Do You Need to Have a College Degree to Make Video Games?

What does a college degree really give you?

If you grew up in the 90s or early 2000’s then chances are you were taught the same lesson as most of your peers: you need to go to college if you want a good job. You were likely told that a college education would provide you with skills necessary to succeed in your career. But today, with access to the internet, it’s not unheard of to learn complicated sets of skills without any formalized training. Simply by watching tutorials, you can learn how to program or how to use a 3d modeling program. With access to this wealth of knowledge many people often wonder “do I need a degree if I want to join the game industry?”

In short, no. For most positions you don’t need a degree. I personally know programmers, artists, testers, and designers who earned their positions without attending college. But before you decide that college isn’t right for you there are some things you should consider.

A College Degree Helps Your Application… A Lot

When you read that a college degree helps your application you probably think that means that your degree adds one extra thing to your resume. You might view it as checking off one extra item on a checklist that recruiters are searching for. In reality, it’s much more than that.

It certainly checks off something that recruiters are searching for, and they usually like to see college graduates because it gives increased confidence in their skills. But what most people don’t consider is that college provides many intrinsic benefits to aspiring developers. For starters, it provides you with a network. Consider how many people you know in the game industry. If you’ve never had a job at a game company, chances are you have very few connections who could put in a good word for you. Chances are that even if you have a connection, they really don’t know what your work ethic or skillset is like, so their referral may be limited to simply saying you “seem like a nice person.”

Now consider how much bigger your network will be if you graduate from a class of 100 students; all of whom are applying to work at game studios. Not only will you know many more people in the industry who can provide a valuable letter of recommendation, but you’ll also have a good rapport with them. Chances are you worked with some of them on a group project. Other students have probably seen the quality of your work. This means that not only do you know more contacts in the industry, but you also have a chance to earn a reputation before you’ve even started your career.

Another benefit provided by going to college is that when you graduate you will have multiple samples of your work that you can show a prospective employer. If you’re an aspiring designer or artist, you can share a link to your portfolio. If you’re a software engineer, you can provide code samples from a repository. (Admittedly, I think this is less impactful for engineers as most recruiters rely more on programming tests in my experience.) Some people think that they’ll work on a portfolio in their free time without going to school, but without a regimen of hard deadlines many people who don’t attend a college will procrastinate and end up with a series of incomplete projects that don’t inspire confidence from a potential employer.

In short, if you attend college you won’t just have a diploma when you graduate. You’ll also have a larger network, and a portfolio of work that can convince a potential employer to take a chance on you. This combination can make a huge difference when trying to find your first job.

Some Positions “Require” a Degree

Having a degree is more important for certain roles. It can be difficult to convince a potential employer that you are a capable project manager when you have no project management experience and no formal training. I have certainly met some project managers and producers who managed to earn their role without a degree, but they all did it the hard way; working their way up through QA. As a rule of thumb if the position you’re interested in provides you a way to show off a portfolio (such as designers, artists, and programmers) you’ll have an easier time getting a role without a degree than roles that don’t have portfolios (such as producers, HR, or recruiters.) Of course, it’s always easier to get a role if you have a degree.

Most People Who Didn’t Go to College Start in QA

While it’s possible to work in the game industry without going to college, it’s worth mentioning that most people who get jobs as designers, artists, programmers, or producers without going to college don’t typically start in those roles. Usually they start in QA and work their way up to the position they’re interested in. This often takes years, and depending on the role and the company it may not even be possible.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with choosing QA as your career path, but most aspiring designers, producers, artists, and programmers would prefer to get to their desired role as quickly as possible. If your dream is to become a game designer and you’re not planning to go to college, you may want to ask yourself if you’d rather spend 4 years to earn a degree, or spend 6 years trying to work your way up from QA. At the same time, it’s important to remember that the 4 year degree will probably give you a better chance than the 6 years in QA.

Many Companies Are Less Likely to Assist with Immigration if you don’t have a Degree

Imagine you found the perfect job, and the hiring manager thinks you’re the best possible candidate. The role is in another country, and you’re excited about moving somewhere new. There’s only one problem: the company has a policy that they won’t help with immigration if you don’t have a college degree. Sadly, this is a common policy at some studios. If you don’t have a diploma it may mean you get denied a chance to move somewhere you’d love, or may cause you to get denied a role. As a producer, I’ve seen employees who are already hired at a company, and have years of documented high performance request an opportunity to move to a studio in a different country, only to be denied because of this technicality. Although I understand the intent of this policy I feel it can have unfortunate concequences that are out of the hands of a manager. If you think you may relocate to another country at any point then you may want to give additional consideration to earning a college degree, as that may be the dealbreaker for you.

College Degrees are Becoming more Common

A lot has changed over the years, making it harder and harder to earn that dream job without a diploma. In every field, it is becomming more and more common to require a college degree. The game industry is no exception. At the time of writing this, I believe it’s certainly possible to get a job in video games without a degree but it’s not a guarantee and the more time that passes, the harder it will be to get that role without an education. If your dream job is to be a designer, programmer, artist, or producer then consider that it will take years to have enough industry experience to be considered for a role, and it will be even more difficult as time passes. Don’t let this scare you from pursuing your dream job, but make sure you know what you’re signing yourself up for. There are many reasons that someone may decide to forgo a college education. Doing this doesn’t mean that you need to give up on the dream of working on video games. But it will undoubtably be harder to get that first job.

In Summary

Yes, you can get a job in the game industry without a degree, but it will likely take longer, you’ll probably need to spend time in QA, your network will be smaller, and chances are your portfolio will be incomplete. The market is becomming more competitive, so a degree is really worth pursuing if its within your means, but if you can’t attend for any reason then don’t let that stop you from pursuing your dream career.