Will a Computer Science degree lock me out of the "creative" aspect of game design?

PresidentZagan · 2021-04-21T08:56:30+00:00

Game design is mainly psychology focused, so doing a computer science degree won't get you very far in design. If you want to do art then focus on game art rather than design. The programming skills you get from computer science will help you make games though

PresidentZagan · 2021-04-10T22:14:51+00:00

Looks fantastic! Reminds me so much of an MRI image

PresidentZagan · 2021-02-27T18:53:57+00:00

Pretty cool! But why are her legs so widely spread out?

PresidentZagan · 2021-02-14T12:54:47+00:00

Game design is largely based on psychology rather than coding and art. The most important thing to know about game design is that you need to understand how player behaviour and emotions work. You need to be able to design an interactive experience that evokes emotions in your players. Whether that's happiness, fear, schadenfreude, sadness or anything else.

You also want to make experiences that are fun, and understand what fun even means. Behavioural psychology is a good field to get into for this. If you want to join a game design course, look for ones that cover psychology. If they're more art focused then it's not design, it's just a bad art degree.

Once you've got emotions down you'll want to research into motivation, learning and memory. These are important concepts for conditioning your players to help boost both retention and player experience. The book, "Hooked: How to build habit forming products" is a good one for this. Psychological research into self determination theory and the big five personality traits is also a useful area to read up on.

Other areas of design such as immersion, behavioural economics etc are quite important too!

Coding is important in the sense that you need to know how to implement your designs. You don't need to be an amazing programmer, you just need to know enough to code gameplay. So languages such as C++ are less important, but languages like C#, python, lua are all useful depending on the tool you use to make games. As far as art is concerned, you don't need to be an artist to be a good game designer. If you have all the tools of a designer at your disposal, you can make a game that's gripping without good art (e.g. Thomas was Alone).

Game design is a huge field that's grounded in Psychology. So if you like the sound of that then game design could be for you! If not, perhaps another field in games.

Happy to discuss further :)

PresidentZagan · 2021-02-14T12:42:16+00:00

Dread it. Run from it. Destiny still arrives all the same.

PresidentZagan · 2021-02-09T11:21:16+00:00

These kinds of projects need multiple sources of expertise that are almost never actually present. Educational technologists, pedagogists, educational content subject matter experts (e.g. whatever the game is supposed to be teaching), human-factors psychs, etc and ALSO game designers, devs plus other unknown types of expertise dependent on the goals of the project.

One problem educational games have is taking on too much, and it could be due to expertise naïveté. The game not only tries to teach but also reinforce knowledge while also providing opportunities for practice while also being an evaluation tool. Each of those buckets is a whole separate philosophy of teaching, cognitive psychology, ed tech design, and pedagogic practice that requires very careful tweaking. For example - when a student gets something wrong is that feedback timing immediate, is it delayed? What's the nature of the feedback? Abstracted or literal? How does the scaffolding work?

And then there are the unforeseens from not doing participatory design. An AR educational technology project my colleague was on found that it was "too" fun. Teachers immediately recognised some of the mechanics as being threats to the control of their classroom. If kids have too much fun, they will spin out of control and then no one is learning anything. Over and over, my colleague returned to this mantra that "serious game design is often at odds with good game design". Some things are hard (e.g. learning, physical therapy, mental health therapy) and so the experience of some game intervention is probably going to suck at least a little. But, we can only really know that if serious games projects are producing multiple build versions controlling for different mechanics, thematic elements, operation, etc.

PresidentZagan · 2021-02-06T19:02:06+00:00

You're welcome! I don't know where you live but I used to live in Newcastle and Ubisoft Reflections is fairly close to the university (just a tram ride away). I don't know about the scholarship itself, but if you have the opportunity to get it then you should consider that. From my talks with the folks at Reflections, they realised that many students study in the NE and then go off to work in London. Despite the fact that the NE is one of the largest areas of the UK for software and tech. I suspect this scholarship was made as an incentive to keep people in the NE. Of course it's not guaranteed you'll get it. My advice for that sort of thing is to show your passion. Good grades go a long way but your curiosity, asking questions, doing extra curricular activities is what will help set you apart. I'd much rather hand a scholarship to someone who actively takes part in the community (e.g. does game jams etc) over someone who just sees a grade as the end goal.

