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Students at Cornwall campus, University of Exeter
University of Exeter
Exeter

I have completed the wrong degree, quit a PGCE and don't know what to do with myself.

Hi guys,

I'm 23 and I chose to do a Computer Science and Mathematics degree at Exeter University because I didn't know what I wanted to do in life. I played guitar, video games and really did enjoy learning Mathematics so I felt it was a compromise. I ended up (because of results) changing my course in second year to a Mathematics degree. I completed my course and got a first (so it was slightly justified) but I really want to be a game developer and feel like I've wasted my opportunity in life. I have also wasted my last year of tuition funding on a PGCE because I wanted to try something that was more rewarding.

I don't know whether there is even a slight chance for me to learn it by myself and actually make it in the industry but I don't know where to start. I wondered if anyone was in the same situation as me or could help me with some steps or advice to achieve my goal of becoming a game developer?

Everyday I wake up and think why am I trying to be a web developer? Why am I working as a Sales Assistant when I can program and make games.. I know I could easily just go into a Graduate job with my degree but I want to enjoy life and being an Actuary isn't what I have in mind.

Any help is appreciated.
(edited 6 years ago)
Hi guys,

I'm 23 and I chose to do a Computer Science and Mathematics degree at Exeter University because I didn't know what I wanted to do in life. I played guitar, video games and really did enjoy learning Mathematics so I felt it was a compromise. I ended up (because of results) changing my course in second year to a Mathematics degree. I completed my course and got a first (so it was slightly justified) but I really want to be a game developer and feel like I've wasted my opportunity in life. I have also wasted my last year of tuition funding on a PGCE because I wanted to try something that was more rewarding.

I don't know whether there is even a slight chance for me to learn it by myself and actually make it in the industry but I don't know where to start. I wondered if anyone was in the same situation as me or could help me with some steps or advice to achieve my goal of becoming a game developer?

Everyday I wake up and think why am I trying to be a web developer? Why am I working as a Sales Assistant when I can program and make games.. I know I could easily just go into a Graduate job with my degree but I want to enjoy life and being an Actuary isn't what I have in mind.

Any help is appreciated.
Students at Cornwall campus, University of Exeter
University of Exeter
Exeter
You don't need a degree in anything to move into the games industry, much less a degree specifically in CS...sure it may help for certain roles (like programming ones) but you have some programming experience anyway. Anyway if you have a 1st why not apply to the Digital Entertainment DTC at Bath...it's an EngD so half the time is actually spent doing your research in the sponsoring company, and they're likely to hire you out of the programme since they're basically funded your training for a job at their company. EA is one of the sponsoring companies as well :tongue:

Also, ah Exeter, destroyer of hopes and dreams...
(edited 6 years ago)
Original post by bowcox
Hi guys,

I'm 23 and I chose to do a Computer Science and Mathematics degree at Exeter University because I didn't know what I wanted to do in life. I played guitar, video games and really did enjoy learning Mathematics so I felt it was a compromise. I ended up (because of results) changing my course in second year to a Mathematics degree. I completed my course and got a first (so it was slightly justified) but I really want to be a game developer and feel like I've wasted my opportunity in life. I have also wasted my last year of tuition funding on a PGCE because I wanted to try something that was more rewarding.

I don't know whether there is even a slight chance for me to learn it by myself and actually make it in the industry but I don't know where to start. I wondered if anyone was in the same situation as me or could help me with some steps or advice to achieve my goal of becoming a game developer?

Everyday I wake up and think why am I trying to be a web developer? Why am I working as a Sales Assistant when I can program and make games.. I know I could easily just go into a Graduate job with my degree but I want to enjoy life and being an Actuary isn't what I have in mind.

Any help is appreciated.

A friend of mine is an amature indie dev and from talking to him I got to understand what is involved.
Getting into game dev is not an easy thing esp if you want to join a top dev team or developer. The other thing is , nor is it as romantic and great as people imagine.
It involves a lot of long hours, tough deadlines and generally very repetitive and involves a lot of complicated work.
The best advice I can give is to try places like artstation or polycount to see what they have in their career sections if they have junior roles or even apprenticeships.
The other thing you can do in the meantime is learn one of the engines either unity or unreal and create a portfolio.
Having multiple skills (eg environment art in addition to your coding) might be beneficial. Also check the twitter pages of UK based developers to see if they advertise roles.
Checkout QA testing roles to get your foot into the industry.
Lastly think about developing your own indie dev skills.
Good luck
Original post by artful_lounger
You don't need a degree in anything to move into the games industry, much less a degree specifically in CS...sure it may help for certain roles (like programming ones) but you have some programming experience anyway. Anyway if you have a 1st why not apply to the Digital Entertainment DTC at Bath...it's an EngD so half the time is actually spent doing your research in the sponsoring company, and they're likely to hire you out of the programme since they're basically funded your training for a job at their company. EA is one of the sponsoring companies as well :tongue:

Also, ah Exeter, destroyer of hopes and dreams...


