Inspired to do game design, need direction

I am not exactly sure how to phrase my question, but I will try the best I can.

I am ready to involve myself in game design, and hopefully through this experience, I will have a career in this field. I'm currently a CS major in school and will graduate in 2 years, and my programming experience is in C++ and Java. I am planning on taking the two day courses offered online, so that I get the basics of Unity, but after that I feel I might get stuck.

After the classes, what is the best way to take advantage of the skills learned? I want to be involved in the community and learn from all of you here. Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

-Spenser

 

Start at http://artofgamedesign.com/ and get Jesse Schell's amazing book on the subject.

 

Also, I've heard if you already know C++ it's very easy to move to unity scripting in C#. That's just what I've heard

 

Here's some tips:

* Read Jesse Schell's book, Art of Game Design
* Read A Theory of Fun (Raph Koster).
* Grok Flow and Simplicity. (see below)
* Read this thread and accept the 12 week challenge.

Flow is the state where we are so absorbed that nothing else exists. It is why we play games and there is a recipe for it:
1) Clear Tasks;
2) Immediate Feedback;
3) No Distractions; and
4) Just-Right Balance of Difficulty.

Simplicity is where you arrive if you master the elements of design. The CLIP recipe includes:
1) Core - Remove stuff until you have only the core
2) Limit Choices [~2-4] - avoid the Paradox of Choice (i.e. why Rift failed initially)
3) Intuitive interfaces (i.e. iOS)
4) Player's perspective - simple to the player, not the designer.

Good luck,
Gigi.

 

Thanks for all the tips folks. I will definitely look into those.

 

it is no more advanced than c++, i find c# clearer, but you're learning about games not programming really, it's not too unrealistic to think you'll be able to do everything in unity after not too much time, but then you are stuck trying to really design an original concept or game

i would not bother with education I'd have an idea try to make it and use the unity documentation and .net pearls website.... I have found you have to just open the editor, drop stuff in it, and start hammering away to learn, start by moving everything around, spawning stuff etc..



so yeah i am feeling fairly confident on my coding ability, but like many I keep coding very generalised frameworks because I am trying to find something original, you have to value that idea, eg Terraria was coded very fast by a small team and it was because really the designer, he knew exactly what the game was going to be

 

Don't try to be original. There is bugger all correlation between originality and how good something is. Just try to make something good, If you don't copy design solutions from elsewhere you'll end up making something with some degree of originality because your own ideas and solutions won't be the same as ones already out there.

It may not be a high degree of originality, but I personally don't see that as a problem as long as you haven't rote copied other things.

Also, if you try making a game you want to play that doesn't exist, or pick an under catered market niche and make a game for them, then you're more likely to get something original than if you decide to make another platformer/FPS/Minecraft clone, etc.