How to become video game creative director ?
Game designers aren't hired straight out of school (most companies require 5 or more years of experience working in the game industry first), so the best route to actually becoming a game designer is to pick a career path you enjoy, and work your way up. Large companies hire several game designers (level designer, AI designer, character designer, UI & UX Designer, etc.) The Game Director, creative director, etc (all different names for similar positions) require closer to 10 years of experience. Big companies don't risk huge investments on someone with little experience. So, you pretty much have to work your way up from an entry-level role. Those entry level roles include: management, testing, programming, art, translation, and customer service. Pick a career path that suits your skills and what you want to do with your life. If you enjoy the visual aspect of design, you probably want to go for a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at a university. Despite the name "Fine Art", it's a very modern degree, that includes graphic design and 3D animation. You don't need to go to a school that offers "game design" courses or degrees, it's not actually going to help you get into the industry any more than a traditional state university will. Of course, perhaps you have an interest in computer science, programming, web design, whatever the case may be, pursue that career path, and make sure you're one of the best students out there. I was the best animator in my 3D animation class, but when I started looking for work, I found that I was now competing against the best animators at 100s of other schools around the country for the few open jobs. I did manage to get into the game industry though, and I maintain a blog about work in the game industry. I answer many of the questions about the game industry and how to find work that I had when I was younger. I've provided a link below if you're interested in reading more. Good luck.
How difficult is it to become a creative director for a video game company?
If you have enough money this it is fairly easy. I've worked at one of those - never again.If you are college aged and asking in terms of career prospects - don't. Even assuming all the dice roll your way, it would still be rare. There are more people playing in the superbowl than there are AAA Creative Directors. Your best bet would be to start an indie company, hit it out of the park (ie. angry birds, plants vs zombies) and then get acquired. Your new title will be high enough (VP level) that would could probably swing a creative director lateral move.
How do I become a video game director?
What college would be good to become a video game director? Do i need any expirience to go into one of these schools? What should my High school gpa be and do i have to take any clases during high school to get into one of these schools? How long would it take to become a video game director? is this career a good way to go? how much does a video game director make a year? I don't know much about it but i love video games, is it hard to become a video game director?
Should I become a video game developer if I love playing video games?Or are there any other career opportunities or occupations that I should consider that would put me in the creative process?
This is what happened to me. I saw a commercial on tv saying 'do you like video games?! Do you like programming?! Why not get your education here and have a career of a lifetime!'Sold.I gave them $55k, I got a game programming degree. Am I a game programmer now? No. Here's why.Game programming is very very difficult. The pretty Visual Basic programming you learn in high school is not even close to the C++ and sometimes assembly language programming on a GPU that you have to do. It is ugly code. Code that fights you instead of working with you like a high level language such as C# or Java. To give you an idea, I took assembly language which is essentially hexadecimal characters that represent 1s and 0s (as low as you can go) and it took me a couple of weeks to code up a basic calculator. Visual Basic? Give me 10 minutes, and it'll look a helluva lot better too.Now, I'm not trying to dissuade you but as many have pointed out, they are two completely different things. I disagree though that beta testing is the best way to find out. What is? Game mods. Take any game you want (preferably something that's more easily modifiable, in my day we all modded Unreal Tournament or Half Life 2 for example) and mod it. By this I mean make your own weapon that shoots little sharks that eat people. Whatever you want. You will learn about game engines (which thank god for) and get an idea on what actual game programming is without having to worry about physics, particle emitters, lighting, 3D world, etc. If you love modding then you've probably got it in you, or at least it's a good start. If not (like me, I realized even modding would make me rack my brain for hours trying to figure out why something won't work or display correctly) then it's probably not for you. The beautiful thing with modding too is there are so many possibilities now with it. You can do full game conversions (change every aspect of a game, sometimes even changing its type from say FPS to RTS or vice versa), and if it's clean enough, it will actually land you a job. Game companies LOVE people that mod because that's actual experience and it's the closest thing there is to the real deal.
Who comes up with ideas for Video Games?
Who in a video game company originally comes up with ideas for video games that the company will then make? Is it a specific persons job or does someone just say "hey wouldn't it be cool if we..." and they make a game based on that. Could someone tell me how it is this part of video game making works?
What's it like being a video game developer?
