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In Design, the Fun and Games Never End - Accessing Exciting Game Design Schools |  |
by Gabby Hyman
gabby.hyman@hqpublications.com
Design Programs Columnist
Not everyone who loves playing video games ends up drawing a game idea on a napkin while dining out. If you’re a gaming fanatic with a serious artistic bent and envy people with video game jobs, you may want to design a career for yourself.
The gaming industry brings in nearly $7 billion and adds about 5,000 new jobs annually. Consequently, game design schools are popping up around the country. You can start your training right away at nearby colleges and game design schools that offer associate, undergraduate, or certificate programs.
The Diversity of the Game Design Discipline
People with game design careers usually begin with arts, illustration, or computing software training, but they end up combining more disciplines than they never imagined could be a part of video game jobs.
You might need to know the history of folk tales and legends. Or you might bone up on science fiction or military history. Even if you want to work on other people’s ideas, you’ll still need the learn animation, programming, sound recording and editing, and physics. Video game design schools may even prepare you for work in 3D graphics, storyboarding, character development, and frame modeling.
The Long and Short of It
No matter how you slice it, you’re going to need some computer savvy. Most animators will have to master Softimage, AutoCAD, 3D Studio Max, Lightwave, Digimation, Modelweaver, Maya, or a whole range of rendering engines.
Game design schools often specialize in some of these, and there are intensive, short-term industry courses that can get you up to speed quickly. When all is said and done, though, most dreamers who get video game jobs end up doodling on fewer napkins and get themselves some schooling – that’s when the real fun and games begin.
About the Author
Gabby Hyman has written for print and online media for more than 20 years. He has created online content for eToyds, GoTo.com, Siebel Systems, Avaya, and Nissan UK. He has also been a web consultant to the Governer of California. As an author of fiction, journalism, and poetry, Gabby is a former English professor for the University of Illinois, University of Alaska, and Old Dominion University. He holds an MFA in fiction writing from the University of Alabama.
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