I'm about to be a college freshman in a month. How do I become a video game developer?

also QA Testing is a good foot in the door. i applied to a position a couple days ago and im currently pursuing my assoicates.

Do not do this.

You're not "making games", you're slaving away at obscure functions or meaningless props for some suit's idea. You're paid jack fucking shit, work horrendous hours with no personal life left, run to exhaustion and burnout, and will be fired at a moment's notice if you start to crack from the pressure. And that's assuming you managed to even get in, with hundreds of thousands applying for any given position because they're happy to be slaves for the promise of "making games".

If you want to do programming, there are plenty of much more fulfilling roles where you'll have more impact on the end result, have a good work environment, and get paid a very healthy wage. Then you can make games as a hobby or some cash on the side, with the ability to make what you actually want to make.

Don't make the mistake that I did. Do not go into this fucked up industry.

Attached: nichidesk.png (500x540, 291.47K)

lulz somebody got the joke

Basically you need to focus on a specialization and spend a lot of your free time working towards it outside of school. People don't hire generalists, they hire specialists. Being able to do pixel art, vector art, 3d characters, rigging, and lighting all mediocre is worse than being really really good at rigging. If you're a programmer you need to pick what interests you - networking, physics, tools, gameplay, engine, etc. Then outside of classes you should spend at least a few hours each week working on something related to the specialization you chose.

based. just do web dev or mobile app dev. EASY PEAZY

So this is how real developers hold their mouse... I see now...

Attached: Clipboard01.jpg (500x264, 7.79K)

Learn art and 3D modeling, or become a code monkey.

Instantly kill yourself in the slowest way possible. The dying dreams you have will simulate the dev experience.

Programming in general, not just games. Only do it if you enjoy writing code on your free time, as a hobby of sorts, otherwise don't even try. It's the perfect job to end on the rope though

>spending money for online classes

Really depends on a studio. If you're in a small one they expect you to be more of a generalist, if it's a huge one you'll be a tiny cog doing ONE just ONE job. I worked in a small one and in 3 years went through a ton of art roles from modelling props to texturing to doing level design to sculpting characters. In a small studio that can easily happen. Also having experience with a lot of roles means that you can transition into being a solo dev if you want. Not that it's a wise decision

don't go to college and self teach. there's tons of free engines to practice with.

3D modelling won't exist as a job by the time he graduates lmao. 90% of that job will be done by the software in a few years. If you're going the art route study the fundamentals, git good with drawing and sculpting

First you’ll need to start HRT. Look it up. You’ll also need to search up some programming socks that fit you on Amazon or something. Get as many as you want!
Get a Twitter account if you haven’t already. Also a Github. Pretend you are REALLY important. Commission a furry alter ego or at LEAST a cartoon version of yourself that looks way more attractive than than you. Don’t forget to choose a cute girl name like Zoey for yourself!
Don’t bother learning any programming languages. You’ll be able to learn later during “crunch” time, or just be a writer!

This
Also this.
If you want to make games:
>Work in small teams, indie studios where you're actually a unit with a name and face and not just some fuckin paycheck
>Work solo, hobby dev
>Don't expect it to be a main source of income until it IS a main source of income.

you start learning today, and stop believing that just showing up for lectures and doing assignments is enough to actually learn something.
source: cto that is sick of children thinking I have use for them just because they have a degree, don't get me wrong the stuff you learn is useful and important, but you have to work on it outside of coursework to solidify the knowledge

learn a popular game engine such as unity, unreal or godot

got to a few game jams to learn how to make games on itch.io.

find employment

>dude my students are useless
>I'm responsible for their education? No lol, they're just paychecks

Nah I'd say do it like this
>choose a field, get good at it
>get a job in a studio, work for 3-5 years
>quit and use your skills and knowledge to make a game solo
>expand the team slowly over decades and create a small indie studio
That's the slow and painful way to go in my opinion. You will at times have zero income though. Possibly for decades. So be rich should be step 0 really.

Have enough money to fund your own game with your own vision, anything less is short of the dream.

But you also need to have enough experience to make sure that game isn't shit.

of course he's not responsible for your education. stop infantilizing yourself and take some responsibility for your life as well as your education. god next you're gonna start crying about needing safespaces too

Uh... good thing there's a thread like this here now.
Basically I'm pondering whether to apply for some other shit or for what is essentially a game dev course. One of the things that's really been weighing on my mind though is if you're expected to do stuff outside of work (hours) to get anywhere. I really just want to get some qualification to get an ok job in which I go to work, do my thing and then can go home and relax without being bothered by it. I like the tasks you'd do in game dev, but don't want it intruding on my private life.
So in that aspect is game dev a good idea or a bad idea? Intuition would tell me it's bad, but one friend or the other keeps trying to hammer it in that my work would likely just be confined to when I'm at the office/studio/whatever.
pls respond

If you accept money for a service you are actually responsible for performing that service. I think paying for education is stupid but if you do pay your teacher better rip his butt into two halves to make sure you're well educated

Tell me more

>thinking money can buy maturity and intelligence
good luck with that

The only thing you'd be qualified for is QA, which is generally a shitty job.

Avoid skill based professions like programming and art. If you do shit like marketing ironically people don't expect you to be good or diligent or even in any way competent and you can get away with doing basically nothing all day. Weird but it's true. In every studio the least diligent people are the ones doing the easiest jobs, so go for that