University Student seeking some career advice
by Michael X · in General Discussion · 08/18/2011 (8:26 am) · 4 replies
Hello Garage games,
I am Michael new to this community. I am 3rd year university student from Canada and here just to post an introduction/advice seeking thread, hopefully I can get some feedback.
I am a business-finance student but I know that being an investment broker will bore the crap out of me. I always liked video games played it since I was born. Right now currently into DOTA/HON, played tons of MMORPGS. And I started looking into developing games when I tried (but failed) to create my own private server for Ragnarok Online, if any of you have heard of that game.
I know that i may sound naive right now, but I must say I have read Jeff Tunnell's blog post http://www.garagegames.com/community/blogs/view/10688 on how to start ur own game company and also read some of elder game's blog post http://www.eldergame.com/2009/01/yes-the-industry-really-is-that-bad/.
Both say that getting into the industry is not easy and specifically elder game really criticized on how bad the management is in the MMO industry thus making most projects a failure and waste of resources.
Despite reading these, I still have a slight ray of hope to pursue my dream to become a MMO developer. To be honest I in school almost graduating but I still don't know how to start my career, I am a bit lost right now.
I just want to say hi to the community and hopefully seek some advice from some of you that has developed indie games or worked on MMO projects before. I just want to get a bit of perspective.
I am Michael new to this community. I am 3rd year university student from Canada and here just to post an introduction/advice seeking thread, hopefully I can get some feedback.
I am a business-finance student but I know that being an investment broker will bore the crap out of me. I always liked video games played it since I was born. Right now currently into DOTA/HON, played tons of MMORPGS. And I started looking into developing games when I tried (but failed) to create my own private server for Ragnarok Online, if any of you have heard of that game.
I know that i may sound naive right now, but I must say I have read Jeff Tunnell's blog post http://www.garagegames.com/community/blogs/view/10688 on how to start ur own game company and also read some of elder game's blog post http://www.eldergame.com/2009/01/yes-the-industry-really-is-that-bad/.
Both say that getting into the industry is not easy and specifically elder game really criticized on how bad the management is in the MMO industry thus making most projects a failure and waste of resources.
Despite reading these, I still have a slight ray of hope to pursue my dream to become a MMO developer. To be honest I in school almost graduating but I still don't know how to start my career, I am a bit lost right now.
I just want to say hi to the community and hopefully seek some advice from some of you that has developed indie games or worked on MMO projects before. I just want to get a bit of perspective.
#2
From your post u do believe that it is possible and I should pursue it right? Also what courses do u recommend me take because I still in school right now and have the luxury to choose.
08/18/2011 (10:26 am)
Wow thanks Ted that does really help pave the road a bit. From your post u do believe that it is possible and I should pursue it right? Also what courses do u recommend me take because I still in school right now and have the luxury to choose.
#3
08/18/2011 (12:24 pm)
Michael x,can u post u r email address? 
Torque 3D Owner Ted Southard
What I would recommend is (as Jeff Tunnel also says): Don't quit your day-job. Get a job in finance and bring some money in. You can work on what you want to do in your spare time and then make the jump when you're ready.
The absolute hardest part of an MMO is content, so if you have any ideas, constantly work on that. Name dictionaries, maps, monster concepts, building concepts, asset lists, etc, etc, etc. If you're good at art, you can start building the world out. If you're good with scripting/coding, then you can start fleshing out gameplay. If you're good with ideas- I'd honestly recommend working on one of the other two areas to help things along, because people like to see progress before they jump in to help.
And learn everything about MMOs that you can cram into your head! There are some excellent articles on MMOs now on Gamasutra by Simon Ludgate, and blogs and articles all over the place on gameplay in general. You need to know these things and how they will impact the players (because as much as you want to build a game you want to play- it's other people who will be playing it, so you need to do a lot of thinking about how others view gameplay, and be especially wary of frustrating them).
Do tutorials for smaller games and cut your teeth on technology- art, scripting, coding, whatever. The more you know, the better prepared you'll be, though I recommend going down one road further than another so that your knowledge in all areas is not too shallow.
Hope that helps. It's a long road...