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Questions for ppl that just became a game designer.
Justin83x
Member Posts: 406
Hey I was just thinking the other day. It would be nice to be a game tester or something along those lines for a life career. So my question is pretty much what can you guys tell me about the whole process you went through, and whats it like doing that as a job. Also anything else you feel important just add. Thx.
Comments
Game designer and game tester aka QA are two totally different things.
I thought that to be a tester you had to go to college for game design?
As far as i know, no. Game designers are the people that make the entire concept of the game and plan out how the game would work wheres testers just try to find bugs and exploits in in-house builds of games. From what i've heard you don't need any experience in game designing to be a tester but just a very good gamer. QA guys are pretty much beta testers that are paid and they often arent paid enough so i wouldn't aim for a job like that.
Ok well the career I'm talking about the ad says you start out at 67,000 per year and you can earn the degree in as little as 12 months. This is why I'm on here asking though, cuz I wanna learn more about what everthing entails.
Sounds like a scam to me.
You can get a job with an MMO if you are a talented artist. You are born with this skill.
You can get a job with an MMO if you spend years working hard to become a programmer.
Game designers or devs are like movie directors. You don't need a lot of devs and good devs are hard to come by. Becoming a dev is like becoming a movie director. How do you get your foot in the door?
It's easier to be a game moderator, GM and work in customer service. if you have the personality for it, customer is always right, etc
Well shave my back and call me an elf! -- Oghren
Game testing is a soul-crushing job.
As much as you like games, I would not recommend it.
I've worked at places where testers were a bunch of disrespected monkeys, and places where testers are professional and capable. So the "soul-crushingness" of it is quite dependant on where you work and what products you test.
Personally my process was Monkey Testing (whose job requirements were understandably low) to Serious Testing to Testing Plus Balancing to Game Design.
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
Ok well how long does it take to become a game designer? What does it cost normally to finish college for it about? What kinda hours do game designers normally work? All these things I cannot find on google lol.
Let me completely ruin both of those careers for you!
Game tester - play the same levels OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER looking for bugs and get paid peanuts for it while being shit on by everyone
Game designer - a little smarter, but still shit on by the producers who really control things. supposedly has "creativity" to design their game LOL yea right more like whatever the company assigns you to do
I wanted to be a game designer for a long time then i realized that the job paid terribly and you never got to really do your own "thing" unless you're at blizzard or something (LOL GL getting in there unless you're a goddamn genius)
If you still want to be a game designer, get an english degree
lots of writing as a game designer (that's pretty much what you do, write game design docs)
It's not like 'Grandma's Boy'?
"" Voice acting isn't an RPG element....it's just a production value." - grumpymel2
My guess is that a college degree of some kind is mandatory for any of these careers.
A degree from a real college
Well shave my back and call me an elf! -- Oghren
pretty much
most "game design" schools are total jokes
also, try looking into modding if you want to get your feet wet. the most successful online fps of all time was created by canadian high school students modding HL1 (talking about CS)
Try doing some (good!) reference material... board games, game mods, maybe a vertical slice / prototype of a game idea you have. While doing that, get yourself a college degree. For instance in computer science, 2D art, game design, media science or something similar.
You feel designers have greater individual control in a larger, established company than a smaller one? Interesting theory.
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
This, basically. Hopefully you're a good actor, because when you're being interviewed by the press you have to say what the producers want you to say.
"I am so glad and happy to be able to work on the next installment of Madden/Tony Hawk/Call of Duty/Halo and I can't wait to show you how much the graphics have improved over the previous title!"
And when you're not interviewed you do exactly what you're told to do. Which is make the best cash cow in shortest timeframe possible.
I also thought of game designer.. but I'm not dedicated enough to use 7 years on a education.
What I current want to do, is taxi driver..
Believe it or not. Decent payment, and I like transporting.
Do you like being mugged?
"" Voice acting isn't an RPG element....it's just a production value." - grumpymel2
That's not so typical, here in Denmark. Sure there are *some*.
You don't need a college degree for either QA or Design. Many people infact use QA as a stepping stone into the game industry.
The best chance of getting a QA job is to play the companies game until you know it inside or out. If that isn't possible just playing the genre of games that they work on helps. If you were looking into an MMO company you should have lots of experience playing MMO's.
Once you have your foot in the door and you're working there, you can work your way into design. Most companies I've worked for allow you to apply for another department after like 6 months of working there.
He's from Denmark. I live next to the danish border and have been there many many times. There is very few crime. :-)
It still completely shocks me how many people are completely oblivious to the game design schools that offer a degree in 12 months. Go look at any studio and see what their requirements are for hiring; most require a bachelor's. Have fun getting a bachelor's in 12 months. Really. lol.
My advice is goto www.ripoffreport.com and search for the school. Everything you need to know will be there. I guarantee it. These schools offering 12 month degrees in game design are absolute jokes.
You're going to need a formal education from a real college. Get busy is my only advice. A vocational/trade school offering programs in a certain field will land you absolutely nowhere other than in debt for the loans taken out.
Check out a community college transfer degree. Spend two years of hard work getting an associate's that you can transfer to a university with to get a bachelor's. There's no real shortcut with the education requirements.
I've never really thought of a QA job.
So basicly, if you have a lot of gaming *experience you can apply for a job, if you get it, you test games etc and after 6 months you can apply for another deparment (i.e design etc)
I have some friends who are 'designers' in the industry. Generally 'designer' is just another term for management, as the company execs / producers will determine what will be made and the team makes it happen. Now...you can always land a job at a company and pitch an idea to execs, but good luck with that....
Also, I would avoid those 'game design' schools. Most are probably not accredited, and a hiring manager is not going to favor a 'grad' of a game design school; in fact quite the opposite. Learn multiple skills if you decide on Uni., and don't jump into the boat all at once as you may not like the other side. The industry consists of salaried underpaid and overworked employees. Imagine making games that you have no interest in making, and that is your high probability outcome, assuming you actually land a job.
That is why indie games are very rampant. The designer and producer is generally one, pulling funding from angel investors and the like. This allows for creative control. And if money is what you are after, facebook apps have shown that games arent limited to big budgets.
Yeah, for QA the more knowledge you have of their game or the genre of the game, the more valuable you are as a tester. You also have to come off as being professional. The companies I've been at just don't hire anyone. You need to have good communication skills and take the job seriously. It's not the "I get to play games all day" idea that everyone has of the position. It's work and it's not an easy job to be a good tester.
Game designer is a lot toguher to get into without experience in the industry. Even with a degree from a credited design school it's hard because without the experience you're still looked at as an entry level candidate. Honestly, we would take a internal QA person who shows the potential to be a good designer over someone with a degree and no experience. The upside of the QA person is that they are already at our company and they work with our tools and need very little training.
To move into design though, you need to show that you're capable of being a designer. Being a good designer is not someone who thinks of ideas. Everyone can come up with good ideas and honestly, 9 times out of 10 your great idea has already been thought of. You need to be creative, have a passion for games and have the ability to put those ideas into practice with the tools that you're given. It's work.
Not all countries have the high crime rates of North America
AW