Ultimate Game Design : Building game worlds

IF YOU WANT TO EXPLORE
GAME ART CONSTRUCTION
� Focus on building your traditional skills (drawing, painting, and sculpting).
� Finish a B.A. or B.F.A degree in art or design.
� Start early on to apply the traditional skills that you’re developing to the
digital world. Start to experiment inside your favorite software package
using traditional techniques you’ve learned on the outside.
� Begin to focus on your favorite areas. If you prefer animation, pursue
it aggressively. If you enjoy modeling, learn everything you can about it.
If texture painting excites you, try to become an incredible texture artist.
All development roles are increasingly heavily specialized.
� Remember that if you can’t get an art job in game development directly,
you can start in QA and continue to showcase your skills and desires to
the developers around you. QA is always a doorway.
� Keep your mind and skills diversified. Don’t ignore those storyboarding
classes because you are convinced that you’ll be an animator. Keep an
open mind and take it all in. You’ll be surprised to discover exactly what
becomes useful later on. You can always work on the side to build your
portfolio for nongaming companies, even while you explore every game
opportunity available to you.
IF YOU WANT TO EXPLORE
GAME PROGRAMMING
A P P E N D I X C
� Begin by starting to teach yourself programming. Keep in mind that console
and PC development is done in C++, which is a great language to learn to
cover the bases. To help you get started, many great reference books are
listed at www.gamedev.net. Write your own games using your own art (or
better yet, get your friends to help). Card games, puzzlers, arcade shooters,
or a very simple RPG are great choices.
� It’s a 3-D world. Doing interesting things in 3-D requires vicious math and
programming skills. Independently, try to develop a solid understanding of
3-D graphics programming.
� Get a B.S. in mathematics or computer science.
� One of the best ways to get a programming job is to have solid code samples
you can provide from game work that you’ve done in some capacity.
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Career Guideline Worksheet