Help with my future

I have just graduated high school and now reality is setting in. I would like to have a carrier in videogame design. I have taught myself enough programming in unreal engine that I could probably make a somewhat simple game by myself.
What I need help with is my next step. Do I continue to teach myself further, find a game design school, try to join an inde group and gain more experience, or find a different carrier?

I personally would not recommend you to go to a game dev school -> a good portfolio is the main thing that matters when you want to work in the design industry. Of course you will probably find some useful contacts in the industry when you study at a good game dev school, but that’s in my opinion the only advantage. + there are too many bad game dev schools

When you want to work as a programmer in the game dev industry -> go to university or school and study something with IT (e.g software development) + teach yourself how to do gameplay/graphics programming
-you have a degree
-you can work for many companies (everybody needs IT pros ^^)
-you can work in many different positions (support, network admin, software programmer,…)
-you have a backup :smiley:

Joining an indie group is always a good way to gain more experience + make some contacts + to fill your portfolio :slight_smile:

As the game dev industry is a pretty “unsecure” place of employment (not a long term employment) + as there are not so many in Europe (it’s not so easy as an European to work in the US :() I have planned to work as a game dev for some years (as long as I have/find a job as a game dev) and afterward switch to a position in the IT security sector (backup plan) :smiley:

It’s a master plan :stuck_out_tongue:
As far as I know there are no real professional game dev in Austria…only indie or publisher
In Germany you can mainly find mobile game and some very few ones like crytek, yaeger,… and epic games (unfortunately their studio in Berlin is just for publishing/community coordination, otherwise I would have already applied for a position :cool: …but currently they have no open positions there :frowning: )

@PoisonX To summarize the upper posts -> always have a backup plan, especially in the game dev industry! :wink: