I have a very different perspective on game degrees. I had been attending university, occasionally changing my major and taking semesters off for 9 years. I was on track to never graduate, never get a career, and never do anything with my life. Getting into a game design program made university fun enough that I was finally able to graduate. I now have 5 years experience as a software engineer at a normal boring company with a comfortable mid 6 figure salary, and I will probably never make a game, even in my free time. Pursuing a game degree immeasurably improved my life, and I never had any intention of ever working for a game studio.

I got a ton of value out of my uni degree but not for the hard skills it taught me but for the soft skills of socialising and team working. I didn't get into the games industry because I just couldn't make anything for a portfolio. Not because I lacked the programming skills, but because I lacked the design skills and it was secretly the game design stuff that I wanted to do. It took me 11 years to figure that out.

Thank you very much, this is such a great video. I am a first-year student at the university for Computer science and management. During high school, I tried to learn Unity and FL Studio, but because of lacking skills and someone who will help me, I quickly gave up. I was learning Java in high school and now in university, we started from basics because many students don't have experience with programming at all. Because of that I started doubting about the university and started losing interest in programming and university at all because I don't feel like I have a challenge. Then, one of my colleagues taught me how to make games and now during my free time, I am trying out to make some of my ideas. That gave me motivation back and I completely agree with you that how much you put you will get. Now I think that it's my advantage because I can do a lot of kinds of stuff while my colleagues are learning basics. Also, I learned that I shouldn't have expectations, because I will get disappointed very quickly. I know that every indie game developer wants to create a new GTA or COD but many of that games are a result of pretty good teamwork and management skills. Now, I still don't know what my major will be but I hope I will know by the end of university. I plan to participate in some of the game jams, maybe next year I don't know. Once again, thank you very much for such a great video. 👍

Great video! I actually considered going to uni to study games, but instead did Computer Science! Now I am working in a Games Studio as a Junior Software Engineer!

Really interesting man! I wasn't expecting the Thaum announcement but I'm all for it. Keep it up bro

ohhhhh new video haha. Yeah I'm in my first year of games development and loving it so far but it took me nearly 3 years to get into it because of work commitments finally this year I started But yeah I feel like its an amazing opportunity if you are willing to put the effort in... love your videos ❤❤

Another excellent video! 😍

I was self taught for years before I decided to get a degree. I went for two reasons, networking, and creating a game that I could potentially use to help me score a job Halfway through my course I even got a job offer! (Though due to stress and ongoing issues I had to turn it down, which I regret deeply. I could be stable rn ahhhh) I totally think it was worth it as finally working with others gave me a new sense of satisfaction from game development Though as I live in WA I don't have many job opportunities and may have to move over east, so that's fun

Here in USA it can be very important how the college or university is accredited, and some major companies won't even hire people who came out of a regionally accredited program unless they have a ridiculous amount of experience.

So keen to see progression on Thaum! Great video too. I had considered a game development when I was in high school but went the software engineer route. Who knows where I’ll end up

This is the right advice... If you want to do gamedev, then get a minor in game art, game design, etc... and major in comp sci. Then spend your summers taking intensive courses on game dev.

Great video again Garnet, I would say another benefit for going to school is the pressure or motivation. For many in the software industry it can be hard to go out and find a team to work on games, School provides you with a team and the pressure to get your deliverables finished. Although, I am one of the people who went to school for the piece of paper and I am begging to regret it; thinking of all the projects I could have done over these years. I was going to ask if you had done any game jams or if you were planning to do any, but it looks like you have a full time project now. Good luck and if you ever need some extra code or someone to serve as QA, I would be happy to help!

This is amazing, I am having issues with high school graduation due to bad English credit but am hoping to go into IT or something and do Game Dev on the side as I love to tinker with code and such!

The audio is way too low, I'm at full volume it's like half as loud as other videos.

Heyo. I commented a while back on your video about completing a games degree. Now that I've completed my year end projects (and wait for results) I can also chime in on my thoughts on this topic. Note that this is based off of my experiences. A games degree I'd say is still useful in 2023, just not in the way you think it is. You can learn things online and through courses all the way from free.99 to the price of a AAA game so why study a games degree? One word: Networking Games degree puts you in a room with a bunch of people who have similar interests and goals with you. You can build relationships with them and trade skills with them. They can also inform you of game dev events that wouldn't have been on your radar. The degree will also do similar things. You can do this all by yourself but doing a game dev degree speeds it up. Some of my friends got exhibitor spots at Comic-Con Africa and Africa Games Week through a degree. If you're going there to expect to learn then sure, maybe not the best idea but it easily makes up for it because of networking and connections and the clout you get from it depending on the institute you study at more than makes up for it.

