Hi i am new to these forums and thought this would be the right place for this, i am 16 years old and i want to get into the game industry, i have a strong passion for playing computer games but i dont want to just play games i want to to design them and be creative i wanted to know whats the best ways to get in the games design industry. The areas i am most interested in doing are character design, level design & writing storylines, any feedback will be accepted i eagerly wait for replies thankyou.

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Okay, first things first, a warning: you will do it yourself. You may have the greatest ideas ever, but it doesn't matter, as everyone else says they do too. So any neat ideas are up to yourself to implement.

Now, fortunately, you've said realistic things: not "I want to make an MMO" but "I want to design levels and characters". If you want to pursue that avenue, I'd suggest getting a decently moddable game and doing it. Many games have very conducive communities that will support your lust for level design or character design.

So what kind of gaming are you in to? If you want to try your hand at level design in an FPS, deathmatch or doom-style, then I'd recommend Cube. Its a free FPS based on Quake 1 using a super-easy-to-use in-engine landscape editor. Fastest, funnest way to get into mapping. If you feel it suits you well, you can move on to nastier things like Radiant or Unreal Ed. Cube is available at Cube.sourceforge.net - just download the game, print out the text files (there's not much in-game help) and tinker.

Now, if you want a super-powerful environment to try your hand at trigger-oriented traps and puzzle-style gameplay, there's an old platformer called Abuse made by a defunct company called Crack Dot Com. A very good game, like a platformer version of Quake. That has an incredibly good in-engine level editor, with a massive repetoir of monsters, turrets, traps, triggers, gates, destroyables, mines, and mapping logic. The game is now free, so you should be able to find it pretty easily - I recommend the original Abuse 2.0 Dos version - the win32 port is a little slow. Yes, its only 2d, but it gives you an excellent experience in mapping.

Alternately, if you want to design RTS game maps and scenarios with plots, etc, I'd recommend picking StarCraft/WarCraft 3. Both of the games are very easy to work with, with very powerful editors. Freecraft is still out there somewhere, but the project was killed by Blizzard. Star Craft's trigger system is incredibly powerful and easy to use to design unique new gametypes.

If you want to do player-modelling, then I'd recommend learning a good 3d modelling program. Many new FPS games come with modified "learning editions" of pro modelling tools (I believe UT2k4 has one) that will allow you to design and animate characters. They've a steep learning curve, but they're very powerful. On that one you'll have to be persistent, as they're very discouragingly difficult to work with. Alternately if you just want to craft for older games, get an MD2 editor and you can make models for Quake 2 and Cube and many opensource games (like Doom Legacy ports).

If you want to do story/plot/character type of stuff, then its a little harder. I don't know RPGs very well, but a short list of those are moddable for such new content (I know Freedom Force allows new characters and a few other things).

I hope this helped.

If you want to try out story and dialog writing in a 3d rpg, you could also try to get your hands on Neverwinter Nights and creating some scenario things with the editor that comes with it. It allows you to create custom games with unique story, character dialog etc.
It's actually more or less the same editor the guys from Black Isle used when they created the game, so it's pretty powerfull.

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Original post by Exzodia Hi i am new to these forums and thought this would be the right place for this, i am 16 years old and i want to get into the game industry, i have a strong passion for playing computer games but i dont want to just play games i want to to design them and be creative i wanted to know whats the best ways to get in the games design industry. The areas i am most interested in doing are character design, level design & writing storylines, any feedback will be accepted i eagerly wait for replies

I think the replies so far have been very good, especially Pxtl's advice, though if you go to any game-only school be aggressive about getting their placement stats and consider very carefully what you'll be giving up versus a formal education. Before getting into the game industry myself I went to a programming-only school and my opportunities suffered.

Putting demos together is an excellent way of getting your foot in the door. But I have to ask: What is your tolerance level for working on other people's ideas rather than on your own? I worked in games for about 5 years before realizing that I did not want to program other people's ideas, I wanted to create my own. By the time I learned what would have been the proper way of getting my ideas to the fore (networking and more of a management path) I was already burned out.

I think many content designers will tell you that coming up with ideas for the stuff you LIKE to do is no problem. The challenge comes from the stuff that you don't much care about. There were times when I had to program children's games because the place I worked was a mixed shop, and I had to learn to stay focused even on the stuff I had no interest in at all.

Aside from that, I'd strongly recommend that you broaden your knowledge as much as possible because knowledge in other areas will help you in ways you can't imagine (which is why I'd vote for a formal education). Architecture, for instance, may obviously help your level design, but something like a History of Asian Art class can send you off in wild directions you never dreamed of. Because there are many more people who want to do what you want to do than there are open positions, having this extra knowledge can be of great advantage. Who knows, when you're asked to design the alien tomb level or whatever, you can blend your knowledge of Han Dynasty architecture with stuff you learned in an English class. (no kidding)

One last thing: The deeper your knowledge of the core fundamentals of the craft you're interested in, the more powerful your skills. Lots of people can draw cool things, but I think the number is fewer that know WHY something is cool. The latter can leverage that advantage and draw upon immense creative resources when they're challenged to come up with something new. (And they won't be always biting off of Tolkein or Aliens when it comes to art design, which will give them a competitive advantage and you more power when it comes to getting respect for your ideas).
Just one opinion, of course. There are many, many others...