^Actual view from my desk. How many mice can you count?
So You Wanna Make Games High School Edition
From time to time I get messages from parents who’s teens have mentioned that they are considering entering the game design industry. Here’s an excerpt from an email I wrote to one of these high school students.
FYI I am an American game developer less than 2 months away from finishing my MFA in Interactive Media and Games and I wrote this to another high school student in the United States however I feel like most of this advice still applies to other young aspiring game devs.
If you are in high school I would recommend that you take a course that would help you prepare for the games industry. Think of taking classes like computer science, art, design, digital media, and writing. If you have access to AP Computer Science and/or AP or IB Art that would be ideal. If your high school does not offer any advanced classes (or any) in these subjects, consider taking these classes through dual enrollment at your local community college during the school year or over the summer.
Speaking of the summer, there are great summer programs in game design and art across the country. The best game design schools in the country also offer some good summer programs. USC has a 4 week summer programhttps://summerprograms.usc.edu/programs/4-week/game-design/ and NYU also offers a summer program http://gamecenter.nyu.edu/academics/summer/RISD offers a 6 week precollege program that has a game design “major”http://precollege.risd.edu/details/#game-design If money is a factor (when is it not?) many of these summer programs also have scholarships.
Another alternative to taking classes at a community college or doing a summer program is doing internships. I’m not sure how old you are, and the laws vary by state but some game design companies sometimes take on high school interns. At the end of the day doing something over the summer serves a few purposes. One, it lets you “try out” focusing on games. Games maybe something you enjoy but something that ultimately you don’t want to do for a career or even spend four years and bunches of student debt on. Also if you decide to apply for a degree in games these can be experiences you can write about in your application and add to your resume.
Meanwhile while you play your favorite games start to think about them on a critical level. Starting a journal might be a good way to practice this, write about what games you are playing and thinking about AND how this game is different than if it were a film or comic book. What makes it unique? How do you feel at certain parts of the game and why? What feels fun, difficult, easy, frustrating? Also try playing games that you normally wouldn’t play. The world of indie games is one of the most exciting places in games right now in terms of innovation. Look at some of the nominees and award winners fromhttp://www.indiecade.com/ and http://www.igf.com/ for games that are good examples of what is leading innovation in games.
Share your stuff on the internet! If you don’t have a Twitter account right now might be a great time to start one. Twitter is not only good for collecting celebrity news but also keeping up with the latest news in games. Follow hashtags like #gamedev #indiedev #screenshotsaturday and #indiedevhour to get an idea about what people are talking about from the game development side of things. Follow other game developers you admire, who knows you might also make some game developer friends.
Finally there are a few books that are required reading for anyone thinking about studying games in school. Introduction to Game Prototyping is one of the books I wish I read before I started my degree work in game design. Tracy Fullerton’s Game Design Workshop is written by the chair of the Interactive Media and Games Division at USC.
A while back I wrote a short article on my blog that has a bunch of links and resources for game developers. You can read it here