Dropped out of highschool a while ago, tried a few different things to get some degrees, but all failed, just ended up with fucked up anti-depressants, and sitting home all day now. My first plan was to finish of highschool and study game design, but i won't be allowed as student without a diploma. Anyone know if there are decent online courses? or should i just get some books/internet resources and study myself? and what are the changes to get into the game industry without decent degrees? btw..living in belgium. and well, i'm not going to try and get my highschool diploma again, from now on i will only do where i have ambition for, want to go forward in life, not stuck trying to get a damn paper.

I don't know about Belgium, but at least here in the States colleges won't accept you unless you have a high school diploma or a GED.

A game designer has to be educated. There are no if, and, or buts about this. Unless you have an absolutely amazing portfolio, I would not hire you as a designer without a good education. If you haven't shown that you have the drive to get yourself a proper education, how would anyone know you have the drive to be a decent employee?

Quote: from now on i will only do where i have ambition for, want to go forward in life, not stuck trying to get a damn paper.

if you have the ambition to become a game designer getting that "damn paper" is the first step. As a game designer you need to know a lot of different things, and you need to be able to follow through (goes for almost every job) on your goals - getting a degree is a good first step on showing that to a game company

Just wondering, why did you drop out of highschool?

I don't consider myself uneducated, just got the unfortune of getting kicked out of school, a week before my final exams, always had some kind of anarchistic ideology, don't want to play along with the game of society, and just get a paper. Want to find my own way, kinda sick and tired of being forced to go and do this and that. I don't know, has been bothering me alot lately, trying to find my place here, can't just go live outside society (living at a commune has played trough my mind tho), and game design has always been one of my few passions, and its something i (still) want to go for. I mean, just because i don't have grades, doesn't says anything about who i am. but yea..i understand that a compagny wouldn't hire me.. other option might be to go freelancing, but that requires a decent portfolio i guess.

Honestly, if the reason you're not going and getting your high-school diploma is that you have too many anarchistic ideologies, I highly suggest you not bother getting a degree in anything games related. If you can't deal with high-school, you won't be able to deal with an office work space.

So go off living in a commune, meet some anarchistic programmers (should be enough of them out there in the world), make your own indie games.

Your only other option is to finish your damn high-school and then go to university or college, then work your way up in a company.

The choice is yours, but you need to stop making excuses.

Yes, you're absolutly right, i probably wouldn't be able to function in a boring office work space, just like i don't seem to function is this fucked up society, sorry to bother you folks with this. Guess i'll try to find my own way somehow.

Bye bye. ^_^

Don't let it get you down. A lot of people don't mind putting up with school and desk jobs if it means they can eventually reach some goal (in this case making games). Not everyone can do that. Maybe being a game designer in the mainstream industry isn't for you, but there's still plenty of options in life that you could take. Especially at your age.

my advice is: be careful - there are people out there who expect you to work hard to earn your place in society. These people are just part of the system and they should not trusted, they are probably hiding secret gems of information which would lead you to an awesome career in Telling People What To Do (game design). At the end of the day, why should you have to do what other people tell you to do? imagine how socially fucked up that would be.