There is a lot of talk about whether a game centric degree is worth the effort and money needed to get one. As a recipient of a Game Design degree, I take these conversations to heart every time I read them.
Since I was a kid, I wanted to get into game development and design. Never since I started playing games has there really been a time when I didn’t want to do this for a living. I liked to write out game stories, character designs, gameplay mechanics and everything else to do with design itself. I even dabbled in programming a bit while in high school. While I never made any full fledged video game, I still liked to create them on paper. I even designed my very own board game.
When I finally started college, I wanted to learn more about the nitty gritty of game development. For me, this was studying programming. After all, I knew that was the heart of a game. So I started on a computer science degree at the local community college. This was fun for what it was. I learned the basics behind programming, but I never got that game design feel I wanted. (more…)