Currently I'm enrolled at my school for a degree in 3d animation and video game development. I'm in no way slamming the program, but it seems that the deeper I get the more the degree leans towards the coding/building of a game and further and further away from design. I took this course of study because it was the only one related directly to video games and when I enrolled I knew I wanted to work in the industry but I didn't know where. Now I know I want to work in level design and be on the more creative side of things and I figure I might as well just finish the degree so Ic an better understand the process, but more and more I feel that I'm going down the wrong road. So what do you guys think? Stick with it or is there something better suited to the level designers tastes and resume? It never hurts to know enough about other areas to work in just in case your having a rough time getting in to where you want to be, but I just want to make sure that I'm not missing something that others competing for the jobs I am after have. Any assistance would be appreciated. Thx -DC

join a mod as a level designer, but try to find a well respected and professional mod team that will FINISH the thing, also create your own levels for games such as unreal tournament, quake, doom, half life etc.. basically you need to know how to use level editor software, and all these games come with one out of the box and there is a huge community for support

also try your hand at low poly 3d modeling, as many company's makes levels in maya / 3d studio max then import into the level editor to place the entities (lights, enemies etc)

also while your at it you might wana have a go at some 2d art programs like photoshop


all in all you DONT need a degree to get into the industry, just some proof you know what your doing, and being apart of a mod team gives you some team skills and you can learn how the game/mod comes together and you get some of your own levels out there for people to play

also creating your own levels with artwork further shows that you know how to build a level from the ground up with custom assets, although doesn't give you the team aspect modding does

hope that helps dude and all the best with your future career, feel free to PM me if you wana talk some more on MSN if you got any questions, always willing to help :)

Chris

Take a look at sites like Mapcore.net. There's many guys there that started doing level-design for fun, and eventually got into the industry. It helps to have some contacts here and there, to be known in a few communities, and of course to have a nice portfolio to show off your skills and dedication. From what I've seen, having just the right education isn't what matters most. Getting the right contacts, and of course actually being good, goes a long way.

Yea do to the intangible designer job so to speak. Schools tend to steer to more exact things that can be taught. You cant really teach someone to be a good game designer. You can teach them lots of theory, good writing skills, and how to critically think about games. But in the end it will be how you can take all that information and apply them. Now sense coding and 3d art are very tangible. Schools can promote "game design" because it directly effects gaming and you are constructing things and ideas for it.

I personally started out in a game design program ,that very quickly, turned into a coding program. That was not for me since my passion is design. So I jumped to computer animation and 3d art. Because i wanted a degree and it would give me skills and understands of another part of games.

Something you should consider with the mod proposition. You might want to take a game like halflife2 or oblivion. Get there construction sets. Play through the games a good deal to understand their storyline and or world setting. Than build a map/quest. biased on that storyline. Set a general story. It does not have to be indepth. Just something basic like "mage is in trouble, needs to be saved, surrounded by bad guys, in there layer which is a laberith,". That gives you a good set of goals. Work from there and try to make a really good experience out of it. If someone can play your little quest or area and be like. "Man that was really fun" you have accomplished your goal.

I am currently enrolled on a Computer Games Programming degree and my course focuses entirely on Programming. The University also runs a 3D modeling and animation for Video Games degree. People have asked the uni to run a games design degree but the lecturers have flat out refused the simple reason is the uni would have no trouble filling a video games design course but at the end of the degree how many will make it into the computer games industry?
None
Either stay with the programming degree or do an art degree but don't go looking for a games design degree because even if you find one it won't neccessarily get you into the games indyustry.
The skills from programming or Modeling can be used for design aswell. Theres no point sitting around doing nothing because you need a coder to write you a script or a modeler to create you a mesh when you could do the job just aswell yourself

As already mentioned you should try joining a mod team or sending example maps into existing mod teams. Try making some levels for one of the Blaccat Games mods for UT such as Nightblade.

If you want to make sure that you arn't missing out on something that your competitors have then stick with the degree you're doing because the coding skills you are learning are the ones that they are going to have missed out on.