VanRiku
That's a good start. Unfortunately only 13% of the industry is design based. You're MUCH more apt to get a job if you go programing. I've been at UAT now for... I dunno 2+ years. (We go all year round) and I've been in their Game Design program since day one.
I've lead two projects UAT:LA and the AR Project (really 6 individual projects) to completion states. I was the line producer/lead designer for the AR Project (augmented reality).
I'm the Lead Designer for the indy project named "Dreamwalker" (though not project lead), and art/design for "Better Dead Than Red" (there are only 2 of us on that one).
A lot of people CLAIM to be a designer but they shouldn't until they have shipped title. Personally I don't claim to be a designer, I'm a Game Design Student. I won't claim it until I'm hired as one. Maybe it's a professional pet peeve but it would be like a med-school student claiming to be a doctor or hearing someone else call themselves a doctor.
-Van
Well, I've designed games. So therefore I am a game designer. You don't have to be part of a big project or something that actually moves copies to be a game designer. Heck, you don't even have to be part of something that anyone else has even seen. Being able to call yourself a game designer is something that is earned simply by doing. If you do, then you are.
And I could care less about what percentage of the industry is design based. I set that as my goal and I'll be damned if I don't get there. Sure, I may have to hop around studios or be a code monkey for a while. But my plan is to have multiple skills under my belt so that I can sit down and say "This is how this should sound, that should look, this should feel, or this level should flow." And so that I can get my foot in the door.
And no, it's not the same as a med school student claiming to be a doctor, because a med school student claiming to be a doctor can get people killed. At the same time they can not actively practice as a doctor either. I am free to design and create at my own whim, whatever it is that I decide I want to design. Whether or not that reaches its true potential is up to me.
