Wait, wait, wait: There's an AGE CRITERIA for gaming-centric courses? As in, a maximum age? And an age range that's only about 5 years?
I'll be honest here: Were it me, I would have dumped the idea the INSTANT I heard that. Why? Because suddenly, I'd know it was a place where I'd be unlikely to learn anything of actual use. Which is usually the case, when the place is run by morons.
But there's another aspect here: Even if this does work out and you get the classes, or if you find another way in, you need to be aware of what you're ACTUALLY dealing with here in terms of a development job.
Your first option is to work for a developer that ends up with one of the big publishers. Expect this to basically be hell. Unreasonable hours (80-100 a week isnt uncommon) and expectations (many of which your entire team will LITERALLY be unable to fulfill, because you literally wont be given enough time. The corporate dolts in charge couldnt care less... they just want the money. (Ever wonder why so many games come out feeling unfinished and buggy as all hell? THAT is why). Your designs will also be corrupted by them (dont want to screw over your playerbase with microtransactions? Well, bloody tough. You'll do it anyway, because you dont get a choice). Of course... that's if you even get a chance to do any design. Expect a low-level job for quite awhile, with lots and lots of unpleasant grunt work. These are HUGE teams, also. There's ALOT to keep track of. If you like being overloaded mentally, this is your route to go.
If you choose to make games that are entirely your own (or perhaps create a group of people you know), you get the hilarious fun of trying to jump into the utter bloody mess that is the indie market. You'll spend an incredible amount of time making a game (and you wont get paid for that, not until the game sells), only to throw it out into an extremely oversaturated market where you'd have to get INCREDIBLY lucky to even get it noticed... no matter how good it is. Been there, done that. Believe me, it's not fun. Now, there is an advantage to this one: You make the game on YOUR time, not on some corporate group's schedule. And you make the game YOU want to make.... not something dictated by uncaring higher-ups. But the market has outright exploded, as more and more gamers get fed up with AAA games and the huge publishers. So many games now release DAILY that it's impossible to follow them. Most will reach only a niche community. Some wont reach any.
And then there's the work itself. Programming is what most people seem to associate with game design. And it's a hard task. If you dont already know anything about programming now, you might want to try to learn some on your own before committing both time AND money to any sort of college course. Because it'd suck to pay for that (or use up lots of time for the often bloody slow classes) only to find out that you hate doing it. Programming is *difficult*. The more advanced the game you're trying to make, the more ridiculous it's going to get. Even small, 2D indie games require an incredible amount of time and effort to make. Most full developers are going into this with at least a couple of years of programming experience. Expect there to be LOTS of math, LOTS of complex logic, and so on.
There are of course other jobs associated with making a game, such as art and music and whatever, but of course, you need to be very proficient in those to get anywhere.
And for someone with autism, you need to be aware that yes: You WILL be required to deal with people on a constant basis. And yes, this ABSOLUTELY still applies even if you're making one yourself. There is no avoiding this. The bigger the team you have though, the more communication you will need.
I'll put it this way. For the indie team I contracted to, there was originally about 12 people on the dev team for the game being worked on. Not a huge team. However, each day during the main development period, I would wake up to anywhere from 40-80 seperate (and often long) emails. This all just being communication about things needed to continue work, and make decisions. And I dont have a small role in the project, either. I was immediately put in a position of authority, with the ability to make decisions on stuff, and veto the decisions of others. The content that I personally created didnt need to be approved by anyone other than myself (I think the head developer only ONCE asked me to make a change on something). So my position was more isolated than usual (expect this to NOT be the case. The circumstances behind my contract were extremely unusual). Yet still, the need to interact with others was CONSTANT. If your role has more dependancy on others... and if it requires you to get approval for things, or be told what to do... the amount of interaction goes up further.
Fast forward about a year. A team consisting of me and just 5 others made an expansion for that same game (the core dev team effectively split, as they had a second project that needed working on). I still tended to wake up to 40 blasted emails every day.
AND. That's WITHOUT taking into account the community. There was also constant interaction with players & testers, which are often the same thing. They would submit bug reports (so many), suggestions, complain about stuff, ask a bazillion questions, and this just adds to the chaos. Now, if you're with a big developer, you are very unlikely to have to deal with this part.... because you'll already be dealing with the lunacy of a gigantic dev team. But if you go the indie route, this *will* be required of you. And believe me, it gets frustrating. No matter how much of an asshat someone is being to you, you either respond with pure kindness, politeness, and friendliness, or you can watch your playerbase go down the drain. I fortunately already knew and had mastered this aspect LONG before this project.
If you're wondering where all this comes from, it's because I've been involved in this crap for.... longer than I really want to think of. I wont go into the details... they are long. Very long. I have literally nothing but free time, all the time, and gaming and game design are my main special interests, so I've had ALOT of time to learn about and experience things related to this industry. Which escalated as I kept meeting more people involved in it, and helping with various aspects of design.
And again, I am not doing these things because I have to. There's no true pressure on me. I dont actually NEED a job, which is a very rare position to be in. On top of that, I got EXTREMELY lucky with the dev I contracted to in that it was someone who could understand my autistic difficulties. You know as well as I do that this is usually not the case. I was (and still am) able to make my own hours in the main project. Stuff gets done when I bloody well feel like doing it. This is usually the direct opposite of the case for most devs.
If you do this as a true job/career though, none of those things will be true. it's going to be hard, believe me. It's going to eat incredible amounts of time and produce lots of stress.
That all being said.... if you can really pull it off, in either route.... it can be so freaking satisfying. The first time I watched players, on stream, do battle with MY creations and content was just amazing. Could hardly believe it was really happening. And what's more, in the position I'm in, I could shape the game into the game *I* wanted it to be (indie route only, though, that one). I think these are the true reasons why alot of people try to jump into the lunacy of this industry. That second one is the tough one though. On a huge team you're unlikely to do that part.
But yeah, it's bloody harsh. You could go into it, spend LOTS of time and money, and come away with nothing. It happens, alot. Or go in and be worked to the bone by corporate overlords.... and thrown under the bus for any screwup, even if it's THEIR screwup. It happens, alot.
Sorry, this is very wordy, but again, I've had ALOT of time dealing with this crap by now. And I dont believe in sugarcoating things like this or withholding info. Either people will read the bloody thing or they wont... it's not my problem either way. I type stupidly fast, so even a long post like this doesnt take me long to write.
And keep in mind: I didnt even talk about the actual college experience here (yes, I went to college). That... that's a whole other beehive, really.
