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"How to become a UK Game Designer?"

Hi I am Eseer and I want to be a game designer.

(Relates to Sony PS1-2-3 by.... umm if you want to design a PS3 game one day?)

I have rougth but not so sure ideas of how to become a game designer while living in the United Kingdom.

1- Create a Computer game at home and take it to a company.

2-

Do a
ICT Foundation Course (1 year)

and then a

ICT Intermediate Courses (1 Year)

to get the grades to do a

BTEC National Diploma for IT Practitioners Course.(2 Years) (software)

After passing with good grades apply at a University for a

Game Design Course.(3 Years)

After you come out of this course you should be ready to be employed.

Please reply if you agree, disagree or know of a diffrent way.

By Eseer

Depends if you want to programme or be more involved in the design and concepts of a game.

It might be worth trying to get a small stand at one of the gaming conventions and pitching your ideas and concepts from there.

Gaming is turning into the movie industry: it's all about 'the next big idea'.

Although there aren't enough decent coders to go around anymore either. :)

Let's just hope they pick things up a bit next year as this year was a shambles.

Our problem solving assignment was a joke. Out of the 6 questions that we were asked to solve, only 2 were possible without asking a lecture for extra information and correcting the questions.

I know, I know.

FinalFantasyFanatic wrote:
> 3D graphics!
> Real-time battle mode!
> Hack-n-slash enjoyment!
> Hot girls as in the lead!
> You'll love it!


Sounds like my dream game ........ ahem :-D

FinalFantasyFanatic wrote:
> Like me ... doing Games Computing at Lincoln starting in September.

Prepare to do a lot of extra boring crap.

3D graphics!
Real-time battle mode!
Hack-n-slash enjoyment!
Hot girls as in the lead!
You'll love it!

Just make sure it has lots of lovely 2D spriteyness

But I know I'll never get it back again.

When you break into the industry FFF if you're ever working on a strategy RPG game tell them to come look for me to test it for them :-D

Er ... not game design. Most uni design courses want art portfolios before they'll let you on the course, or even take you through an interview - usually preceeded by a pre-degree course specifically in game design.

IT courses will help with absolutely nothing in terms of game design - they'll be for, uh, well, IT. Loose it.
If anything, you'll want to do Computing courses before hand to get a grip on the programming side of things - even if it doesn't interest you, you'll still need a working knowledge to get along in the games industry.

The best option if you're not gunning all out for the Design side of things - and you really won't get in on that without artistic experience and usually an impressive portfolio - then you should go for a combined course focussed primarily on programming.

Like me ... doing Games Computing at Lincoln starting in September. It covers pretty much all bases within the industry eventually, and you need no such experience to get in as with the Design courses. Of course, every little helps, and you'll get a good chance to prove your design skills and hopefully excel.

Also, in terms of employment, it's a damn tough world in the UK. Bottom line is, with a games job, you'll need some experience in the industry already. So try and pick a course with a 3rd-year placement, which will help no ends.

Of course, all the work you may want to pour into the Design courses through the proper channels could throw you straight into a job from uni, if you've got an impressive 4-year portfolio of work behind you - something solid you can be judged upon. But even then, experience always helps.

That's what I've found out in my many explorations.

I'd also say that these days the roots-up option of making a game at home is 99% assured of failure in terms of getting a proper, decent, respected job in the industry proper.