The barriers to entry in the game industry have never been lower. The Internet has provided aspiring developers with an abundance of learning opportunities and tools.
Art schools and Game Development College also have acknowledged this as an attractive career field.
So, they worked on developing curriculums specifically tailored to help students become game developers. That presents Aspiring game developers with some difficult decisions to make on how exactly they go about achieving their dreams.
1- Game Development College is a Tool
Game Development College is a tool that is going to help you become a game developer if you do the work, so you better make sure that you enjoy the process of working with pixels for long hours because this what you are going to do when you go to school and when you get a job.
By deciding to go to a Game Development College or school you are deciding to invest a good chunk of your time and a considerable amount of money, so you better make sure that you have the passion and a strong desire for games and art in general.
What I want to say is that the Game Development College is just a tool that is going to push you and help you become a game developer, if you do the work because they are not going to do the work for you.
It is better if you have prior experience with 3D modeling, texturing, and working with game engines because this way, at least, you know what you are getting yourself into and you have an idea about the level of difficulty involved in working on video games.
2- Professors are not going to teach you everything
Game Development Colleges give you the skills and the experience to become an effective employee in the game development world.
Learning to be a game developer takes time and you must spend time perfecting your craft after you learn the basics and the theory behind what is involved in making a video game.
Teachers do their best to help you understand the classes you are taking within the time frame assigned to each class. You are going to learn the theory and do a lot of training exercises to learn the basics but in the end, you still have to do some heavy lifting outside of what you are taught, and I personally believe that a big portion of learning is experimental and doing personal projects in order to face and solve more problems and get more experience.
The best game development students are those who have a passion for game development that allows them to learn on their own every day in order to improve their skills.
Game development is so vast and technical so they are not going to help you figure out everything unless you ask about it.
In the beginning, they feed you information slowly and they walk you through easy exercises but in the end, the learning curve gets very steep and you need to think on your feet because you will be given vague assignments that push your creative thinking and your ability to solve problems.
3- The Best Learning Environment
Learning in class with a group of people who try to do the same things you are trying to do and have the same goals as you is going to make the learning process less stressful than learning on your own.
Also, the structured environment with the help of professionals is going to shortcut your learning curve a lot, and most importantly I think what you find in school that probably don’t find online is clarity on what you are doing and why.
This will spare you the time you spend thinking and wondering and doubting whether this is important or even something you need to learn in the first place if you are on your own.
Teachers will answer questions related to game development also questions about your career in the future, and if you are smart you are going to create strong connections with students and teachers to find a job later when you graduate because a lot of these teachers are still working in the industry or at least have good people inside that will help you put your foot in the door.
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