A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of interviewing a guy who designs video games. How cool is that?!!
We ended up talking about how he got into game design and what advice he had for high school students as they were figuring out what they wanted to do in their life.
Simon went to an alternative high school, so he had many opportunities to explore his passions. And for some people, this might not work. Some people need more structure. In this less structured environment, Simon took a lot of different classes that interested him. Just because. He had (and still has) the mindset that you never know where something will lead you. I call that fearless.
Simon went off to college. He majored in Physics and Philosophy. Go figure! While in college, he went to a career fair. There he met a guy who designed games.He thought it was pretty cool and decided he wanted to design games! So off he went. And learned how to design games.
As a recruiter I do a lot of research on potential candidates. Researching Simon, I went to his blog and read about a game that he had recently discovered. He liked the aesthetics of the game. It's called Ponycorns . It only takes a few minutes to play and, though I don't play video games, I had a blast playing it!
So what sage advice does Simon give high school students? One word.WRITE. Write a lot!
Simon is now working on a new game. He's building a business around this game. Check out his blog and see how it's doing!
Oh, and if game design interests you, check out USC School of Cinematics Arts or University of California Santa Cruz . GamePro also did an article back in 2010 about the 8 highest ranked colleges for game design. I suggest you also read the comments because there's a lot of good info in there as well.
