Career Choices

[eatmorchikin6464]

Well, I'm really having a tough decision on which seems to be the most steady/well paid career for what I want to do. I want to develop games, but I have enough knowledge/skill to be able to go in either the art or the code direction.

My heart is in the art, but I don't know how good of a career choice this is, because I'm sure there is a larger desire for coders. If I choose this path, I will go to University of Georgia on the HOPE Scholarship (Any Georgia resident with a 'B' average gets all of their tuition paid) to take my main, required classes. Then, I will transfer to SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design) to get a degree in Game Development. However, SCAD is a private university so I will have to pay for tuition.

On the programming side of things, I'm taking AP Computer Science A this year, so I'm really going to build a foundation, and I hope to take CS AB next year (this year is Java, next is C++). If I choose this route, I will get a free ride (via HOPE Scholarship) to either UGA or Georgia Tech (an EXTREMELY good university). I don't enjoy this field as much, but it still interests me and if the pros are alot more, than this is a good path to take.

Now, I'm looking for people who really know what they're talking about to help out. I'm going to do some research on this subject so I can make a better decision, but your help would be great.

[JoeyG]

Well, it takes a lot of skill to be a programmer, especially working with a tricksy language like C or C++. You can't learn it in school; you need to study stuff yourself, hang out on newsgroups, and do a lot of hobby projects.

You would also benefit greatly from reading through The Art of Computer Programming by Donald Knuth (just get Volume 1 for now; it'll keep you occupied or a good year or so).

Bear in mind that if you fail to follow these steps, you can still be "qualified" to be a programmer, in the sense of graduating and being hired. However, you won't be a pro, and the real pros will either laugh at you or hate you for your crappy code.

Of course, if you stick with Java or some other GC loser language, you avoid a lot of that, but you also attain the stigma of being a GC-dependent shmuck.


Art is a tricky thing. You might be able to get a job as a graphic designer, advertiser, cartoonist, or other medium-to-above-average pay job. You'll be stuck in a van Gogh situation with no money, however, if you are at all anti-materialistic. If I were you, I'd keep it as a hobby.

[Spine]

What do you want out of your life and career is the real question, you're the only one who can answer that.

Art will be more fulfilling to you, you'll probably be happier, and enjoy your job more (if all goes well.) With programming you'll make more, be able to get more, and have a better chance to climb the ladder.

You probably know only you can ask and answer the real question, and you just posted this for a second opinion.

If you love the art enough, and you have enough talent. Take the risk.

[eatmorchikin6464]

Well, I was looking all through EA's job oppurtunities and such, and the whole art path seems VERY rocky. They only hire you for either a game or a specific amount of time (for like...the entry level jobs). One job was supposed to last for 6 months, and another one was for the Sims. However, the higher careers are alot more steady.

And Joey, I imagine if I go to college for 4 years and get a programming degree, I would probably know a great deal, and enough to get hired and get a good job.

[Honeycomb]

Screw the pay, it's all about the passion. Take the art class. Just do art and design for video game's.

Once I get into highschool, I'm probably going to take something in Law or Media & Film.

[FLASH-MX]

Its really up to what you want to be making in life, somewhat like Honeycomb said. I myself know a person who works as a programmer at Terminix, and the pay is excellent, but he is almost depressed and never has real time for anything he wants to do. Even when he comes on vacation he will be on AnywherePC working on a project and talking 24/7 via telephone. I personally want to go into the music production bussiness, and because its something I like to do and learn about, and if you like to do art more than you do scripting, then along the way you will find that it will pay off both ways regardless. There are hundreds of advertising agencys, sign companies, game developers etc. who are looking for top-notch work in art, and pay very well. Some ad jobs just for the design pay at least 1000, for one job. Very easy stuff for even some of us.

[Sperry]

Screw the pay, it's all about the passion. Take the art class. Just do art and design for video game's.Hah! In today's society, passion doesn't put food on the table. That is, unless you paint it. -.-

Though both are admirable career choices (should you succeed), they both have a rather large risk factor (when compared to other types of jobs, unemployment is a much larger factor). As with all career paths like this, you need something to fall back on if you fail. Whichever you choose is up to you, but do remember to not drop everything for it.

[Screech]

I know in Toronto there is a school that will teach you both sides of video game design, the coding and the art. I don't know too much about the course, or where it is offered, I just know that Disney has been known to hire /alot/ of the students as soon as they graduate, and same with alot of other big name companies. Having more than one skill will get you farther than in speciallizing in just one aspect.

[JoeyG]

And Joey, I imagine if I go to college for 4 years and get a programming degree, I would probably know a great deal, and enough to get hired and get a good job.

That would just piss off the real programmers. Sure, you'd be hired, but would you be good at what you do? Would you like it? Would you be able to solve problems that appear in the middle of the night? Would your code work correctly in all situations? On all systems that it might be ported to? Will porting it be easy?

And if you like programming, you end up with something like my project page (http://www.wpsoftware.net/projects/) with loads of free code that you can lift and use in all your stuff. Otherwise, you have to do it all yourself, and that can take weeks longer than otherwise.

Art can be very stable; if you manage to get a good reputation, there will be companies fighting over you. Remember, 6 months is a long time: long enough time for you to get a new job somewhere else. By the time you get sick of jobhopping, you will probably get a permanent position somewhere: Look at Microsoft's artists (one of the few things they seem to do amazingly well). If I were somebody there, I sure as hell wouldn't let those people go.

[eatmorchikin6464]

To all those people giving the cliche answer of "go with your passion", you need to realize how unrealistic that is. You have to find atleast some level of stability/income or else you're pretty much screwed. The whole point of jobs are to work for money, not to just do what you like to do because it's fun.

But what I'm saying, Joey is that after 4 years of top-notch education, I'm sure my code would work correctly and I could solve problems.