Training in Games Development

When I went to university, there was no games development course--it was offered the year after I left. Yes, a degree of Games Development, they do exist but they wont nessisarily guarentee a job at Rockstar North.

What they do offer is a University Education, which for those that have one know that uni teaches you how to learn, not how to think. What you do with your degree is up to you. So if you already have a BSc or a BA in a field unrelated to games development then seeking a graduate course in games development will probably just be a waste of money. For those i suggest invest in a good book on object-orientated programming for games design. I wont even suggest one, you know where to find them.

for those without any tertiary education (IE: no college), then you have the advantage that many professional games developmers didnt have--the oppotunity to study games development at a tertiary level. Even if you dont live near a university offering such a course many schools offer courses online or via other corrospondance.

One might be tempted to now state "But I dont have the time to study games development for 4 years", well then you probably dont have the time then to make a game. games take years to make, if your expecting to have a complete projcet from ground up then expect its going to take a good portion of your free time.

Games Development courses are not the only way. The games industry employs a range of different people from coders to artists, to accountants to lawyers. so you dont need to have a BA in games development, a Bachelor of Comp Sci will do just fine.

What your saying is you need a college degree to work in the games industry?

Im not saying that. but having an education puts you ahead of other applicants that dont, and being an industry with high demand--there are going to be a lot of other applicants.

sure there are people in the games industry without a formal education, but there are people in every industry that only got there by luck and dont deserve to be there. Im not saying that everyone without qualifications does not deserve to work in the games industry, what Im saying is that the more effort your prepared to put into learning games development then the more deserving your will be to work within games development--and the HR at Rockstar North will recognise this.