Your chances of landing your dream job straight out of college are negligible. Your chances of networking, grafting and eventually maneuvering your way into your dream job are higher.
100 times yes, and something I wish my teachers and professors had told us. Literally not one of them had said anything about the struggles people experience when first out of college.
I agree communication and creative writing are skills, I just don't agree (again, from friends' perspectives... my own major was economics) that a major like English is what lends them to people. I think it helps hone them, sure.
That's a bit like saying majoring in mathematics won't develop your skills in math.
Majoring in English will absolutely develop and hone your skills in written and oral communication as well as critical thinking.
I don't know the first thing about economics, so I wouldn't dare presume to make statements about how one would benefit from such a degree. It's not exactly my area of expertise.
I don't know your friends, so I can't speak for them. 
It's up to each student to take what s/he can from a class or any learning experience.
That's a bit like saying majoring in mathematics won't develop your skills in math.
Majoring in English will absolutely develop and hone your skills in written and oral communication as well as critical thinking.
That's what I said! lol 
Please don't get upset with me, I'm actually agreeing with you. I said yes I think an English major can help hone your skills.
I never set out to attack you personally in any way, it's just an opinion I thought I would share with the OP.
That's what I said! lol
I never set out to attack you personally in any way, it's just an opinion I thought I would share with the OP.
I'm not upset. Sorry I seemed upset 
You just experienced my teacher voice is all, I guess. 
EDIT: Well, more my academic voice. I'm supposed to be nice as a teacher....
You just experienced my teacher voice is all, I guess.
EDIT: Well, more my academic voice. I'm supposed to be nice as a teacher....
That's what I said! lol
I never set out to attack you personally in any way, it's just an opinion I thought I would share with the OP.
Cat fight!!!
You just experienced my teacher voice is all, I guess.
EDIT: Well, more my academic voice. I'm supposed to be nice as a teacher....
You have one of those? I have one of those; I inherited it from my mum, who was a teacher for 40 years. I use it in meetings, and occasionally to blister paint from the walls. On the whole a teacher voice is a fantastic asset.
... except occasionally you don't realise it's loaded, and it goes off and scares people. 
Ah yes, paint blistering. Very useful.
Sorry Artemis. Misinterpretation on my part.
By the way I used to be a teacher as well... for a couple years only, though. Really got to exercise my lungs some days....
please follow this
i'm training to become a cartoonist animator but i'm going for a business degree in college
all i need to do is take animation classes to increase my porfilio on the side :]
The most important thing is you are doing something you love.
After years of talking to people about this exact question, MY answer had been boiled down to this:
No matter what path you take, studios won't hire you for what you COULD do, they'll hire you for what you CAN do.
A portfolio, a flash game, a mod, a choose-your-own-adventure book, a tabletop game... Apply your passion to making something you wouldn't mind making over and over again for a few decades. I showed up at Bioware with a pile of sketchbooks. I've spent the past ten years filling sketchbooks. At the end of the day, school is just a great place to experiment safely and surround yourself with honest and critical friends.
Hope that helps. If you have art school or concept art specific questions, email me at: mattr at Bioware dot com
Thank you,
I'm not in the industry, but I know a fair amount of people who are working in the gaming industry. Ranging from artists to programmers. They often say that they are more likely to hire those with something to show (stuff like mods, small games, short films, etc).
But a lot of times they don't mention that networking is also very important. None of these guys I've talk to got into the industry by showing up at a studio and asking for a job. Most of them know through friends.
That said, if you don't really meet the demands for a job, you can try to sign up for an internship.
I'm not in the industry, but I know a fair amount of people who are working in the gaming industry. Ranging from artists to programmers. They often say that they are more likely to hire those with something to show (stuff like mods, small games, short films, etc).
But a lot of times they don't mention that networking is also very important. None of these guys I've talk to got into the industry by showing up at a studio and asking for a job. Most of them know through friends.
That said, if you don't really meet the demands for a job, you can try to sign up for an internship.
internship?
If you want to be a writer? Put off school, grab your balls (figuratively) and travel around the world for a decade first. Then get a degree in psychology. Then take an evening class in creative writing, if you feel you need to. Largely your success in that, is going to depend on your inherent talent as a thing however. I don't know you as a person so if you have any (rational) doubts there, you may want to focus on something technical.
Before you invest money and time in a degree program however, I would recommend investing some money and time in something like the Unity engine, and Maya? (if people still use that), some sort of graphing/animation software. You can easily teach yourself enough C#/Java to play around a bit and get a better understanding of what you are actually going to spend countless hours doing, if you choose to pursue that as a career.