Management in of itself is about managing people who do the programming and/or design work. If you know how to program, create good graphic designs, and tell a manager of a compelling game design you'll be gold. At least in the eyes of that company, and after your talent profits them. The actual work involved (programming, designs, storyline, making sure there are few or no oversights) is long, tedious, and the pay may or may not be there. I'd also love to be an art director, but one needs a degree in management (expensive) and to work one's way up the ladder - something that becomes harder to do as you age. And not just ladder-climbing but also raking in relevant experience, which may not go hand in hand -- and current management may not always train in people to replace them. The more you can do = the better the chances, but even then a game that people truly WANT is still hard to make... and advertise for... In college, students are told to pick one subject and master it - rather than being a 'jack of all trades'. Of course, depending on whom you ask you'll hear the opposite: "know everything". Don't sell yourself short, re: "never been savvy" - it does take time to learn, improve, adapt, hone, and rinse and repeat but if you can't improve quickly, you'll forget that you need to eat during the learning process. I don't mean "hunger for knowledge", I mean "hunger for what's warm and tastes good in one's mouth." If the field can't sustain your life, is it worth pursuing? But be wary of game design degrees. Despite colleges offering these and including a LOT of math classes (calculus I and II, and others...), the degree may not be transferable, even if the difference between programming a game subroutine versus programming the retrieval of a record from a database boils down to language and syntax used. Both programming fields are math-intensive, but despite overlap a business will not care to see "Game Programming Degree" no matter how much you tell them every nuance behind the degree. It's unfortunate, but that can happen. But it's a competitive field. Far more so for those doing the work (designers/programmers) than those managing such people, even though there are fewer managers - whose positions are already taken, and if more businesses close, you'll see even more competition in all categories. Willing to take less money for their time and talent as well.
I am 30 years old. My biggest dream is to become a video game creative director. I am going back to school to help achieve my goal, do I still have a chance, or am I too old?
If you want to design games you can just do that now. If you want them to be turned into a real playable game that’ll take either a boat load of knowledge, talent and time or a boat load of money and other peoples time and talent.As this isn’t a job you’ve ever done the reality and your imagination are likely to differ. People I know who share your dream generally are unaware of the technical and financial limitations placed on games. They’ve generally thought that games don’t have AI’s that pass the Turing test due to a lack of creativity on the staffs part, rather than Turing test passing AI has never existed.Now I’m not saying you fall into this trap but either way, you’re ultimately trying to chase happiness and you’re prepared to spend a lot of time, money and effort in doing so. Before you do, try to write some small games, learn why games have the limits they do and try to validate that you’d enjoy this kind of work.
How does one become a video game designer or developer?
Well this book is one place to start (Disclaimer: I know the authors and contributed one of the "how I started" stories)http://www.amazon.com/Breaking-I...Depending on your son's talents and interests there are different specializations within the industry. There are several schools now that focus on game development such as Digipen, Full Sail, Art Institute and Academy of Art. Also there are traditional colleges with electronic entertainment programs, Carnegie Mellon and USC are both notable.Ultimately the industry values a portfolio significantly above education. There are so many free tools out there for making games that motivated candidates will have sample games or art they've made to show off their skills. These efforts are significantly more important than where your degree came from. If he's really interested in working in the industry he should start taking a crack at building things now. One note, the industry can be brutal. Long hours, limited job security, and a constant inflow of young workers desperate for a chance to work on games. For those of us that love it, we wouldn't want to do anything else, but burnout is high. Having something generally useful like a computer science degree allows for more flexibility in the job market if he decides that the reality of game development isn't as exciting as the fantasy.
I want a career in video games. What should I do?
Everyone on a game development team creates something: code, art, audio, documents, reports. Nobody just sits around and decides what should and shouldn’t go into a game. That sounds like an “idea guy” position, but sorry, there is no “idea guy” position in the game industry.A video game director manages a game development team. His or her responsibility is not simply deciding what does or doesn’t go into a game, but in bringing together the right personnel and other resources to join the team, working with the team members to determine tasks and responsibilities, ensuring that everyone is following a common vision, monitoring the team’s progress, reporting that progress back to management, and sometimes cutting things from the game when there isn’t time and money for them. A game director creates lots of charts and reports, and some dive in at times to help out with programming, art, audio, or design, depending upon their talents.Game development is a very collaborative process: there is no one single person who determines what does and doesn’t go into a game. Creative decisions do rest primarily with the game designer, but along with direction or feedback from management, the team’s director, the lead programmer or technical director, the lead artist or art director, the studio producer, the marketing department, and the playtesters. Game development is a very collaborative process.Here are two videos describing roles you might sound like they might be of interest to you. Note that neither of these are entry-level roles.One is that of a game director (referred to in the video as a “producer”, although it is describing a team manager and not the publishing liaison):Here is the description of a game designer.Again, these aren’t entry level positions. If you want to know what to study in college for a career in video games, I suggest studying programming, art, audio engineering, project management, business management, marketing, or if you aren’t sure about specializing, a good college program in game development that actually has had success in placing people in the industry.