🎮 Jake Willey  🎮

My two cents on the whole "Do you need a game design degree" thing that is going around: This industry has always been a portfolio driven industry when it comes to employment. Even as a junior or graduate, portfolios have and always will be the most important thing. (Continued)

My degree was important in that it gave me opportunities to work in a team, but almost all of my portfolio that got me my job was made up of work done outside of that degree. Stuff I taught myself how to do, learned from YouTube or Digital Tutors. (Continued)

Degrees play their role in testing your capability to learn, but on a day to day basis on the job you have to be able to learn things on the fly, or experiment, or trial and error. Design in particular is entirely subjective and fluid. You don't need a degree to understand that.

I personally don't believe you do need a degree to be a successful Game Designer. I think they are worth it if you struggle finding context to apply your learning to, but you should always focus on your portfolio pieces as an absolute priority.

Designers need to show their capabilities through actual projects. If those projects are finished games, then even better (note - a 15 minute game that is polished and features a full game loop is still a finished game. They don't need to be hours upon hours of gameplay).