First of all, I will just say that this probably doesn't belong in the Game Design subforum, but as it relates closely to game design and I cannot find a more appropriate place for it, I'll put it here for now. I am a sophomore in high school. My grades are pretty poor in classes that I have no interest in, such as biology, literature, and French. In classes that I like such as video production, geometry, and C++, I have consistent A's. I have been diagnosed with ADHD and I am currently taking medications for it, but they don't seem to be helping my situation, so I don't know if that's the real problem. I frequently cut the classes I am uninterested in, to make time to go to the robotics lab and work on game design. I also procrastinate on homework assignments from those classes, and instead spend time on game design and programming. The way I see it, classes like biology, french, literature, and PE are never going to help me in the life that I am certain I am going to lead. I know I am not going to be a biologist, I am absolutely positive that I am going to be some kind of game designer, game programmer, game artist, or other game related jobs. What pisses me off is that I have to waste time on these classes in order to graduate from high school, which is obviously a very necessary step in my life. But the fact that I am failing most of these subjects is probably going to close a lot of doors in the near future. I understand that I am not ready to get a job designing games now, and I realize that there is still a wealth of information that I could learn to help me in that path, and I am eager to learn it (calculus, algorithms, advanced programming, creative writing, engineering, game design, to name a few fields of study), but I am worried that I am screwing myself over by ignoring these classes in favor of working on other things. I'm posting this here because I just thought that some of you might have had the same problems as I am having right now and gotten through them, and maybe some of you have advice for me on how to get through the useless crap and get where I ultimately want to be, which is designing games for a living. Thanks in advance for all replies, and I hope this will help me see the light or something.

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Original post by Spire Games ... I am worried that I am screwing myself over by ignoring these classes in favor of working on other things.

You are. I was the same way in high school, I didn't feel challenged and wasn't interested in the majority of the curriculum. The truth of it is, though, that our system is designed this way on purpose. Nobody likes all their classes, especially the ones forced upon you in high school. But that's the point; that's why it's work. When colleges are reviewing your grades they're going to figure that you won't actually work on things that don't come naturally to you. This translates into the workplace, where you won't work hard on the boring tasks that you will inevitably face. Regardless of where you work, some part of it is probably going to be boring.

So, the employer won't hire you. And the college won't accept you since nobody's going to want to hire you. So you won't ever even get the chance to do the stuff that you're good at, because the system is so huge that we have to judge new recruits on numbers and perceptions.

Sorry, but that's life dude. Grow up. Tackle that biology, literature, and french... unless you can't...

Disclaimer: My personal opinion.

I went trough a phase similar to yours (nothing so extreme, admittedly, but a good difference in grades between all the subjects that had to do with computer science and those which didn't) and what I realized in retrospective is that:

Anything you learn broadens your mind and thought capabilities.

Something that seems so obvious at first, really strikes you when, for example thinking of your entity manager's bug in another language (I'm Spanish) suddenly brings up the solution (languages), or you go and add to your game destructible environment based on an idea you had in a train of thought based on molecular interactions (biology), etc...

The bottom line is that as a game designer or coder, you need a really wide source of inspiration, and your mind will quickly exhaust the originality. If it always digs in the same hole you'll find that the mud it finds is quite similar.

That said, I admit I have 14 books on my desk, ready to be read. Of those:

Technical:
3 are Game Programming Gems
1 UML book
1 AI Game Engine Programming
2 Game Architecture and Design / Algorithms in Game Programming
2 Visual Studio / C++
2 Game Design
1 Patterns in Game design

Non Technical (To let my mind wander and come up with ideas):
1 Art of War

So I do try to broaden my mind, but only as far as my passion allows it.

Well, if it helps anything, that's my view on the subject.

Literature is definitely relevant to game design, probably more so than calculus. Game concepts and scripts are a type of literature, and you need to have a good vocabulary of terms like genre, protagonist, antagonist, conflict, teleology, denouement, and that sort of thing to be able to discuss your ideas with others. Biology might also be useful if you are designing alien or fantasy creatures and ecosystems, or a science fiction game which includes biotech. Can't tell you how many nonsense game designs I have seen where the designer clearly knew nothing about mitochondria or DNA or radiation or viruses or nanobots or whatever piece of nanotech he picked to be the evil plague or magic mark of the chosen one in his game design. Even when it's just a stupid little thing like wrongly putting a belly button on a dinosaur, it's still Did Not Do The Research.

