Hello guys!

With the intent of fulfilling one of my childhood dreams I decided to start a lvl 5 course in 'creative media and video game design' in the UK. That was last academic year. My financial circumstances have forced me to have a gap year now and I'm starting to question weather or not it's a good idea to continue.

The first year was about 80% theory, which was very disappointing. All we did is learn bare-essential modelling in Maya and using Playmaker in Unity. Not a single line of code was written the entire year.

The only project I managed to finish was a field where 3 'adventurers' are fighting a group of zombies. I was trying to create RTS/moba-esque controls for your 3 characters, such as independent movement (which proven to be a lot more complicated than I imagined), auto-attacks on a certain target, spells, cooldowns, range indicators for both spells and auto-attacks, target indicator for the latter, the zombies moving towards the players and hitting them with light/heavy attacks. It was 1 basic fight, and all the visuals were just ripped off from the free section of the asset store. My tutor said that my project was the most complex in the class (of 7).

Next year they are planning to introduce all the practical stuff such as C#, more animating, more modelling and finishing more games but they are literally going to ram everything into one year while still having to do some theory. I've seen previous year students, they are overwhelmed by how much they have to do and none of them seemed like they are headed for a job making games. 

I did my research and found that nobody gives a toss about your formal qualifications in the industry and all serious projects are either Unreal or in-house engine and the most used language is C++. Compared to that, we are about to be taught C# and Unity, and even that will be rushed. I've seen what previous year students were creating and they seemed like weak and basic projects that were made just to tick the boxes to pass. 

In my opinion we should have had a foundation year in C++ programming,, then 2 years of 80% practical work. When I raised this concern at a students board meeting I was given this pretentious answer about how this is higher education and how we must be educated on theory to such and such a degree. They don't seem to care weather our course is going to put 'bread on our table' so to speak, instead they want to fulfill bureaucratic criteria above all else.  Even our own tutor said that he thought the theory was too much and a lot of units were useless (the guy has his background in art and as far as I can tell he's a very competent modeller/animator).

I'm seriously concerned that I took a useless course and that I shackled myself into a ton of debt, but I'm even more concerned about doubling that debt for no good reason. To you guys, does it sound like this course is worth pushing? Am I missing something?

I think you may have been thrown off by some of the terminology used, and it's a shame that they weren't clearer about this before you applied. The term 'creative media and video game design' says, to me as someone in the industry, that it's primarily training artist and designer roles. You go on to talk about C# and C++, which implies you are thinking more of programming roles. It is not common for game developers to learn art AND design AND programming in one course as a direct route into industry. However, if this course is intended to provide a stepping stone before choosing to specialise in one of the above in another course, then it makes sense. It's worth reading about and understanding those 3 basic game development careers and thinking about where you want to specialise, before you make any further decisions about whether to continue or not.

Responding to these points in particular - "I did my research and found that nobody gives a toss about your formal qualifications in the industry and all serious projects are either Unreal or in-house engine and the most used language is C++. Compared to that, we are about to be taught C# and Unity". I don't think this is accurate.

Firstly, lots of places - not all - do care about education when it comes to hiring junior staff. By definition they will lack work history and are less likely to have a comprehensive portfolio, so employers look at education as a broad measure of aptitude and capability. They are swamped with applicants so they use a variety of methods to filter the pile. For many, this is education.

Secondly, it's true that a quality portfolio is of more interest than educational qualifications, but one of the prime benefits of time spent in education is that you typically come out with portfolio pieces. Many people working a normal day job struggle to find the time and energy to put together impressive side-projects in their spare time.  It can be argued that education is worth it simply for the opportunity to be able to focus on your craft for that time instead of paying the bills some other way.

Thirdly, unless by "serious projects" you are limiting yourself to the absolute top tier developers, there are TONS of paying roles in Unity right now. Probably more than are hiring for Unreal positions. So that is a directly employable skill. Besides which, it is arguably much better to learn C# first before learning C++, which is more complex and unforgiving language. These aren't like natural languages where it can take years to get even passably good with each one - with programming, many of the skills are directly transferable from one language to the next and you can be productive in a second language in weeks, if not days. For this reason, even dedicated programming courses wouldn't have you doing exclusively C++ for a whole year. Similarly, many lessons learned in Unity transfer to Unreal. Once you work in one, you can spot the similar tools and processes in the other. (And start a lifetime of complaining about the minor differences. )

Regarding your future decision, I would personally put the 'debt' question out of your mind. If it's a UK student loan, then it's not 'real' debt anyway, more like a time-limited tax. I would recommend giving serious thought to (1) what your ideal outcome is, (2) what it would take to get there in general, and (3) what you think your first post-education step would have to be to get there.  If you can give us some specifics, we might be able to give some specific recommendations in turn.

