I want to be a game designer. I heard [product name deleted by moderator] is great and cheap. Anyone have a better idea for a cheap computer that will get the job done and run programs (Unity of others) great? Thanks!
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Cheap computer for game design
Tommy, are you sure you're asking about game design? Or are you talking about programming games? You can design a game without a computer.
There are small notebooks (e.g. the old MacBook Air, but most brands have something similar) that you can take from meeting to meeting very comfortably in order to take notes and show presentations, there are general purpose notebooks (great but definitely not cheap), there are gamer's PCs that let you run your game on realistic hardware, there are expensive workstations that might be necessary or cost-effective for specialized tasks. What kind of “game designer” are you?
Author
@undefined H I Tom. I am definitely talking about game design. I would also like to do some 3D modeling along side (so, some programming wouldn’t hurt). I was wanting something that could run, say, Blender and Unity with no problems and allo me to do programming and note taking all in the same. My main goal is to become a designer, but I’ve heard it doesn’t hurt to learn a little extra to help with workload ?♂️ What would be your advice on that? Good idea?
Author
@undefined Hi Lorenzo,
Same thing I have said to Tom. What would be your advice as well? I know game design is the designer/ creator of a project and know it takes a TON of work, but I want to steer more towards doing so. A smaller notebook for writing and presentations sounds great! I just didn’t know if I needed so powerful enough to run a game or needed something to run any development programs on ?♂️ Thank you!
@tommyd1, For the game design, the best place to start would be pen and paper. Or the electronic equivalent, word and excel. If you choose the latter, then it doesn't take very much system resources to run those applications. If you don't mind working with linux or an embedded os, then Raspberry PI 3 would probably be one of the cheapest options for just working on documents, designs and emails.
As for 3d-modeling, blender and unity, I'd check the minimum system requirements. As long as what you purchase meets the minimum requirements, you'll be all set. If you choose to work on a laptop/notebook, just make sure it has a dedicated graphics card as well. The CPU integrated graphics alone is often not enough juice to run a number of games.
Tommy, if you're going to be doing a lot of 3D modeling and programming, get a desktop (not a laptop). Then it becomes a question of Mac, Windows, or Linux. And that depends on what platform you're making games for.
This conversation is moved to the Lounge. “What computer to buy” is not a Game Design question, so is off-topic in the Game Design forum.
Author
@undefined Thank you, Binary! Very good input. I know it’s a bit on the business side of game creation, but I just didn’t know what was needed in order to fulfill a good, well rounded requirement for the game industry and getting into it.
Author
@undefined Yes sir and thank you for helping me. I’m very new here and new to game creation. Just trying to take my first steps in the right direction and learn what I’d need and maybe a bit more to become as valuable as I can in order to get a good job in the industry.
TommyD1 said:
to get a good job in the industry
We have a Career Advice forum where you can check out what's been posted there in the past, and ask your own career advice questions.
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