Charles
I want to go into the video game career. What is the first step into reaching my goal?
I have played video games ever since I have been able to remember. I've studied frame data, graphics, and analyzed game play ever since i knew how to. I want to be able to make a story line to a game and make the general story to a game. Where can I start?
#video-games #video-game-development
2 answers
Mark Kreitler
Mark’s Answer
If you know how to program, download Unity, Phaser, or Unreal and start studying "How to" tutorials (you can usually find full courses on Udemy at discount prices around $10.00).
If you don't know how to program, check out Construct 2, GameMaker, and ClickTeam Fusion. Then search for communities dedicated to building games with these tools.
Once you have chosen a simple, investigate "storyboarding" (for example, a quick search for "storyboard for games" turned up this link: https://www.cs.cornell.edu/courses/cs3152/2013sp/labs/design1/). This will teach you specifically how to go from a story in your head to a design you can build.
Once you have the tools and the process, try to storyboard and build a *simple* game. I mean *simple* like "Flappy Bird" or "Doodle Jump." Yes, there isn't much to storyboard, but at first, the thing that will limit you is your experience with the tools, not your ability to imagine awe-inspiring games. :)
Keep it simple, and keep at it. Making games is hard. There is a lot of technology to master before you can build the things you imagine. But making games is also a blast, and you will sometimes find that the "stupid little demo" you made is more fun than the magnum opus you've dreamed about since you were 6.
Go make something great!
Mark recommends the following next steps:
Christy Marx
Christy’s Answer
Games today offer dozens of different career possibilities. Here's a partial list:
programmer/engineer
artist/animator
game designer (and this is further split into many categories of game designer types, such as systems designer, level designer, experience designer, content designer, and so on)
sound engineer/music composer
product manager
producer
UI (user interface) designer
Narrative Designer/writer
QA (Quality Assurance = game testers)
Localization (translation into other languages)
data analyst (metrics)
HR/recruitment
PR (Public Relations/promotion)
Legal
So as you can see, there's a multitude of directions to choose from, and that will determine what areas of study you want to pursue.
Be aware that there schools that specialize in some of these areas. The most significant ones are Digipen, Full Sail, and the Guildhall. But many universities offer game design or programming courses of some kind.
Good luck!