Thanks for the reply. What exactly is an EngD? Like other degrees, does it have modules? Do you get paid at all during the programme so that you wouldn't have to worry about part-time work? I will e-mail them but I wondered if you knew anything more about the scheme - saves me time :P I'm just so curious because it's an option :biggrin: Also, I've only learnt the syntax of programming languages, not really created anything with them.. would that be a problem?

Haha, is there a bad history with Exeter university? XD
(edited 6 years ago)
Original post by bowcox
Thanks for the reply. What exactly is an EngD? Like other degrees, does it have modules? Do you get paid at all during the programme so that you wouldn't have to worry about part-time work? I will e-mail them but I wondered if you knew anything more about the scheme - saves me time :P I'm just so curious because it's an option :biggrin:

Haha, is their a bad history with Exeter university? XD


An EngD is a PhD, with some bells and whistles. Like a PhD, it is in essence a 9-5 (or more at times, perhaps) job for 3-4 years. It's a research degree, so there are no "modules" in the sense of exam based courses, unless it's one with an integrated MRes (which a lot of EngDs have, but I don't think this one does) - in which case any such modules are restricted to the first year of 4 (ish) and there are normally only a couple as the focus is on the research element. However you may well be asked or encouraged to attend some lecture series' from either other masters degree programmes or final year undergrad courses, and you'll undoubtedly have specific skills development courses/sessions which are likely to vary depending on the project.

That's more of less the "PhD" side of it - the EngD bit is that it's sponsored by a company in industry, who add an "enhancement" to the usual PhD stipend (which is from the EPSRC for most of the EngDs) to begin with, usually bumping you up to close to 24k a year (which is also all untaxed, so factoring that in is pretty generous). You end up splitting your time in the EngD, spending some working at the host university with an academic and some working at the company on specific projects related to the actual industry. Both aspects will form the basis for your doctoral thesis in the end. The actual way the time is divided up probably varies between projects - some might have you spend 6 months alternating between them, or have short periods at one with longer periods at the other then swapping, or some might have you spend a couple days a week in an office in the same city potentially. I can't say for certain.

Regarding Exeter, I don't know, I certainly had a somewhat negative experience there...which wasn't necessarily the fault of the uni, but I can't shake the association :tongue: outside of Physics, I consistently got the impression that CEMPS basically sucked as a "faculty" within the university...and Physics was probably the exception because they were basically completely devolved from CEMPS. But, I digress...
My sister & her bf both did a degree in Illustration and are now games developers, with the programming being self-taught.
Original post by Al-farhan
A friend of mine is an amature indie dev and from talking to him I got to understand what is involved.
Getting into game dev is not an easy thing esp if you want to join a top dev team or developer. The other thing is , nor is it as romantic and great as people imagine.
It involves a lot of long hours, tough deadlines and generally very repetitive and involves a lot of complicated work.
The best advice I can give is to try places like artstation or polycount to see what they have in their career sections if they have junior roles or even apprenticeships.
The other thing you can do in the meantime is learn one of the engines either unity or unreal and create a portfolio.
Having multiple skills (eg environment art in addition to your coding) might be beneficial. Also check the twitter pages of UK based developers to see if they advertise roles.
Checkout QA testing roles to get your foot into the industry.
Lastly think about developing your own indie dev skills.
Good luck



The thing is, I'm all for any work that needs to be done as long as the product is something I end up being proud of. Repetitiveness isn't an issue, Linear Algebra was an issue :biggrin:

I will definitely look into places for apprenticeships, I'm currently finishing a web development course and hoping to go into a business to get some experience in what they do so I have something to fall back on - giving me time to look around first too.

Does he recommend the Unity engine because I just downloaded the Unity engine this morning to have a look at it and have already found tutorials to start up.

Thanks for your help by the way.
Original post by artful_lounger
An EngD is a PhD, with some bells and whistles. Like a PhD, it is in essence a 9-5 (or more at times, perhaps) job for 3-4 years. It's a research degree, so there are no "modules" in the sense of exam based courses, unless it's one with an integrated MRes (which a lot of EngDs have, but I don't think this one does) - in which case any such modules are restricted to the first year of 4 (ish) and there are normally only a couple as the focus is on the research element. However you may well be asked or encouraged to attend some lecture series' from either other masters degree programmes or final year undergrad courses, and you'll undoubtedly have specific skills development courses/sessions which are likely to vary depending on the project.

