Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion go to college or no?

Computer programming, especially in game design & programming (nasty field btw; super long hours, significantly lower pay and poor job reliability) still looks heavily at what someone has done and can do. But if he can't make his own successful game or work as an intern to build credible, the degree may be the only way to get seen. But a career there is made more strongly by past successes.

There are also deeper skills and explorations one can do in school that you may not get to in a job where you are trapped in release cycles. Some of the specialty areas in game development need fairly advanced knowledge like AI, physics, graphics, and performance tuning.

There are some two year professional degrees in game development. If he is ahead in school, maybe he should plan a gap year to see what he can by himself before making a commitment.

p.s. I've never directly factored in a degree in hiring a business software developer.

p.p.s. Many game designers start out the field as testers and essentially work an apprenticeship until they move onto assistant producer or junior level designer or such.