Have you ever wanted to code or create your own video game?
Well, even if you haven’t, hear me out here. I’ve wanted to make video games ever since I was 8 and the idea that I could actually do that was first introduced to me. My first hands-on introduction into game development was in college. It was thus my understanding that the best way to learn how to make video games was, in fact, through paying money to take classes. Also, locally here in Virginia, J Sargeant Reynolds community college has a whole curriculum based around game development.
Here’s the blunt and honest truth: that’s where you go if you want to work for a big name gaming company doing slave work to produce a game you have little to no creative control over. Gotta make sure we reach every demographic, and water the game down so badly that any idiot will buy it and play it. You know… Games like Madden and whatever modern war shooter is out these days.
No, if you truly have a passion for game development, you’ve got an idea that you wish to make a reality. And in this day and age, independent (Indie) game development is taking the world by storm. One such engine used by many developers is the Unity engine. It’s called Unity because it’s cross-platform; it can be deployed to consoles, pc’s (of varying operating systems), smart phones, and even browsers.
I’ve been looking at the Unity game engine recently, and I’ve gotta say I’m pretty impressed, and excited to get started. Look at what you’ve got here…
http://unity3d.com/learn/tutorials/modules
That link will take you to tutorial videos for all sorts of things you’ll need to make your game. Actually, here, check out this particular category.
That link is a small collection of video tutorials teaching you how to use the unity interface.
Now, some of you absolutely require your learning to be in a classroom form. Ok, fine. They’ve thought of that too.
Take a class with that link. There are a few classes coming up, and if you missed any of ‘em, you can click the archive button and see all past classes.
That link contains links to forums so you can ask fellow game developers (or the makers of Unity), as well as an “answers” link which follows the stack exchange style of question and answer.
Nearly everything about this topic of game development (and, specifically, game development with Unity) is covered somewhere. You’re bound to bump into someone who’s had your problem already, or people who can see the answer to any problem you’re having. How many coders out there were able to solve an issue simply by having a second set of eyes?
My point in all this is that everything you need to get started coding your own video game is right there in front of you. The community, the classes, the tutorials, the documentation… It’s all right there. The overarching point I’m making here is this: this applies to any field of study. If you really want to learn something, college isn’t the place to do it. I can go to Amazon and buy a textbook (especially one that gets good reviews from experts in the field). I can go to google and wikipedia to search for answers… I can go to youtube for tutorials made by people just like me who want to make a hard concept easy to understand. I can go to forums, reddit threads, and stack exchange to ask my questions and be part of the community.
College will never reach the level of fulfillment that the internet has, and the internet makes learning a hell of a lot cheaper. In fact, most of my college classes that asked for research told me to go to the internet (except a few that insisted I use their library, obviously because they needed to rationalize actually having one). I’ve heard of other college classes that consist of a professor showing nothing but youtube video tutorials.
College is done. Why are these degrees earned after the year 2005 looked at with any sense of status? I say degrees earned after the year 2005 because I’d say that’s a good benchmarking year for when the internet really started to take off. Facebook and Youtube were beginning to grow in popularity, as was Wikipedia. Before that year, the only way to learn anything was to go to your local library and pull out an encyclopedia or reference book. Either that or go to college. Today, I can get started learning anything I want starting at the google search bar.
I’d rather talk to the guy who geeked out and became an active member in one of the biggest online forums of a field of study than the guy who sat in a classroom and temporarily remembered details long enough to pass a test, or the guy who wasted 40 hours drafting, proofreading, rewriting, and perfecting a 40-page-long thesis that nobody has the patience to actually read, let alone find engaging. Oh, and don’t forget to make sure all your sources are cited in this absolutely perfected format. The whole reason sources are there in the first place is to make sure people can find that reference themselves to further educate themselves on the matter. The other reason, of course, is to prove that you weren’t just pulling something out of your ass. But nevermind that, let’s spend an hour making sure each source is in some proper special format. That’s far more important than plagiarism. You see what I’m getting at here? Am I learning anything exactly? Or am I wasting my time (and more importantly, my money) making sure my paper looks perfect for someone with severe OCD? Here’s how you cite something on the internet: a hyperlink to where you found the information. Click the link in order to take you to wherever the hell I found that information. Oh noooo… we wouldn’t want that.
I’m making my own game. I’m doing it my way, and I’m learning it all myself. And when I sell this game to people and make some money, I’ll be able to spread this message to the world so it’ll catch on in place of stupid epiphanies like “people are becoming reclusive due to the internet“. I don’t know if I’ll make millions… in fact I think it unrealistic to expect in the first place. But when I think about what I invested to make it happen, making any amount of money is all I hope for. The large quantities would simply be a nice to have.
In closing, I leave you with this statement of wisdom. I don’t care what degree you got, nor what college you went to – I care about the ridiculous level of expertise you reached when you geeked out over the field of study you’re passionate about.