Programming vs Art Production
Jeff Writes:
I hope you know someone in the Arts/Textures/Graphics department at EA that can answer a question for me. I currently attend Ohio State where I am studying Computer Science and Engineering. During the course of my major (which I begin in less than a month), I will have the opportunity to take a number of graphics courses, though all of these courses are centered in building graphics through the C language, at least from what I’ve been told. I have recently become aware of a smaller school in Ohio that offers a Game and Simulation Development degree that concentrates on the “arts/theatre/graphical elements” of game design. I want to work my way up the ladder and be a game designer in the future. Given EA’s way of creating a games graphics (whatever that way is), would a programming intensive background, or the above Game Development background serve me better?
My Reply:
Few game designers that I’ve met at EA have extensive CS training, but thats not necessarily a good thing–there are some definite advantages to designers who understand how to build what they are designing. Having a solid knowledge of C and C++ will open more doors at EA than would a knowledge of art production IMHO and the first thing you need to do at EA is get in any way you can–you can find your way to becoming a designer much more easily from the inside than the outside.
Updated on October 11th, 2013
Removed the link to Jeff’s email, I figure he doesn’t want to keep hearing from people through this page nor be exposed to more spam.