That's more of less the "PhD" side of it - the EngD bit is that it's sponsored by a company in industry, who add an "enhancement" to the usual PhD stipend (which is from the EPSRC for most of the EngDs) to begin with, usually bumping you up to close to 24k a year (which is also all untaxed, so factoring that in is pretty generous). You end up splitting your time in the EngD, spending some working at the host university with an academic and some working at the company on specific projects related to the actual industry. Both aspects will form the basis for your doctoral thesis in the end. The actual way the time is divided up probably varies between projects - some might have you spend 6 months alternating between them, or have short periods at one with longer periods at the other then swapping, or some might have you spend a couple days a week in an office in the same city potentially. I can't say for certain.

Regarding Exeter, I don't know, I certainly had a somewhat negative experience there...which wasn't necessarily the fault of the uni, but I can't shake the association :tongue: outside of Physics, I consistently got the impression that CEMPS basically sucked as a "faculty" within the university...and Physics was probably the exception because they were basically completely devolved from CEMPS. But, I digress...


I will definitely look into the option and contact them for more specifics. I was just wondering whether you know of another way that doesn't involve the research but is more focused on the practical side. I obviously don't know whether this option is far more practical than the usual PhD so I will find that out.

If I could choose a different university course based more on games development rather than computer science (which much less narrow pathed), I would. Financially it's just not viable. I just wondered whether there is a decently priced (rather than £18000) 1-2 year course or something that I could do that would help me in achieving my goal. I thought this might be possible because computer science covers the project management side and as many languages as possible whereas I am clearly interested in games development which allows me to focus more solely on C# (or just a couple of languages for now). I'm happy to work as much as possible on the side for the next few years to become a game developer but obviously with other commitments and financial restrictions, it becomes harder over time and I feel I will never finish what I start because of that.

I have looked around and can only find those really unattractive Udemy courses (admittedly only £12) but from experience with web developing I don't think this is what I'm looking for... If you have any ideas, feel free to throw them at me.

Oh, you went to Exeter too? I see now :P After working in both the Computer Science and Mathematics departments - I fully agree. I don't think anyone I knew would argue either :^_^: .
Original post by bowcox
I will definitely look into the option and contact them for more specifics. I was just wondering whether you know of another way that doesn't involve the research but is more focused on the practical side. I obviously don't know whether this option is far more practical than the usual PhD so I will find that out.

If I could choose a different university course based more on games development rather than computer science (which much less narrow pathed), I would. Financially it's just not viable. I just wondered whether there is a decently priced (rather than £18000) 1-2 year course or something that I could do that would help me in achieving my goal. I thought this might be possible because computer science covers the project management side and as many languages as possible whereas I am clearly interested in games development which allows me to focus more solely on C# (or just a couple of languages for now). I'm happy to work as much as possible on the side for the next few years to become a game developer but obviously with other commitments and financial restrictions, it becomes harder over time and I feel I will never finish what I start because of that.

I have looked around and can only find those really unattractive Udemy courses (admittedly only £12) but from experience with web developing I don't think this is what I'm looking for... If you have any ideas, feel free to throw them at me.

Oh, you went to Exeter too? I see now :P After working in both the Computer Science and Mathematics departments - I fully agree. I don't think anyone I knew would argue either :^_^: .


Well an EngD is more "practical" in the sense that the research is industry focused rather than academically focused - the point is that you're solving problems in industry, not just purely abstract/academic issues (now of course there are many fairly industrially relevant PhD projects but the EngD is by design always industrially relevant).

On the topic of taught masters courses, Goldsmiths' has MAs in Independent Games and User Experience Design and Computer Games Art and Design - I have no idea how expensive or inexpensive these are, but they're one year courses and not business courses so I imagine not overly much. Additionally, they should be eligible for the graduate loan scheme - I was under the impression the PGCEs were not under this scheme so you may still be able to get funding. I believe they have part time versions as well.

As indicated before though you don't necessarily need a formal degree to certify you have a background in that area. You may want to begin developing a portfolio of self-generated projects that will allow you to explore these skills as well as the general area of games design as a whole. This will be useful even if you do later get (a) further degree(s) in the area.

Yes, Harrison is like a hellpit, which happens to have 10 billion stairs to add insult to injury...

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