Yes, internship is where you join a studio/company to participate in the development of a game. While what you do depends on what studio and what you apply for, typically you get to do minor work and learn from the experts.
As far as I know interns usually get to do menial texture work or making coffee. But hey, don't let that deter you, some of the best artists in the industry like Kekai Kotaki started off as a texture artist.
I really don't think spending a decade 'traveling' is going to do all that much for your writing skills.
10 years is a big chunk of your life to be making mediocre wages in a country where you have half an understanding of the language, if that. One year? Sure. 10 years? No way.
He means life experience. Writers draw a lot on life experience. The more life experience the better. Robert Ludlum, author of 25 New York Times Best Selling novels, never wrote about a location in his novel unless he traveled there first. It just makes it more authentic. Life experience allows me to channel feelings, emotions, pain that is tucked away in my heart and pour it onto a page. This allows a better connection with the reader. I hear so many people joke about Bioware feeding on the tears of players. To be honest, if one of Bioware's games makes an emtional impact to you, the player, you have no idea how happy that makes the kind folks at Bioware. It means they are writing powerful stuff to put it in layman's terms.I really don't think spending a decade 'traveling' is going to do all that much for your writing skills.
10 years is a big chunk of your life to be making mediocre wages in a country where you have half an understanding of the language, if that. One year? Sure. 10 years? No way.
I am very creative, good in visual art, good in writing,... don't know what to take in college.
Is it even a good Idea to pursue these kind of thing?
I'm thinking of being a Concept Artist, a Writer, and possibly Designer
One of the people I look up to is Micheal Kirkbride
It doesn't really matter what you study. The best way to get noticed is to produce content. Release mods or other game assets.
Take example of Alexander J. Velicky who got hired by Bungie for a mod he did for Skyrim. He made a mod that oozes hours of gameplay (virtually being an expansion) with new areas and NPCs.
He's now a designer in Bungie, working on Destiny.
If you want to make a game like Dragon Age, at the scope and scale of AAA, you need to be a large team.
If you want to work on a game like Dragon Age, the advice I give students is to find a relevant area of specialty and study that - if you want to be a programmer, get a CS or Comp Eng degree. If you want to be an animator, study animation. If you want to be a designer - well, my team has a lot of designers with CS degrees.
The philosophy behind this advice is that if you get a broad education (aka "university degree"), you'll have a lot more flexibility and career opportunities if for whatever reason you can't get into the industry or change your mind later. As a programmer, you can pay your bills with (for example) PHP while you practice making games on the side and keep applying.
On top of a solid education (which recruiters will often straight up screen for - it's rare we hire people without either shipped titles or a degree), something you made (a mod, a prototype, a NWN module, a Twine game, a graphics demo, your art portfolio, etc) is one of the best things to bring to an application - it shows that you've taken raw ideas and cooked them down to the point where you can put it in front of other people and have them evaluate it.
It's a bit discouraging to see industry veterans warning hopefuls not to treat QA as entry-level, especially when some of those veterans got their foot in the door that way...
Are there any entry-level positions in the game industry? All I ever seem to find are postings requiring 2-4 years experience.
I would suggest getting a degree with a minor in business or management, or just skipping the thousands of dollars it would cost you and instead try sending a resume with some sample work to the studios. More often then not a degree doesn't guarantee or even promise a job, it just makes you able to have a little bit more on-paper qualities to be hired, which can, again, be neglected if they don't like the sample art you sent anyway. So you might as well just work on improving your current artistic skills and sending in sample pieces that way, and save yourself the hours and money.
If you want to make a game like Dragon Age, at the scope and scale of AAA, you need to be a large team.
If you want to work on a game like Dragon Age, the advice I give students is to find a relevant area of specialty and study that - if you want to be a programmer, get a CS or Comp Eng degree. If you want to be an animator, study animation. If you want to be a designer - well, my team has a lot of designers with CS degrees.
The philosophy behind this advice is that if you get a broad education (aka "university degree"), you'll have a lot more flexibility and career opportunities if for whatever reason you can't get into the industry or change your mind later. As a programmer, you can pay your bills with (for example) PHP while you practice making games on the side and keep applying.
On top of a solid education (which recruiters will often straight up screen for - it's rare we hire people without either shipped titles or a degree), something you made (a mod, a prototype, a NWN module, a Twine game, a graphics demo, your art portfolio, etc) is one of the best things to bring to an application - it shows that you've taken raw ideas and cooked them down to the point where you can put it in front of other people and have them evaluate it.
thank you,
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