Should You Get A Degree In Game Dev? (My Story)

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[broganking]

I got a masters degree in music, now I'm a full-time programmer, because that's how that works.

[JefryU]

"Don't just listen to what other people tell you to do"

Do I listen to that?

[BhargavaMan]

I got a degree in game dev for about $80, 000USD way back in 2010(UOIT, Canada) and the answer is basically, NO DON'T DO IT

[hrishikeshkumar]

It not a just piece of paper. It’s a $40, 000 piece of paper. XD

[christophermcfadden]

When I went to college, I noticed that many people were there to learn the skills that they could learn else where or on their own, but completely ignoring all the things that that the structure of college provides, such as working on work that isnt your passion project, and being reasonable and realistic about creating scopes, integrating into a team, using scrums and trello etc to keep a team stay on task and divid up the project into milestones and baby steps, most students seem to think if they can get really really good at one thing they'll get hired anywhere, but spend NONE of that time learning how to network, how to understand the dynamics of joining a team, those are the skills you are there to learn, not how to navigate unity, photoshop and a 3D software.

I would say it is ESPECIALLY important for most people to eventually go to college because despite having good ideas, most people do not know how to organize their work, share it with peers, integrate into a team, nor does everyone have the skillset to build such a good brand on youtube and an email list or whatnot to build a community to integrate into.

At the end of the day, all art, media and technology is about COMMUNICATING INFORMATION, and most people get way to caught up in being some sort of "unique artist" instead of learning how to create true dialogue between them, their team and their audience.

[goldencum]

Im 13 right now, Game Design Is Clearly My Passion(for now at least) i started working on my biggest project to date about a month ago, i hope i can prove to my parents and especially myself that i dont need a collage to pursue my dreams, thanks for an amazing video as usual Thomas!

[F]

I currently am about to graduate with a degree in game design. After 5 years in college, 90% of what I know now about game development happened in the last 2 semesters. Its basically 4 years of filler and simple theoretical concepts of game design. I dont have a job yet, though i have started applying for jobs. Though most of the jobs I am competing for are also being competed for by CS majors. Though from previous experience, its who you know and where you are at the right time. Thats what gets you into the industry. You gotta know the right people, and be in the right place at the right time.

[paris]

This video literally came at the most perfect time for me, thank you!

[Phoenix-gzxb]

Not gonn lie. My degree was worth it. Went for motion graphics and they taught me graphic design, motion graphics, animation, character creation, modeling, rigging, video editing and much more. Stuff I did not want to do, but glad I did. I learned motion graphics and so much more and now game development but did that on my own.

[NormaTu]

I went to UCSC for a B.S. in games. I come from a low-income family and had 0 EFC (expected family contribution). It cost me $32, 000 for 5 years.
It felt like a computer science degree with only like 4 classes where I had the opportunity to make games in a team.
I definitely relate to Thomas's points. A lot of what I learned in my classes do not apply to my career I have now. My advice I'd like to give is to really research these game dev university programs, beyond just what they offer and what they cost. It's really eye opening to actually talk with the people already going through the program to hear what their experience is like too.
I agree that going thru college for a games degree is not needed for a career in games, because everything one could possibly need to go into gamedev is readily available online for free. You just need the drive, perseverance, and resources to do it.
But like Thomas said, I wasn't fully aware of what I was capable of at the time, and I was too immature to make myself learn what I needed to learn when I was 18-21 years old. Being at UCSC surrounded me with like-minded peers who just wanted to make games too, and that helped me find people to collaborate with together. It was a lot more effective than if I just went to meetups alone, because we went thru the same classes together and had camaraderie by proximity.
For me personality, it was worth it, because I knew I didn't know anything about game dev when I changed from a Biology degree, and was better off than trying to figure things out on my own.
What was most worthwhile was going to a tech bootcamp for mobile game development during the summer, because that gave me the hands on learning I needed to spark that passion in me and get me chasing after mobile game development with all my might.
So like Thomas says, whether or not one should get a degree in game dev depends on the kind of person that person is.

[sasookay]

6:51 Why didn't you tell me this 13 years ago? I'm 32 and so frustrated that I wanted to make games but I let my dad shut me down about it. I should have just done it and made it work. I'm working on it now though. Hopefully I'll redeem all my wasted time.

[danielaustin]

Great thoughts man. Really glad to see you successful and happy!

[crisprvideogameofficial]

Got a degree in animation and am becoming a game developer.

[RideFixRepeat]

As someone who is grinding through 150 hours of udemy courses to get official certs through the unity platform to ultimately produce my own content and even get a job in game development industry, this is very inspirational. I've been a manufacturing engineer in the automotive world for 6 years now without a degree (tech school ftw) and recently decided to actually try to work towards a career that I WANT to do. Thank you!

[Cryptic]

Two equally true quotes, albeit ~25 years apart:

"“You wasted $150, 000 on an education you coulda got for $1.50 in late fees at the public library.” -- Good Will Hunting

"The last guy who got paid for having a degree in Game Design is the guy teaching your Game Design course." -- Razorfist

[mirkoson]

Agreed. I always dreamt to be a game dev since I was a kid with a C64. University in my home town wasn't exciting and I first wasted 2 years in the wrong one, then 7 doing Communication Studies, just to get the damn piece of paper. Then went to England for a Master in Computer Animation, still couldn't find a job in Italy, so I got another Master in Media Content Design in Florence. After that, I finally found a job in an advertisement company in Milan, but in spite of my winding path, those guys needed a Unity developer to make some interactive projects, so, thanks to my proactive attitude I started delivering content through a trial -> error -> success pattern.
This year I dropped everything and found a job in Helsinki, one of the most lively environments for games development, and I've got the title of Senior Developer in a gaming company. What was my University? Youtube & willpower.

[Stiny]

Really appreciate the brutal honesty. I really want to do Game Development, but I also feel like I'm fighting alot of stuff that's out of my control right now too. Sorry if that sounds vague

[ZedAmadeus]

I really appreciate you sharing this story... :D

Also, digging the hair!

[cyberlingbotd]

It's not worth no 25 30k when you can learn all the same skills for free. For real no one is going to judge your game creation skills based off a degree, it's entirely based off your content you've developed, weather or not it's good content.

[ItBeOnai]

Huge respect for you bringing up the tech schools. It's a great way to start learning about different things you have an interest in without spending a shit ton of money. Most people don't have that kind of confidence of what they want to do with their life and it's a great way to experiment in a safe way