Hi Pierre!
I'll try to answer your questions, but I will base the answers on my experiences and how we work at Paradox
1. Generally speaking, there are programmers, designers, scripters, artists, audio, composers, QA, producers, Project Leads, and managers. Inside each profession, there are specializations and different roles. A programmer can be an Engine programmer, AI, graphics, and so on. There are 3D artists, GUI artists, 2D artists, animators, Technical Artists, Art Directors, Environment Artists, and many more. There are Level Designers, Content Designers, Designers and so on. QA can specialize in a variety of things, Localization QA or AI are only two examples. Then we have Junior, Associate, plain, Senior, and Lead, so you can be a Junior Designer, Associate Designer, Designer, Senior Designer, and Lead Designer.
1.2. This is very dependant on each profession, you most often do not need a degree as long as you can show that you have what it takes to do your job. I would recommend studying what you are interested in and maybe pursue a university degree if that is something you want to do. In Sweden, we have both universities and vocational colleges where you can study various kinds of computer games related programs and courses. You could take a look at different game studios' websites for more information on what people are looking for when they want to hire someone. Here's the one for Paradox: https://career.paradoxplaza.com/ - and if you click the spoiler you'll see what kind of responsibilities, requirements and other things that we are looking for in a Tools Programmer:
Personality wise, you need to "click" with the people you'll be working with and be able to work with others in teams. It's actually a hard question, as it can differ a lot between different teams, studios and so on.
2. Courses and programs considered helpful all depend on what you want to work with and what you are good at. Do you want to program, design, do QA, write, script, lead a team, lead a studio, work with graphics, GUI or audio or something else? What are your hobbies, interests, strengths, and weaknesses? If you are not sure, I would recommend a bit of this and that, and always some kind of leadership course/classes. You learn to lead yourself and others, which is always good. Pick a program, course or class on your future profession. I studied Computer Games Development - Design at a university, wanted to become a Narrative Writer, started out as a Content Designer and now am an Associate Producer in charge of localization and other things at PDS.
I would hesitate to say that "this course or this program"isn't helpful, it always depends on what you want to work with. There are a few courses I wish I had skipped, but at the same time, they may still be beneficial in an obscure way. Can't really help you with this one :/
I would say that you don't need a university degree as a programmer as long as you have the knowledge you need in order to do your job. Still, I had a lot of fun at the university I attended and got a lot of experience that I use both at work and at home that I wouldn't have had I not attended it. I wouldn't have gotten a job in the games industry if I hadn't gotten my degree either, so as I wrote earlier it depends on your interests, skills, and knowledge.
3. I am not sure, I think that in order to get an apprenticeship or internship at a games studio you might need to attend a university or vocational college. Also might depend on which country you live in.
4. Find out what you want to work with, what you think is fun, interesting and is/can be good at. Look at which games you prefer and your other hobbies as well. I imagine you like Paradox games as you are on our forum asking these questions So take a look at our career website and other studios' as well now and then to keep an eye on what kind of roles there are, even those you might not be as interested in (Graphics and Sound for example) just to get a better idea of what kind of personalities and people are interesting for us or for other studios. People usually assume that the best way is to start as QA, and we have a few people who started out as QA and then moved on to Animator, Content Designer, Designer, and Programmer to mention a few. That is a pretty hard path though, and I would recommend focussing on learning the skills needed for a certain profession first.
Build your own games, mod games, become a beta tester (and be good at it) and participate in game jams. Post your work where people can see you, engage with people online on forums like this. Show that you have the passion and skills needed for what you want to work with. Wiz, Doomdark, Trin Tragula, King and many others at PDS started as beta testers and/or modders and then got hired at PDS. My thesis was a game manuscript about a female assassin during the French Revolution, that + my degree + the game projects I had worked on during my time at the university (+my personality perhaps?) landed me a job at PDS.
I hope this will help
I'll try to answer your questions, but I will base the answers on my experiences and how we work at Paradox
1. Generally speaking, there are programmers, designers, scripters, artists, audio, composers, QA, producers, Project Leads, and managers. Inside each profession, there are specializations and different roles. A programmer can be an Engine programmer, AI, graphics, and so on. There are 3D artists, GUI artists, 2D artists, animators, Technical Artists, Art Directors, Environment Artists, and many more. There are Level Designers, Content Designers, Designers and so on. QA can specialize in a variety of things, Localization QA or AI are only two examples. Then we have Junior, Associate, plain, Senior, and Lead, so you can be a Junior Designer, Associate Designer, Designer, Senior Designer, and Lead Designer.
