I'm much more interested in game design than I am programming. I AM good at programming, though, learning it in college (now a senior and through most of the curriculum for CS) and through a couple of extra books. I learn very quickly, always hand things in on time or earlier (even when NOBODY else does), and tend to be at the top of my class (and usually explaining concepts to others as best I can).
I'm not the "artsy" type, I guess, though I do my own art for my webpages. I can't draw for shit, but I'm such a nitpicker that when I'm done, it usually looks decent, assuming I have something to go off of.
The questions is (and it goes out to everyone, not necessarily Mike, though he seems in the best position to answer it), what do companies look for in game designers? What should I do to try to get there?
Before I learned programming, I considered it a "necessary evil" on the road to game design, but after actually programming, I have to say that I enjoy it for its own sake much more than I imagined. However, its the structures of the program that really gets me going, and think that may help me in designing games. Like most of you, I'm sure, I don't ever feel truly comfortable without some sort of gaming device in my hands, whether its a controll or a mouse/keyboard.
I already have a couple of games designed that I'm probably going to make soon. One is very original, and the other is more of a unique business model for an established type. When one's done, maybe I'll (A) make sure I link it, and (B), give all of the regular frequenters of this message board lifetime subcriptions (if I make the pay version).
There's a lot of junk in this message, isn't there? Oh well.
I'm not the "artsy" type, I guess, though I do my own art for my webpages. I can't draw for shit, but I'm such a nitpicker that when I'm done, it usually looks decent, assuming I have something to go off of.
The questions is (and it goes out to everyone, not necessarily Mike, though he seems in the best position to answer it), what do companies look for in game designers? What should I do to try to get there?
Before I learned programming, I considered it a "necessary evil" on the road to game design, but after actually programming, I have to say that I enjoy it for its own sake much more than I imagined. However, its the structures of the program that really gets me going, and think that may help me in designing games. Like most of you, I'm sure, I don't ever feel truly comfortable without some sort of gaming device in my hands, whether its a controll or a mouse/keyboard.
I already have a couple of games designed that I'm probably going to make soon. One is very original, and the other is more of a unique business model for an established type. When one's done, maybe I'll (A) make sure I link it, and (B), give all of the regular frequenters of this message board lifetime subcriptions (if I make the pay version).
There's a lot of junk in this message, isn't there? Oh well.
-Larrik Jaerico
www.LarrikJ.com
www.LarrikJ.com