I agree with @Kylotan   Your skills are still transferable, so take all the positive aspects from this experience as possible.

If I was still young in my pre-career choices and wanted to be a programmer, I would obtain a Computer Science undergraduate degree, if I wanted to be a 3D Modeler I would take whatever the equivalent course would be, and so forth. One of my good friends enrolled in one of these courses as a programmer, and found the same struggles you're dealing with today. Thankfully for him he was pretty talented in programming before he enrolled and was able to make a lot of side projects that allowed him to gain employment with a small studio.

I would utilize any free time you have to learn C#, and Unity, then make some good quality portfolio pieces. I cannot speak for everyone, and every location on earth, but I've found that the hardest part is getting in the door. Once you've gained entry into the industry it's a matter of building up your portfolio, making social connections, and not dwelling on your education. As a programmer myself, I've had to learn a lot of new languages and skills outside of school, it doesn't stop.  We upgrade as needed.

2 hours ago, Kylotan said:

The term 'creative media and video game design' says, to me as someone in the industry, that it's primarily training artist and designer roles. You go on to talk about C# and C++, which implies you are thinking more of programming roles. It is not common for game developers to learn art AND design AND programming in one course as a direct route into industry.

Spot on.

I abhor the labeling of "useless" for this program that isn't exactly what you (FightingMan) should take. The course has not been a waste of your time/money, since it is related to your passions and your desired field.  If you can find a way to shift from design studies to computer science studies, that sounds more up your alley (less diagonally). It's always recommended that aspiring game programmers get a degree in CS. But you can get where you want to go with this other degree. Whatever you do, don't just drop out. That degree is important to get your CV and portfolio looked at.

Moving thread to the appropriate forum.

Thank you for the responses guys.

The reason why I'm obsessing over the various 'C's is because you can't be 'just' a designer, especially alone or if you are in a small team.

I know the differences between the disciplines,  so I actually knew what I was getting into, to a certain extent and they did tell me that this is just a starting point, but it feels like it's a bad starting point, or it felt like until I opened this thread.

I'm definitely 100% designer material. I've been dreaming up video game concepts since I was a kid, and I consider my main potential strengths to be: innovative and creative gameplay, player-centred design (thanks to the fact that I delved into a lot of challenging video games like Starcraft, Tekken, EU3-4, Souls games etc.), complex, mature and deep plots and settings, deep, interesting and meaningful characters. One of my favourite ideas is an asymmetric online game where 1 person plays from an RTS perspective and about 13 players are up against him from an FPS perspective. It takes advantage of the fact that way more people play shooters than RTS and also creates a PVE-like environment where you still struggle against the skills of another human. (in the shape of them sending hordes of monsters against you).

My top 5 would be, in order from 1 to 5: Bloodborne, Undertale, Child of Light, Asura's Wrath and Europa Universalis 4 (this one stands out quite a bit)

HOWEVER as I'm sure you know, you can't just be an idea guy. So I must take on either programming or art, especially for the start of my career. Once I've become the second coming of Miyazaki it won't matter so much, but up to that point I'll have to prove myself and to the world that I can make my ideas happen and they work and people pay for them. So I have to choose between programming or art and I would chose programming any day over art as I always sucked at drawing, but I'm quite good with languages. I'm also more interested in the mechanics and architecture of a game than it's visual aesthetics. 

So I have to learn programming, but this course gave me the impression that they are just being 'too soft' to us and aren't pushing us to bite into the challenging bits of the industry, without which you will sink into the oblivion of free mobile game 'designers' which to me is a version of hell. It also feels like they care more about ticking bureaucratic boxes and fulfilling a certain criteria and they don't acknowledge the needs of the industry. That 1 year on theory felt like such a waste. Playmaker? Come on. There are also next to no resources available about it on the internet, so every single question or problem I have to go straight to my tutor.

I come from a humanities background: I did drama at school, I love literature, politics, psychology. I'm sick and tired of bland and boring plots for games, such as 'here come the overwhelming, pointless evil guy in black armor and glowing red eyes and the blond haired blue eyed heroes will stop them' versions of which are waaay to common for my personal tastes. I also delved into religions and spirituality so I think I could create more mystical or transcendent environments (think 'The nightmare of Mensis' from BB) and I have a knack for symbolism and archetypes.

I'm also very strong-willed and ambitious, so I want to be as close to the top as possible, which means I must work my ass off to get there and call the big shots. So I must be very valuable so I can 'climb the ladder' quickly. I'm more interested in major games than indie projects, although I do like me a good indie game too (such as Undertale).

I hope this clarifies what I want.

