What you need to know before enrolling yourself in any game design colleges? Have you ever thought about working on the other side of the industry, designing video games for other people to play? Whether you are a game player or a game designer, you must have the passion for video games and you must like to play video games.
Before you enroll yourself into any video game design colleges, I have to tell you one thing. There are a lot of people who are interested to design video games and they are all looking forward to go into the video game design business every day. But game design is certainly not an easy field and not everyone can get into game design colleges because the competition is fierce, and it’s difficult to prove that your ideas will work without experience to back them up. In this article, I intend to give advice to the aspiring game designer newbies on how to get into game design colleges.
As we all know, the field of game design is a new one, and there is not much information available on that subject. But to get into game design colleges, you need to have some basic understanding in how game design works! In other words, you need to read. Thus, there are a few must-read game design books that will turn your interest in video games into a solid grasp of the theoretical and mechanical rules behind them. The first book is "Rules of Play", by Eric Zimmerman and Katie Salen. These two New York City game designers explore the game design field from the academic standpoint. They do countless research on both digital and non digital titles to find out what defines a good game. If you desire a more practical approach, I would strongly recommend Richard Rouse’s "Game Design: Theory and Practice." The designer worked on titles from the classic arcade era to contemporary ones, and his book contains crucial advice on every step of the game design process. Thus, reading these two books will provide you with knowledge and insight which would help you gain some idea on what you should expect before going into game design colleges.
One common mistake that aspiring game designers make is an obsessive focus on their field of interest. If you plan on getting into game design colleges, you must be versatile and well versed in all aspects of a game, not just the ones you like. Undoubtedly, you should play games to understand how they work, but more importantly you will also need to learn and get ideas, opinions and inspirations from other media as well. Many newcomers to game design colleges are so immersed in the ludological world of games that they fail to reach beyond their own self-imposed barriers. Treat game design like a work of arts and science. You need to strike the right balance to be truly successful. If you are looking forward to go into game design colleges, treat game design like a career, just like every other profession. You must always be willing to widen your horizons and experiment with new concepts and ideas of game design. Start by taking one baby step at a time and work your way up the game design colleges.
And, of course, the best way to prove get a feel of what it is like to actually be in game design colleges is to design games. Now, at this point, you might be surprised because you must have thought that you are not able to design any games on your own. That is not true. There are several free or cheap game production programs that can be learned fairly quickly. Some of the more popular ones would include Game Maker and Gamestar Mechanic. Using these tools, you can translate your game design concepts and ideas into playable prototypes in no time. Also, the programs allow you to test and experience your games and iterate them forward. Game design is definitely not a one man show, but rather it is an intensely collaborative process involving a whole team, so the more experience you get taking feedback and learning from it the better. The same rule applies when you get into game design colleges. You must learn how to cooperate with your friends.
I hope these tips have helped you follow your dreams of entering some game design colleges.
Or if you have mistaken game design for game testing, you might want to check out these two websites:
Gamer Testing
Only For Gamers
Game testing is a completely different field from game design. You test games for bugs and you get paid for your effort. It is an easier path because you do not need any college degree or attend any game design colleges. You can be a game beta tester from home. Why do you get paid for testing games? Simply because game designers make more money this way. If they launch a new game full of bugs, customers will return the game after their initial purchase and these game designers do not make any money. But if they spend some money to hire some game testers, they will discover those bugs early, fix it and push it out to the market without running the risk of those games being returned by sad customers. Those websites will give you all the tools you need to be a game tester at $45 for 2 years or $34 for 6 months. It is not that expensive in view of the fact that you will make much more as a game tester. But if you need some game testing experience, you should definitely join their top-notch membership program.
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