Not sure what your question really is, but several studios often have events where they open their studio to the public.
That being said, they won't necessarily let you log onto their computer and look up their resources, etc.
All the information you could possibly need to make a game is available for free on the internet.
That said, of course big studios have their own tools, trade secrets and processes on how to make beautiful games at a reasonable cost, to stay competitive.
If you are allowed to take a tour? That is impossible to answer in general. Companies are individuals too, so you'd have to ask the specific company you are interested in visiting.
First thing I'd focus on is what element of game development are you interested in. Is is programming? Designing? Asset creation? (concept art, character modelling, environment modelling etc) I'm more well versed in programming so thats the only one I can give any advice on that comes from a knowledgeable position.
Today one of the most common types of programming is object-oriented programming, and languages that support this are Java, C++, C# etc If its programming you want to do I'd advise to look into this, starting from the basics, I'd say either Java or C# are a good place to start as it has all the fundamental coding techniques you'll need without having to be heavily exposed to memory management (thanks to Garbage Collection). But what I would say is start small, don't be expecting to make a Mario platformer in a day or two.
Once you get a feel for programming start with something simple like Hangman or a simple number guessing game, this will teach you how to build a game around a game loop (which will listen for user input, update any things that need to be updated in your game - such as the letters guessed so far in Hangman - and then updating the view to reflect the changes that have happened - such as the user correctly guessing a letter). Trying to build something like an epic RPG, sports simulation or 3d action game as your first project will likely overwhelm you and you may decide to stop doing game dev after much frustration. After creating a text-based game, there are plenty of posts on here (and GameDevExchange which if you're not aware of it, is a game development specific Q&A forum) that can point you in the direction of types of games to start off on, most of which are something like Pong -> Breakout -> Tetris -> Pacman -> Mario-esque platformer etc After you finish each of these projects your confidence will increase and you'll then have a feel for how a game is put together. In addition to this, you'll have an awesome portfolio of projects which you can show off to big games companies like 2K should you wish to join them, and believe me, this alone will drastically increase your chances of landing that job.
However don't ignore the fact there are many ready-made engines sitting there for you to use that take a lot of the heavy lifting. For example, Unity 3D is a free 3D game toolset which has ready working components for graphics rendering, animation, AI, particle effects, audio etc, which using mostly the interface and a little code, you can put something together pretty quickly once you know your way around (granted you have to make or source the assets such as characters from elsewhere). There also exists 2D engines such as Marmalade, or Cocos2d which do similar functions, but in a 2D environment. If you look around on the internet you'll find more examples of engines that are 2D or 3D, but also engines that are purpose built for specific game genres(e.g. Adventrure Game Studio which - surprisingly enough - is used to make 2D adventure games).
While I'm an amateur as a designer, there are a couple of things I can say on the subject. A great book to read is The Design of Everyday Things by Donald A. Norman. It's not specific to game design, but lessons learnt from it can be applied to anything from user interface design to world design. If you're looking for game design specific books, I would read Level Up by Scott Rodgers who made such games as God of War, Maximo and Darksiders. It's a lighter read, but does discuss a lot of interesting concepts. A great video series to also look at is Extra Credits (found here : http://extra-credits.net/), again great food for thought. Other than that, I would just say start writing designs and run them by people who will critique your ideas fairly and if people seem interested try and pull a prototype together.
For asset creation, you will just need to practise those skills (3D modelling, 2d art, music composition etc) using whatever resources you can find. Blender is a great tool for 3D modelling, harsh initial learning curve but once you know how the tool works you'll be making things in no time. 2D tools to look up are Photoshop, GIMP etc I know little about music but Cubase, Fruity Loops are thrown around a lot by my musically inclined friends so I would look at them.