1.2. This is very dependant on each profession, you most often do not need a degree as long as you can show that you have what it takes to do your job. I would recommend studying what you are interested in and maybe pursue a university degree if that is something you want to do. In Sweden, we have both universities and vocational colleges where you can study various kinds of computer games related programs and courses. You could take a look at different game studios' websites for more information on what people are looking for when they want to hire someone. Here's the one for Paradox: https://career.paradoxplaza.com/ - and if you click the spoiler you'll see what kind of responsibilities, requirements and other things that we are looking for in a Tools Programmer:
Responsibilities
Requirements
Would be really sweet if you also had
- Design, implement and support user-friendly tools to be used by all disciplines in our game teams and engine team.
- Work together with users to improve their experiences with our tools and ensure their needs are met.
- Work closely with the Engine team to develop new features in the Clausewitz Engine as required to meet the needs of tools development.
- Identify workflow issues in our game teams and discover opportunities for improvement.
Requirements
- Strong programming skills in C/C++.
- Passion for developing user-friendly tools and applications.
- Good interpersonal skills for working closely with users to identify and prioritise their needs.
- Comfortable with English, both written and spoken.
Would be really sweet if you also had
- Professional experience working with C/C++.
- Experience with game development.
- Experience developing user interfaces.
- Experience with Python.
- Experience using source control systems, such as SVN and Git.
Personality wise, you need to "click" with the people you'll be working with and be able to work with others in teams. It's actually a hard question, as it can differ a lot between different teams, studios and so on.
2. Courses and programs considered helpful all depend on what you want to work with and what you are good at. Do you want to program, design, do QA, write, script, lead a team, lead a studio, work with graphics, GUI or audio or something else? What are your hobbies, interests, strengths, and weaknesses? If you are not sure, I would recommend a bit of this and that, and always some kind of leadership course/classes. You learn to lead yourself and others, which is always good. Pick a program, course or class on your future profession. I studied Computer Games Development - Design at a university, wanted to become a Narrative Writer, started out as a Content Designer and now am an Associate Producer in charge of localization and other things at PDS.
I would hesitate to say that "this course or this program"isn't helpful, it always depends on what you want to work with. There are a few courses I wish I had skipped, but at the same time, they may still be beneficial in an obscure way. Can't really help you with this one :/
I would say that you don't need a university degree as a programmer as long as you have the knowledge you need in order to do your job. Still, I had a lot of fun at the university I attended and got a lot of experience that I use both at work and at home that I wouldn't have had I not attended it. I wouldn't have gotten a job in the games industry if I hadn't gotten my degree either, so as I wrote earlier it depends on your interests, skills, and knowledge.
3. I am not sure, I think that in order to get an apprenticeship or internship at a games studio you might need to attend a university or vocational college. Also might depend on which country you live in.
4. Find out what you want to work with, what you think is fun, interesting and is/can be good at. Look at which games you prefer and your other hobbies as well. I imagine you like Paradox games as you are on our forum asking these questions
So take a look at our career website and other studios' as well now and then to keep an eye on what kind of roles there are, even those you might not be as interested in (Graphics and Sound for example) just to get a better idea of what kind of personalities and people are interesting for us or for other studios. People usually assume that the best way is to start as QA, and we have a few people who started out as QA and then moved on to Animator, Content Designer, Designer, and Programmer to mention a few. That is a pretty hard path though, and I would recommend focussing on learning the skills needed for a certain profession first.Build your own games, mod games, become a beta tester (and be good at it) and participate in game jams. Post your work where people can see you, engage with people online on forums like this. Show that you have the passion and skills needed for what you want to work with. Wiz, Doomdark, Trin Tragula, King and many others at PDS started as beta testers and/or modders and then got hired at PDS. My thesis was a game manuscript about a female assassin during the French Revolution, that + my degree + the game projects I had worked on during my time at the university (+my personality perhaps?
) landed me a job at PDS.I hope this will help
