UCSC to Offer Major in Computer Game Design

Parent Cafe
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<p><a href=“http://www.ucsc.edu/news_events/press_releases/text.asp?pid=900[/url]”>http://www.ucsc.edu/news_events/press_releases/text.asp?pid=900&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>I have a S entering Santa Cruz this fall so this caught my interest.</p>

<p>On one level, it all sounds fairly superficial but upon futher reflection, I can really see the merit to this.</p>

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<p>It’s not superficial, but it’s a bad idea.</p>

<p>I’m attending right now the National High School Game Academy, which puts me in direct contact with a bunch of people who’ve worked or are working in the games industry. One of the first things we were advised was to NOT major in anything games-specific. If you look at things like interviews with major producers or designers, they all say that it’s real-life experience with games that will land you a design job and nothing else. Almost nobody enters into the industry as a designer; there’s just really no entry-level jobs in that field. Start as a programmer, or producer, or artist, and work from there.</p>

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<p>From reading the release, it seems that the elements in such a major may have broader applications that gate development by itself would.</p>