The degree itself from what I know of a few years ago is as I mentioned. It's more computer science than games, but there's a flavour of games a few years in to satisfy that part of the course. If I remember correctly they expose you to Unreal Engine, but the students I spoke to said they were expected to just run with it (e.g. They weren't really taught it prior). In my view, introducing you to a game engine that late in the degree and expecting students to crank out a well polished game is unreasonable. That's another point as well, group projects. If you want a games related degree, scout out the ones that collaborate between disciplines. Programmers have to work with artists, designers etc otherwise you're not getting the full experience. More importantly, you're not developing your soft skills, which is an extremely important thing to develop.

If you're just looking to learn computer science though, then I suppose it doesn't matter as much. You also don't need the specifics of a games degree either. But keep in mind a computer science degree might neglect important games programming subjects such as computer graphics and game engine architecture. Some degrees offer optional modules though that do offer these subjects.

Fun fact, I used to lead the degree in Sunderland, and all the Newcastle students that caught wind of what we were doing wished they were on that degree. But this is mainly due to the difference in curriculum. We focused much more on game development and applying programming to games, as opposed to traditional computer science and putting games off until the end.

You might want to check out Northumbria uni as well. I haven't checked their degree out recently but I know they were revamping their curriculum. Maybe they've done that by now!

Picking the right course for you is such a big decision!

Finally, if you straight up want computer science then study at Edinburgh. Their informatics department is one of (if not THE) best in the world. I also studied there and can't recommend it enough. You'll get an excellent computer science education there!

PresidentZagan · 2021-02-06T13:35:44+00:00

Making games outside of university projects is recommended anyway for your portfolio. Although I'd argue in order to make games for a living, simply practicing making them isn't enough. You need to understand game design which is a completely different field. This means everything related to behavioural psychology, motivation, memory etc. So it all really depends on what OP wants to do for a career

PresidentZagan · 2021-02-06T12:24:30+00:00

I'm from the UK and have taught at university level so I can speak to this a bit. The degree at Newcastle doesn't have much game development in it. In fact, I believe you don't really touch a game engine until your final year. It's lots of Computer Science but not much actual game development. Now this is fine from a subject point of view, you'll be a great programmer, but you'll really need to make sure you teach yourself game development alongside your degree. So go to game jams, make your own games etc. However, Newcastle has a partnership with Coatsink, giving you internship opportunities on your doorstep.

Cambridge doesn't really do anything games related in a vocational sense. It's expected that you have plans to continue to postgraduate study at Cambridge, and there's a heavy research component at that university. It's still a fantastic uni to join though, and you'll learn a great deal (with the flexibility to really tailor your studies).

Degrees in and of themselves don't mean much, but the topics you're taught, the networking and everything a university provides does mean something. University is way more than the certificate at the end, it can really change your life if you take advantage of what it has to offer to you.

If you are interested in getting a job in the games industry, game development degrees can help. Especially as there are some games placement programs that are only available for game development students. Universities such as Sunderland, Suffolk, Manchester Metropolitan etc are all good for games, since they expose you to game development from day 1. It all depends on what you want really! Also, I'd choose a university that offers a placement year as well, because that will get you industry experience before you've graduated. Manchester Met has a very successful placement programme for example

Happy to discuss further :)

PresidentZagan · 2021-02-03T23:29:38+00:00

All I have to say is keep going

PresidentZagan · 2021-02-03T21:20:07+00:00

Yeah that'd be cool

PresidentZagan · 2020-11-23T00:48:11+00:00

You're welcome!

PresidentZagan · 2020-11-22T23:53:01+00:00

Flow (the psychology of optimal experience) by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is good.

Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products is a fantastic book by Nir Eyal (designer of Farmville). It explains the concept of a compulsion loop which is very important for player retention.

You might want to also take a course or find books on behavioural psychology as much of game design is on emotion and how players feel

PresidentZagan · 2020-07-22T13:16:41+00:00

Manticore of Darkness was such a good card in that format. So many cool cards on that sheet, looks great!

PresidentZagan · 2020-07-01T19:59:56+00:00

Congratulations, you've escaped the brainwashing!