More importantly, every job, including game design and art, and also college, is at least 40% stupid shit which you need to bull your way through to get to the good stuff. Procrastination and not having the self-discipline to force yourself to do the annoying parts are a recipe for failure in any creative field where funding is scarce, people wanting it are many, and creating a quality project takes months or years of work.

Dude. Your job right now is to graduate with the best grades possible.
That is your only job. You have to do a good job at your current job, if you ever hope to get hired to do a job later in life.

I had somewhat of the same problem -- before I started grade 9, when classes didn't yet count towards GPA or class ranking, I couldn't be bothered to do the work unless it was something that interested me. I did the minimum I could and, on average, was a C student. I preferred to spend my time reading about computers and programming, or actually programming -- I spent my study halls writing code by hand in my notebooks that I would type up later. I too knew that I wanted to do something with computers for sure, and probably with gaming.

Before entering the 9th grade, I knew things would have to be different to make sure my GPA would be up-to-snuff for the kinds of colleges I had in mind. I literally flipped a switch and went to a mostly-A, some-B student. If you excel in other demanding studies like advanced mathematics and programming, then your issue seems to be one of motivation -- the switch is there, you just need to flip it. You need to understand that all of your studies are important in some way -- I can guarantee that if you continue the way you have, you'll one day wish you had payed more attention in that biology or literature class, if for no other reason than the universe being a petty and vindictive mistress.

From your post, its clear that you seem to know these things -- that continuing to do things in the same old way is going to close doors. The games industry is incredibly competitive, so you want to have access to the biggest and best doors to set yourself apart. Unfortunately, those are also the first doors to close.

Its been said that the definition of insanity is to keep doing the same old thing, and expecting different results. You've seen enough of the old thing to post about it objectively and you understand that your pattern of behavior is directly related to the pattern of results. If you expect things to be different, you need to do things differently -- You have to make your own way, because no one will make it for you.

A good college is the best, most reliable path to success. Sure, you could drop out, take on a job to "get by" and devote all your free time to studying game design, development, or whatever your passion is, but the odds of success are incredibly long and it is a path filled with unnecessary hardship and with no fallback plan.

You need to take advantage of the fact that high school classes are easier and less work than college classes and do now all that coursework that you don't want to be doing in college.

Your school probably offers some sort of dual credit program. You might have AP classes that you could take. Your school may have some agreement with nearby community colleges to award college credit for certain high school classes. If neither of these options is available to you, you can go to another school to take some AP exams (you don't actually have to take the AP classes in order to take the tests).

For example, the subject that interests me the least out of everything is history. I really don't know why, but it bores me to tears. Therefore, I got college credit for something like three history courses in high school, and I don't have to take any of those classes while in college.

In fact, even though I really don't like English (it's probably my second most disliked subject), I took my high school's most difficult English class, which also was considered the hardest class in the whole school, and barely scraped by in the end with an A-. I hated the teacher with a passion. I still hate her to this day. [grin] But I pushed through it, got a decent grade, and got college credit for a mid-level creative writing course, thereby freeing me from ever taking a class like that again.

So now next semester I've got the luxury of taking three math classes, a programming class, and then a humanities colloquium.

You should also know that colleges assume you've taken classes like basic science (biology, chemistry, and so forth), history, foreign language, English, and so forth. You'll have a hard time in college without this foundational knowledge.

Also, just because you're not going to be a biologist doesn't mean a first course in high school level biology isn't going to help you. That's a bit like saying algebra won't help you unless you're going to be a mathematician. For example, biology will contribute to your understanding of the world and its inhabitants (and indeed yourself--you are a biological creature). Also, you'd be surprised at how interlinked many subjects are. Many techniques of artificial intelligence borrow ideas from biology. No, you probably don't need to know all the hardcore chemical details for the AI stuff, but then again you won't need to know that for a high school biology class either.

Finally, I truly urge you not to fall under the impression that you are definitely going to be a game developer and absolutely nothing else and thereby limit your potential. When I was a sophomore in high school, I felt precisely the same way (although I didn't blow off my other classes). But now I've switched gears and am a pure math major with intentions to go to graduate school. Now, I should say in my case that I was interested in math as a sophomore in high school as well, so it wasn't an abrupt and altogether unexpected transition, but the point is that it's simply too early to really know what you're going to want to do in the end.

