Hi, everyone! Here is the situation. I am a junior student of computer science in Nanjing University, China. And i wanna go to USA for a master's degree. What's more, i am so crazy about playing games and i want to be a game designer in future. So the first question is that in which area should i choose to study if i wanna be a game designer. In my view, i think that software engineering is the most related area. Moreover, it seems that no company will accept a person without any experience in game studio as a game designer. So i have been wondering what if i choose game programmer as my first job in game industry. And as a graduate from computer science, i think this may be an easier way for entering the industry. So, the second question is that how can i plan my career in future years? and what skills should i learn? I have been feeling so confused about those questions and this is time for me to decide my own way. SO i hope anyone here can help me out. Thanks!

This might be a good place to start for choosing a degree:

http://www.sloperama.com/advice/designprep.html

The good Tom Sloper might pop over and give you some additional and/or more relevant links if he happens to read your thread.

Quote: So the first question is that in which area should i choose to study if i wanna be a game designer. In my view, i think that software engineering is the most related area.

Since game designers don't software engineer, I'm not so sure, however, a degree in software engineering would help land you some sort of job in the game industry which is what you'd want I reckon.

Quote: Moreover, it seems that no company will accept a person without any experience in game studio as a game designer. So i have been wondering what if i choose game programmer as my first job in game industry. And as a graduate from computer science, i think this may be an easier way for entering the industry.

Excellent idea, particularly if you enjoy computer science.

Quote: I have been feeling so confused about those questions and this is time for me to decide my own way. SO i hope anyone here can help me out. Thanks!

Have a read through Tom Sloper's site and that should sort you out:

http://www.sloperama.com/advice.html

Niihau Nof, you wrote:

>which area should i choose to study if i wanna be a game designer.

Anything you want to study!
http://www.sloperama.com/advice/designprep.htm
http://www.igda.org/forum/occupational-advice (may be very slow to load)
http://www.sloperama.com/advice/lesson40.htm

>In my view, i think that software engineering is the most related area.

If you want to study programming, and if you are passionate about it, you are probably already the kind of person that everybody turns to when they need help with their personal computers. If so, then sure, by all means, get a Computer Science degree.
http://www.sloperama.com/advice/lesson15.htm
http://archives.igda.org/breakingin/

>Moreover, it seems that no company will accept a person without any experience in game studio as a game designer. So i have been wondering what if i choose game programmer as my first job in game industry. And as a graduate from computer science, i think this may be an easier way for entering the industry.

Sure. That's a perfectly fine way to go.

Moving to Breaking In.

Thanks!
It seems that i can't open the page of www.sloperama.com from China.
Is there any other websites that i can check out?

You can find a workaround to read my site. There are translation sites like Babelfish and iGoogle in which you can enter a URL. Then the translation site opens the Great Firewalled site.

Thanks! I have visited your website and it's really fruitful. You mentioned that getting a B.S degree is very important and recommended me to get a master degree of computer science. What's more, you list a lot of classes that we should take if we want to be designers.
However, i think that to get a master degree I need to choose a specific area to study and do some research, is there any suggestion that which area I should focus on?

Quote: Original post by Nofootbird
However, i think that to get a master degree I need to choose a specific area to study and do some research, is there any suggestion that which area I should focus on?

That may be an issue with the meaning of a Masters degree between different countries. In the US, a masters degree doesn't require specialisation, and (depending on the university) may not even require one to write a thesis.

Quote: Original post by Nofootbird
i think that to get a master degree I need to choose a specific area to study and do some research, is there any suggestion that which area I should focus on?

Read FAQ 40 - http://www.sloperama.com/advice/lesson40.htm
What subject do you WANT to get a Masters in?
What subject do YOU think you ought to get a Masters in?
YOUR opinion on this last question is more important than you think!

Hi, i really appreciates that you spent so much time in my qustions.

And i have read the article you write about the passion and feelings. You are absolutely right, i feel that programming is very inspiring and i love the feeling of accomplishing a program. However, at the same time i feel that to get a comprehensive understanding of software engineering is also necessary and challenging. So, here is the dilemma, i think that i like those two subjects, it's hard for me to decide which one i'd be interested in more.

I'd like to hear from you. Thanks!