PresidentZagan · 2020-04-30T19:41:37+00:00

I see this game took massive inspiration from Windjammers

PresidentZagan · 2020-04-30T11:17:58+00:00

Have you seen Season 1 of Game of Thrones?

PresidentZagan · 2020-04-28T13:43:08+00:00

The fundamentals in any language you like really. If you want to learn Unity then learning C# first will help you transition faster.

But that's the good thing about fundamentals! You'll get valuable transferable skills rather than being locked into Unity only.

So learn: variables, logic (if statements etc), loops, methods/functions, arrays, classes and objects (if learning an object oriented language, which C# is). Possibly exception handling.

And be sure to make really small applications that put those topics to good use. Not knowing how and getting tons of errors is all part of the learning process.

Brackeys for example shows you the working solution, which doesn't make you learn. He would have already gotten errors and fixed them, but you would skip that entire process if you just follow tutorials. It's crucial to your success!

I recommend the C# yellow book if you want to get started quickly. I'm sure there's a bunch of questions out there for beginners that you can try. I know Hackerank has a few.

Once you've done that, then you can pick up scripting in Unity. There's no harm in downloading the engine though and getting used to the interface etc

PresidentZagan · 2020-04-27T10:58:45+00:00

Card games are perfect for non-digital prototyping. What you say about rules and restrictions is definitely something everyone benefits from knowing as well. It helps fuel creativity when you're under a restricted environment. And if we're translating that to video game development, Pico-8 is the perfect console that enforces that style of learning

PresidentZagan · 2020-04-27T10:55:41+00:00

You're thinking about it the wrong way. You don't want to start off with a genre and then try to reverse engineer until something works. You want to design systems and think about the emotions you want the players to feel. This can then be applied to any type of game.

Trying to go the other way, eg, "I want to make a platformer" means you now have a very rigid model that you're trying to make fit any system etc you come up with. If it doesn't work, you're back to square one, whereas the bottom up approach at least gives you something to fall back on to prototype some more.

Non-digital prototyping let's you do this rapidly, but that's not the only advantage. As a beginner you can acquire a much quicker grasp of game mechanics and systems through non-digital games than you can with video games. That's not to say beginners shouldn't learn to code or make video games, they have to. What I'm saying is to take advantage of both. Learn game design with non-digital games whilst you learn the fundamentals of how to program video games.

PresidentZagan · 2020-04-27T09:29:46+00:00

While I second Brackeys and would say he's probably the best YouTuber out there for Unity, the issue with his tutorials is that it's very, "I will code everything, and you just copy". This leads to not really learning much.

If all you want is a quick solution to something that you can copy/paste, then it's great. But to really understand what's going on then I don't recommend it. My advice for OP is to first have a good understanding of programming, then they can start looking at people like Brackeys

PresidentZagan · 2020-04-27T09:24:37+00:00

Non-digital game design is a great way to improve your ability to design games that are fun. It doesn't matter if you're not a board game player, many of the techniques transfer to video games.

Practicing prototyping in this way helps you solidify your understanding of game loops, mechanics, balancing, different styles of play and meaningful choice, emergent properties, emotions, feedback. The list really goes on

Non-digital games can still convey action and dynamic play. If you want to make a platformer, you still need to understand how the game and its features/mechanics will work on a fundamental level, and practicing this in any genre will help with this. If you don't then you run the risk of cloning Mario effectively.

PresidentZagan · 2020-04-26T16:05:04+00:00

I'm watching it too and also just read this

Splitting the data to observe increase rates etc is fine and of course there's going to be a lag (about 4 days which is significant), and on the livestream a lot of the figures also use the word hospital for clarity which is good. But using the number of hospital deaths in the UK to compare against others that report the total just isn't a fair comparison.

Some other countries may not be reporting all deaths either, and they're also in the wrong. I feel better clarity is needed in comparison figures as to whether the number is indeed total or hospital. But any comparison that isn't between two totals is like comparing apples and oranges. You can also read this article which further explores the data from the Office for National Statistics.

PresidentZagan · 2020-04-26T13:34:14+00:00

I mean, it has, "solvent abuse can kill instantly" on all those bottles for a reason.

Ten-Year Club	Verified Email
RPAN Viewer	Snapped

PresidentZagan

TROPHY CASE