I'm currently on the first year of a Computer Science and Engineering Degree and to be honest, I'm only taking it because of two main reasons: 1. It's a very generalized degree meaning that if I don't get a job working right away in game dev the way I'd like to, I can still work for a generic software or IT company and develop games on the side until I eventually get hired for a bigger project while still living comfortably without worrying about money too much. 2. There isn't many Universities teaching Gamedev where I'm from (Portugal), theres a lot of more "artistic" game design courses (which most are crazy expensive and our salaries ain't the best if you aren't rich) but not a lot of courses on the technical side of things, which I'm better at. With that said, I really wish I can pursue my dream of making games while still enjoying the process in between at least so much so that I don't off myself in the meantime lol

I think weather or not you need a degree depends a lot on what role, and what country you are in. I am from Sweden, and here the most important things are experience, unlike some countries where you need to have a degree. Here people really just need to make sure they get a portfolio with several projects done that involves multiple people, and some way to get an unpaid internship for at least 6 months. The way this is easily achieved is through certain industry related schools such as Futuregames and The Game Assembly, both of which help you get an internship, and will result in those projects. However, some people make the mistake and try to study game development through university instead of through specialized schools. That rarely works here as academic knowledge does not translate well into the knowledge you need to be efficient as a junior designer, and you rarely get enough group projects done. Sometimes you do not even get a proper internship during those educations either, which is the most important thing. If you are thinking about this then please get in touch with game devs that come from your country. Reach out to companies in your area to ask for advice from someone there that works in the role you want, who also happen to get into the industry in that country. Good luck!

I am currently studying games development and in my final year (4). Whilst its an interesting course, I feel like it doesnt prepare me for the industry. I really hate learning every trimester new subjects; therefore, my knowledge is only basic and i dont even remember stuff from the 1st and 2nd years because we never use any of it. Im guessing it depends on a university how they structure everything, some may be good while other are a bit of a mess. I learn indie game dev out of uni at home and i learned more about game dev than at actual uni :O ... I really hope after i graduate in the summer, i will be able to find work in some small studio or ill end up working in the bank as a soft dev. I agree, dont go to uni, just learn through youtube :)

The degree, for me, not at all, didn't help to get a job at all. The time spent in school and shit and learning to get this degree, 100% It was a good base to build on to improve more

I was very split on what I wanted to study. I live in Sweden, so the opportunities are even greater. You're payed about $300 per month to study, and you get to take $700 in student loans per month with close to 0% interest rate (atm it IS 0%) , as long as you pass 75% of your courses. I was considering some game dev degrees, but because I'm "older" I wanted one that also would gives me some opportunities in comp sci/software dev. In the end I went for a software dev program, disguising itself as "comp sci". I found software dev to be extremely boring and unrewarding. Anyway, I was not happy with my decision, especially not when I realize it was actually just software dev program. So I started adding math courses, and eventually "changed" to math and changed uni (just taking individual courses). So now I take AI, comp sci and math courses, going for a bachelor in mathematics. The work load in math is intense, with many courses AIMING for 50% pass rate (primarily pure math courses). If you're like me, and do not want to work for somebody else, and want to figure out a way to survive on your own... and uni is affordable/free, then I'd suggest going the math route. Do the basics math (single+multi variable calculus, linear algebra, discrete math, differential equations (ODE)), some more low level programming courses (one OOP to get access, low level programming (asm), C programming, and only look a little on how OSes work). I think this is achievable in 1.5 years or so. After that you can drop uni if you really wish to, you've gotten the fundamentals of what you need. But at this point I think you're better off learning on your own (MITopencourseware for curriculum if you can't find one yourself), especially because you'll probably be starting to get burnt out (these courses are NOT fun). If you don't have access to free/cheap education, then I'd suggest you just go through MITopencourseware and follow the curriculums for those courses. If you're gonna work for only yourself then you won't need any papers of your accomplishments. The assembly and C programming will give you good fundamentals of how computers work and what happens in programming. The math will give you the pieces you need to be able to do more difficult game programming, but possibly more importantly, it'll give you strong logical fundamentals that you can use to solve any problem you encounter. I feel like this was the right path for me... but then again, I haven't been able to learn any game dev for 2.5 years, since there's just no time for it and I'm getting pretty burnt out (now plan is to get my maths degree, then study to become high school teacher for 1.5 years, since this gives you about $800 for just studying it, and I think the work load will be like 20% of what I do now... during this time I can self-study and learn game dev, and figure out a way to make money). But maybe the best way is to just... do game dev, and then learn new things, including very difficult things (math) when you need to. The problem is just money... always comes down to money. But a 25% part time job could maybe give you enough money to survive, at least if you live together with somebody.

another banger

Nice

Dont forget that you can release your games that you create at Uni on Steam and start a studio with your peers

Have memory issues and remembering stuff to some extent, so normally hope to keep my interest going as it will take me 3 times more then an average person 😅

Same dude i feel you 69 out of 420

Turn up your volume. I can barely hear you