I can give you another example of this. Gabriel Carroll was basically a math genius while in high school. He got a perfect score at the 2001 International Mathematical Olympiad and went on to become a Putnam Fellow four times in a row, a truly profound feat made even more amazing by the fact that the first time he was a Putnam Fellow he was a high school senior. And now he's switched away from math and is studying economics. In an interview, he said that while he was doing the IMO he laughed at the career recruiters who always bothered him, but now he understands.

You should consider trying to take computer science and mathematics courses at a community college instead of at your high school. If I were to redo high school, this is what I would have done. First, college courses simply cover more ground than high school classes. Second, they are all semester classes, so if you started doing community college classes, say, your junior or senior year of high school, you'd be significantly ahead of all your peers in those subjects. Third, perhaps by being sufficiently challenged in those subjects you'd be more willing to do homework for other classes (because you wouldn't be so tempted to spend all your time teaching yourself extra material in computer science).

If you go this route, you may need to talk to the principal of your school personally. My counselor in high school refused to let me modify the pre-set high school curriculum in any way, shape, or form. She honestly couldn't have cared less about whether I was spending my time effectively or not. Make sure that you don't let the counselors boss you around. (Just speaking from experience here. Some counselors are good, and if yours is, then great! But if yours isn't, stand up for yourself.)

[Edited by - nilkn on July 3, 2009 4:03:01 PM]

School gets a lot more fun when you get to pick the courses that you're interested in. But even then, when you hit the working world you'll be given tasks that you just don't want to do that are in fields that just aren't interesting and are for users that never seem to make any sense. Don't get me wrong, there are many times where you will feel incredibly satisfied from the completion of an interesting and challenging task. But just as often, there's dull stuff to contend with. My best advice is to learn how to make the best of it as early as possible.

It feels a bit strange giving advice to a young person that ISN'T "don't do drugs, stay in school!", but to make an informed decision about life such as in this situation, you need to understand both sides of the coin.

I just broke into the game industry, and 4-5 years ago my life looked somewhat like yours. I did poorly in school due to lack of interest, lousy teachers and a poor system. Close to nothing from high school helped my game programming career in a direct way - please note that I am aware of the positive side-effects of completing undesireable tasks and thankless work. It was first when I got out of the rigid and forced first grade-to-high school system and into the open world of university that I began accumulating useful knowledge, skills and experience. It was hard not to stay bitter when my aimless high school days was not spent on self study of the game industry and its professional directions. Had I began learning C++ and programming two to three years prior to university (beginning of high school) like some of my newfound university friends I would've been even further ahead of my class.

Still, even this side of the coin needs to put light to the fact that without a completed high school you will have slim-to-zero chance of getting into the industry due to lack of higher education (following high school) and experience.


A summary of this information ( TLDR; ) :
Game industry related work during high school is extremely benificial, but should not come at the expense of failing high school classes. Stay on top in all of them - even if you just come to class and listen somewhat while you work on your concept artistic sides - come to class and pass them all. Without high school the industry is nigh impenetrable in this educated age.


As a final note:
Don't do drugs and stay in school! More seriously though; school up to the high school level is the fundament of all higher education and professional knowledge. There was a time where basement hackers could make their way into a business of their choosing (IT-related) based on skill alone, but as higher education become common this loophole is narrowing and it will be near impossible to enter the industry without education.


Stay dedicated, positive and inquisitive - keep up the hunger for learning (game industry stuff ;) ) and you WILL make it. :)

Good, so you have ADHD, you don't like Biology and Literature (and French, but let's forget that for now). And you want to become a programmer/game designer/game artist.

How many classes did you have in Biology? Could you use some interesting facts you've learned to create a storyline for a game? A human that can feed itself through photosynthesis. A human simulator, that will simulate every cell in a human body, giving scientists the chance to experiment with genes. Maybe you've read a great book that'll provide you with a great storyline. For example, I absolutely hate reading, but when it comes to books like 1984, or the Timemachine (or other dystopian/futuristic books), I'm having a lot of fun.

Combine the things you like and dislike to create a better life for yourself ;)