February 8, 2021, 11:04 am
The debate over how much education is necessary for certain types of jobs has raged on for decades, especially as higher education has become expected while also sending young people into crushing debt. Starting salaries for jobs that require an undergraduate degree might barely pass the minimum wage threshold, leaving many graduates with more regret than anything else.
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Game designer Tony Carto had some strong feelings about exactly that, which he hopped on Twitter to share with any other aspiring designers.
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“Don’t spend money on a game design degree,” he advised. “Download Unreal, find a mentor, teach yourself, join a mod team, make something.”
According to Carto, the advice comes from a place of experience, and he added that “chucking 75 grand at school for a game design degree isn’t it.”
Dunno who needs to hear this but…
Don’t
Download Unreal, find a mentor, teach yourself, join a mod team, make something.
But chucking 75 grand at school for a game design degree isn’t it.
I have one, hindsight is 20/20
— Carto (@Game_Dev_Carto) February 2, 2021
A formal education isn’t technically a requirement for being a game designer, but people were quick to bring up the fact that we do live in a world where employers seem to arbitrarily require degrees AND prior experience as a means of gatekeeping entry-level jobs.
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In a series of screenshots compiled by @BRKeough, a Twitter user asked Carto how to handle a situation like that, to which he replied he had “never, in 10 years of doing this, heard anyone ask a designer for a bachelor’s degree.”
And that’s where things might have gotten a little embarrassing.
It wasn’t long before another Twitter user pulled up a job listing for a game designer at PlayStation — where Carto works — that specifically requires a bachelor’s degree in computer science.
That’s the thing about having a college degree — you have the privilege of not really noticing whether job listings require one or not.
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People pointed out a variety of issues with the original statement, many of which only serve to highlight the discrepancies in the “rules” surrounding employment for different groups of people.
A game design degree is NECESSARY if you:
Are a marginalised identity in games
Don’t have connections in the industry
Want to move countries
Want to learn effectively
Game design degrees are only going to become more vital as time goes on. https://t.co/KW0yiEcuCW
— Rosa Carbó-Mascarell
(@moreelen) February 4, 2021
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However, the sentiment underneath Carto’s tweet suggests that there are deeper conversations we need to be having about the cost of education vs the reward once you enter the workforce — something most Gen Xers and millennials are already keenly aware of.
And this tweet that dug a little deeper into the subject actually made a good point:
Yeah, I think this is a good way to reframe the original tweet.
It can be helpful for some to pursue industry via higher education, but not the only path.
Industry is a black box, but we can be the mentors we wish we had earlier in our careers!
— Chris Morris (@Azereki) February 4, 2021
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Now if only someone would make sure employers know that degrees aren’t always the only or best indicator of someone’s abilities, that would work wonders.
*First Published: February 8, 2021, 11:04 am
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