12 minutes ago, FightingMan said:

HOWEVER as I'm sure you know, you can't just be an idea guy. So I must take on either programming or art, especially for the start of my career. Once I've become the second coming of Miyazaki it won't matter so much, but up to that point I'll have to prove myself and to the world that I can make my ideas happen and they work and people pay for them. So I have to choose between programming or art and I would chose programming any day over art as I always sucked at drawing, but I'm quite good with languages. I'm also more interested in the mechanics and architecture of a game than it's visual aesthetics. 

There is a big misconception out there that "Game Designers" are the idea people. The idea part is a very small fraction of your job, the rest is putting all the pieces together. The truth of the matter is that when you're working on a team the ideas are a dime a dozen, and come from everywhere and everyone. Your job is to take those ideas regardless of where they come from and write up a blueprint or "if you will" design document dealing with every tiny aspect of the game which starts from that initial idea. Then you'll get into prototype work, concepts, ect...

Being able to code will allow you to work better with the programmers, and being able to draw (You don't have to be the A-List artist there) will help you work with the artists in a smoother fashion, especially for visual design concepts (Yes, you should be drafting visual concepts). Teams might work differently depending on style, size, experience, ect...

Pick programming if that's the easiest way you believe that can gain you entry, and work very hard to obtain that future promotion.

I would suggest you take advantage of the information @Tom Sloper has on his site, it's a wealth of information.

Types of Jobs: http://www.sloperama.com/advice/lesson7.htm

All about the job of "Game Designer": http://www.sloperama.com/advice/lesson14.htm

Everyone wants to design: http://www.sloperama.com/advice/m79.htm

I know it isn't just ideas or the big initial idea and I do understand what you are talking about.

I could go into more detail about that concept of mine for that asymmetric game, and I do pursue them further than just the initial idea. What's going to be the objective of the fps team? Is the RTS guy going to build buildings, if so from what resources etc, etc. 

So I'm aware of that.

What I'm not aware of is what a designer actually does for let's say 50-60 hours a week. What's their day-to-day 'legwork' so to speak?

I would strongly suggest you look at the links I posted above. They will give you an idea.  

This is also a quick read: http://www.design-training.com/game-design/a/a-day-in-the-life-of-a-game-designer.html

With that being said, you'll be working on updating the design document regularly, filling out reports, attending meetings, ect...

You say that "you can't be 'just' a designer" - sure you can... for specific values of 'designer'. Saying that "you can't just be an idea guy. So I must take on either programming or art" is a false dichotomy.

Here are some of the tasks that a designer might take on in a typical team, in my experience. Many teams will separate this out into multiple roles, so it's not necessary for anyone to have all of these skills, but these are what an actual designer might do, even if they don't get to be the idea guy.

• Broad character/vehicle/unit/species design
• 'Grey box' level concept design (artists replace the grey with real assets later)
• Level design by placing assets, or using a level editor tool
• Hook up animation assets to characters
• Write design documents for producers, artists, and programmers
• Choose input schemes and keybindings
• Implement character archetypes within an engine
• Create 'flavour' documentation or narrative to guide feature implementation
• Plan cutscenes
• Produce UI mockups for artists
• Consider UI/UX issues, accessibility and usability, plan a player's flow through the program, etc
• Perform competitor analysis on related products
• Create trivial game logic and events in Blueprints or Playmaker (yes! Playmaker!)
• Write pitch documents for game ideas
• Prioritise features and sub-features to guide producers and programmers
• Plan and design game systems (movement, camera control, character progression, encounters, AI)
• Design and balance game systems (via formulae in spreadsheets, simple scripts, etc)
• Balance game systems via testing and measuring
• Write narrative, dialogue, flavour text, or prose, and enter it into the engine
• Evaluate and refine monetisation approaches
• Create scripted events
• Set up quest definitions with objectives, conditions, etc
• Loads of other things

With that out of the way, the other problem you face is that the route to a high-level design position is not generally obtained by being a programmer. For starters, studios often expect to hire designers for less money than they expect to hire programmers, so you'd be looking at a pay cut. Secondly, studios find it harder to recruit programmers than to recruit designers, so they will tend to be reluctant to let you move sideways internally. As such, I would strongly recommend that if your interest is design, to focus directly on being the best designer that you can be.

Finally, I'd leave you with a warning to not get too focused on the problem of "bland and boring plots". There has been no shortage of people over the years who, as creators, want to see something deeper from games, but only really evaluate the stuff that is deliberately mass market. There are more interesting works available, just not when one is mostly focused on the obvious works (and, with all due respect, the games you mention are from a fairly narrow section of the field). There are trade-offs to be made when it comes to spending a lot of someone else's money on a AAA project, so if you want to work at that level, you have to be thinking about the mass appeal foremost.