Hope that gives you some basic guidance on what to look at, as your question was quite vague I tried to cover as much ground as I possibly could without writing War and Peace! But it all boils down to practise your skills, build your skills up incrementally and then add that to your portfolio. Once you have a kickass portfolio, getting a job becomes as simple as showing how good your past work was and proving you know what you are talking about (e.g if you can't describe what a class is in object orientated programming context, you're gonna get found out fast that you can't program).
As for tours in studios, I have no idea. There would be a lot of red tape to get into big studios, non-disclosure agreements so you don't go spreading to people what they're working etc so I'd imagine it'd be difficult arrange a sort of thing. Suppose you can always send an email, letter or message on social media to try and arrange a tour but it'd be unlikely. A recent trend which may be a compromise for you, would be this trend of openness for certain games companies like Double Fine, whom have been releasing a behind the scenes documentary about the development lifecycle of their game Broken Age.It has several interviews with staff working on the game which talk about what they do day-to-day, how they landed their job and how they got into games in general. Might be worth a look. Other companies do similar things, but I can't think of any off the top of my head.
Wish you good luck on finding what you need to start game development and hope I've helped you a bit and answered your questions.
p.s A good place to see talks from game developers regarding all aspects of game development is GDC Vault. Can't recommend this enough, for the inspiration it gives me alone.
Is all the information on current game development available to the public or do I need to work for a gaming company?
All you need is out there.
I just want to get an idea about recent game developments and would like to take a tour into a gaming studio like 2k sports? Am I allowed to take a tour to motivate me for my dream of making games?
Touring a studio won't do much, and will do less than online research. It can be fun to see a studio but it won't teach you the jobs.
We have groups tour the studio every month or so. College students where the class came through, youth groups, city dignitaries (including a few state senators), worker's family members, and more. We recently had a tour group of soldiers from the local AFB tour the studio.
They won't be showing you all the inner workings, but depending on the group you're with you might see demonstrations of what various jobs do. Maybe show you some animation clips, show some code, some design documents, some audio, some bugs, and maybe a short video clip or play session.
Get with a group of like-minded people and make a phone call to a local game studio.
Not sure what your question really is
-- Tom Sloper -- sloperama.com
Not sure what your question really is
I concur. Not sure what aspiringdev wants to find out exactly. aspiringdev, can you rephrase your question starting with the words "how do I..." or "what do I need to learn to..."? It might help if you also told us how old you are, what your level of education is, what your current occupation is, which game job (if any) you aspire to, and we might also need to know which country you live in. Of course you have a right to dream, don't be silly.
Yeah, it is a little confusing.
Is all the information on current game development available to the public or do I need to work for a gaming company?
I just want to get an idea about recent game developments and would like to take a tour into a gaming studio like 2k sports? Am I allowed to take a tour to motivate me for my dream of making games?
I think he is asking, and I could be wrong, if current game development is open to public or if only game companies can do it. For consoles (PS3, PS4, XboxOne, WiiU) you have to be a company, I believe (and anyone correct me if I'm wrong as I hate to give outdated or wrong information), but for a fee (usually $100 USD) you can develop for Kindle, iOS (have to have a Mac I believe for all Apple products), Android, Ouya, etc.
Then I think he is asking if it is possible to tour a game studio and I don't know the answer to that. I would imagine some do have tours, but I'd imagine some don't. Lastly, I don't quite see how touring a game dev company would provide motivation for a dream of making games, but if you think it would then by all means give it a try.
Basically, as Tom said, you always have the right to dream.
-- Tom Sloper -- sloperama.com
Thanks alot for the replies and helpful advice. You've said everything I wanted to know but I thought you could develop for the xbox 360 as an indie developer for a fee. I thought microsoft released a sdk for a fee
Thanks alot for the replies and helpful advice. You've said everything I wanted to know but I thought you could develop for the xbox 360 as an indie developer for a fee. I thought microsoft released a sdk for a fee
Yep, the hobbyist 360 SDK is called "XNA". You might also see this programme called "Xbox LIVE Indie Games" (XBLIG) and Creators Club.
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