Hi Chris! Im fresh from highschool and looking forward to a career in the game industry. Id like to ask a few... rather long questions.
Would a company prefer a specialist in programming or art skill, or a jack-of-all-trade who is not as specialized (and generally crappier than that guy who has been a programmer/artist his whole life) but can get shit done from both departments. I dont know if Id like to work as a programmer or artist, theyre equally challenging and fun, but would that cost me "specialization" ?
My ultimate goal is game designer, which Id like to fantasize as a job where you hurl ideas and the accompanying database at people and should it be accepted, watch as it is developed. I dont know, most pages I searched seem to either be too general or dont even know what designer/developer/producer differ from one another. What is the truth to it? I look at that guy Todd Howard from Bethesda and thought, what does this guy do? Is his job thinking up ideas and get the ideas approved and worked on by the dev team? If so, its the sort of job I want too. And last but not least, what got him there?
Also, Im told stories like artists and programmers dont get to apply a lot of creativity into their work, they receive requests and do shit for people want done for them. Like "I got this cool idea for an enemy", "No Jim you gotta finish modeling that godzilla ripoff and let us do the idea-ing for you". I want to make games that are games I want to make, or at least work on the content that I want to make. Is this a dangerous attitude? Since you said you didnt even like FPS games but you worked on Far Cry and it was a blast. Maybe I should learn to want to the things that others want and get shit done accordingly?
mostyque2 karma
Hi Chris! Im fresh from highschool and looking forward to a career in the game industry. Id like to ask a few... rather long questions.
Would a company prefer a specialist in programming or art skill, or a jack-of-all-trade who is not as specialized (and generally crappier than that guy who has been a programmer/artist his whole life) but can get shit done from both departments. I dont know if Id like to work as a programmer or artist, theyre equally challenging and fun, but would that cost me "specialization" ?
My ultimate goal is game designer, which Id like to fantasize as a job where you hurl ideas and the accompanying database at people and should it be accepted, watch as it is developed. I dont know, most pages I searched seem to either be too general or dont even know what designer/developer/producer differ from one another. What is the truth to it? I look at that guy Todd Howard from Bethesda and thought, what does this guy do? Is his job thinking up ideas and get the ideas approved and worked on by the dev team? If so, its the sort of job I want too. And last but not least, what got him there?
Also, Im told stories like artists and programmers dont get to apply a lot of creativity into their work, they receive requests and do shit for people want done for them. Like "I got this cool idea for an enemy", "No Jim you gotta finish modeling that godzilla ripoff and let us do the idea-ing for you". I want to make games that are games I want to make, or at least work on the content that I want to make. Is this a dangerous attitude? Since you said you didnt even like FPS games but you worked on Far Cry and it was a blast. Maybe I should learn to want to the things that others want and get shit done accordingly?
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