciplinary the better, will really help your game design abilities (even if in that education you don't design a single game).  Although it may seem otherwise, game design isn't nearly as unique a design medium as it may seem, and a great deal of aspects of design in other fields transfer over very nicely.

My favorite bit of info regarding this is Miyamoto: he went to Industrial Design school and got a degree in that before being hired by Nintendo (basically products/objects; I still don't get why it's called "industrial").  Personally, I think it's his time in design school that's allowed him to be the powerhouse he is when it comes to game design.  From what I've seen of his process/approach, he asks certain questions and views things in a way that's very common in other design fields, but still very uncommon in game design.

At the end of the day, design is design; it's not art, and it's not science, and it's not even something in the middle of those: it's absolutely its own thing, and one that really benefits from an education tailored specifically to it.

great post. great advice.

[bateleur]

The other thing you should consider is how risk averse you are. I admire anyone you says "I'm going to be a game designer" and just goes for it, but the reality is that very few people make it as designers. As such, you might want to pick a college course which gives you transferrable skills to fall back on in case you end up needing a job outside the industry for a while.

If you're a numerate kind of person, I'd recommend programming (so probably a computer science degree). This will also come in handy for making games prototypes to show to the people who you are hoping will hire you as a designer.

[brog]

Depends what you mean by wanting to be a "game designer".

Want to go indie, do all the work making and marketing your own videogames?  Do a CS degree, programming is the most essential skill.  Also, never stop making stuff in your spare time, and make like-minded friends.

Want to work for a big videogame company, don't care doing what?  Programming or animation are probably your best bets.  (And in these roles, even though you don't have a say in the overall concept, you're still doing design work; your creativity has an effect on how the game feels, how the ideas are translated into reality.)

Or you could go to art school, become a concept artist, design the overall look of games.  Do an English degree, write scripts, design the stories for games.

But if you want to be literally a "game designer", and design game mechanics, I'd recommend studying maths.  Some of the best game designers (Richard Garfield, Reiner Knizia) have maths PhDs, it's a good background for thinking about the consequences of how different rules interact, balancing etc.  GregWS' advice is good too - design is design.  And definitely just start making some games (not just videogames, have a read of this and design some board games).

[c-foo peng]

Nobody ever gets hired as a 'game designer' right out of college.

*raises hand*

Got CS & HCI undergrad degrees from a nice college. Made a bunch of small indie games. Summer internship with evil game conglomerate. Graduated with an offer from a smaller place that actually makes the sort of games I like to play.

It helped that the evil game conglomerate actively recruited at the college I went to though. But other than that, that's pretty much all I did to get a job as a 'game designer'.

[undertech]

[DavidLeverton]

Hi, I'm new to these forums, I've just started a buisness with my Lecturer from University making Indie games for iPhone, XBLA Indie Channel and PC. He started a company and picked me to work for him during my placement year.

We have been taught that getting into the Games Industry as a Game Designeris extremely hard, there are only a few designers per company and most of them are experianced professionals who have come through from another job in the industry, such as Programming.

The best way to get experiance in game designing, of course, is to make games your self, but it also helps if you know how the games industry works in general and what each member of the team does so that you can chat to each person in the team to let them know how to do things if they do not understand anything about the game design. This can be taught at university (or College) but it will be hugely different when you actually get into the industry.

All I can talk from is all I've been told and taught since I've no experience in the industry as I'm still a student, but there is no better way of learning than actually doing, especially in this industry.

So I guess the answer to how to get into the Games Designer role is that their are many ways, but nothing compares to actually making games and working in the games industry it's self to gain experience. College can teach you lots but not everything.

Hope this helps,

David Leverton.

[Triplefox]

Nobody ever gets hired as a 'game designer' right out of college.

*raises hand*

Same. I made a small pile of games in college and got hired about three months after leaving, which isn't "right out," but damn close, considering that I didn't start looking until I was finished.

If you do what I did, you'll go to college focused on acquiring broad knowledge, which will put you in conflict with the entire incentive structure of college(which is towards getting a specialized degree). "Game college" courses are pretty much always specifically about programming or art, which is not the same as design. You want interdisciplinary relationships in design.

Despite that, it is possible to graduate and make games at the same time, but you'll get stressed for time and you may have to take a lighter/longer-term courseload. I started off thinking I would go for CS, and shifted to economics in the middle when I found that I was completely unmotivated for math and hence failed integral calculus multiple times. I stayed for one extra quarter, in the end. It was all worthwhile, I think, though suffering was had at various points.

DavidLeverton: Greetings. Post in the introduction thread too or you'll be pestered about it forever.

[PlasmaMan]

Thanks to everyone for posting. My best subject has always been advanced math like calculus. So, I think I'll enter a general course with a slight focus on math over the others while biulding up a design portfolio. I may not want to join a large company if Pixelxcore, the indie site I'm sort of part of, takes off and I can make a living that way. If that fails too, well, I'm a smart guy. I'm sure I can get some sort of intellectual profession.

[Brice]

I agree with most everything that's been said; if you want to be a game developer, then you need to show you can complete successful projects, preferably with a small team of people. 

Separately, if you want to be a game designer, you need to show exceptional leadership skills.  I was hired as a game designer right out of college for this reason, because I founded a game development organization and led successful projects with 12+ people.

An article on my website might help: Becoming a Game Designer

Best of luck!

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

i think game designers have a good role, but should at least have some hands-on familiarity with the nuts and bolts of making games too. you can't be a good game designer if you can't program, can't draw, can't write, can't make music, etc. -- you don't need to be a master of all of those or even any of them, but you do need to be competent at a few of them. so i echo the advice to just make games. about 5% of your game design education will be from academics, about 95% from practical work