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do you have to go to college to be a programmer for games?

i hate school. it's expensive too #software #engineering #gaming

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Samuel’s Answer

You don't HAVE to attend a specific course to be a Video Game Programmer, but a pertinent course(even if it's tangential), makes it a whole lot easier. Honestly, it's a really vast field and there isn't nearly enough material available online to hone your skills yourself. Not to sound nihilistic, but not everyone can be Hideo Kojima or Toby Fox. On the flipside, attending a relevant course does not ensure skills and success in the industry. So yeah, apart from joining a course, tinkering, experimenting yourself is the key to getting any semblance of success in the field.
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Matt’s Answer

No, you don't have to go to college to be a programmer in the games industry. There are multiple examples of successful programmers who never went to college.


That said, most of the programmers I know went to college. And we do look for college education on the resumes we review. The candidate would have to be fantastic in other ways (long history of successful games shipped) to be a viable pick to come in for an interview.


As an aside, why do you hate school? Too slow? Too boring? Teachers are bad / mad / vapid?


To be a great programmer you're going to have to learn a lot of things. Do some introspection on why you hate school so much. And figure out how you do like learn. Online? Youtube? Practice? Books? Mentoring?

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Walt’s Answer

You know I hated school also. I could never learn by sitting in classes listening to lectures. I wanted to get my hands into the material and actually build stuff. So I joined the US military in the advanced electronics field and learned computers from them. I worked on helicopters and aircraft, which are loaded with high tech computer hardware. When I left the military, I attended a technical college at night where they emphasized hands-on coding and computer science, with only a little lecture. I worked full time during this period, so I wasn't bored or wasting time not earning money.

So it is possible to have a successful career without suffering four years or more of boredom. There are many different paths to getting into the computer industry, or whatever industry you are interested in. The key is to keep looking until you find a path that suits you. And in the mean time, start doing what you love either as a hobby, or as a side gig, or even working near what you love but in a lesser job role. For instance, if you want to be in aerospace, you might have to sweep the floors in an airplane hangar just to learn from the people there how to get they got there and to see if it is really for you. Jump into your dreams and try things. You have nothing to lose.

Walt recommends the following next steps:

Find out what companies are near you in the field you want to work in.
Find out if you can study at night or part time while you work at something you like.
Find out if today's military education opportunity is right for you.
Think about part time work, or a side gig in the thing you love to do.
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