Career plan. I have had my sights set on Seattle for about six years now. I'm done with the long part of my plan (finishing college), and now I'm working on getting experience/ getting a foot in the door. I would like to move up there in the next year or two and try to get my foot into the gaming industry and networking with all the great and talented people at Valve, Bungie, and Arenanet. Five years from now I would like to be working full time at one of those companies, and contributing to the fantastic products they make. For now though I'm planning on utilizing this Pipeline to gain some much needed insight and experience in working on a game with an internet based group. I think there's a lot of talent here and I'm hoping I can learn a a lot from you guys.

Very simple.

Finish my ACTs and get them into the 30s. Also, complete my subject tests.

Next, see my colleges of choice. Pick one. Whatever happens, I will work hard to do things.

Third, keep level designing as a hobby. I don't want some soulless gaming company to suck out my talent for profit and waste my energy and time for nothing. That wasn't why I picked up level design. Instead, maybe work for coding purposes.

I'd really hope I could code VALVe or somebody some new SDK tools. It'd be neat and nifty... and efficient. Do it for everybody.

In 5 years time, I will be out of college. Higher education through a grad school program is something I am still thinking about, but I am not sure if I will go through with it.

I have made connections both at school and in my hometown who are interested in the game design field who I will hopefully start up some kind of indie studio with. If that does not work out, I will most likely be applying to companies who are in need of software developers and get more experience before applying to a game studio.

Working at Valve would be a dream come true, but first I just need to learn my way around the SDK. My only experience with game engines so far has been engines I have built from scratch and the Unity Engine.

In 5 years ill probably be cegep but I don't know what to choose there to go where I want to go(3D modeler, Programmer, game designer or IT specialist) so I should probably start looking for information about that. But yea, my career plan would be either being a 3D modeler, a programmer, a game designer or an IT specialist, I'd love to either work at valve, at Ubisoft or If I decide to become a progammer or an IT specialist, to work at SAP.

Man, I really fucked up in high school. Only got serious by the end of junior year. I did decent on the ACTs though, 24. I applied ED to RIT's game development program, hope I get in. If not, I'll be counting on SUNYs and other choices.

Anyway, the goal is just to get somewhere with a good computer science program. Preferably into RIT with a great game development program, but things don't always go your way. While in college, I'll be making games in my free time and testing their commercial value. I'll be going to PAX, GDC, entering IGF, everything possible to network and hopefully showcase a game I'm making. My goal is to be a successful indie, so I'll be trying my best to get a successful product out there to establish something of a fanbase and a brand. If not, I still have some great portfolio pieces for applying to for a position. Only way to lose is to slack in making games, which is why I'm starting now.

To any fellow HS students: NO FOR-PROFIT SCHOOLS (unless you have $$ for Digipen). It may be a good idea to major in the general study instead of the game specific one too, depending on the school. Ex. CS for programmer, BA for artists. Want to keep those job options open.

Carrer plan, huh? This might be interesting.

Ok, I'm just entered high school last year. Sadly, it had absolutely in terms of Game design/making whatever. Only basic C++ coding. The good thing is that now I know C++ to an intermediate level at least and am trying to learn SFML to make my first real game (because ice hockey with a broken CPU player isn't really a real game lol). I've also started learning to animate and am trying to build a 2D MMO (for now Base Attack, Walk, Block and Stand Animations are done).

That's enough about the past and the present. Now, to the future. I see myself finishing this game in about 3-4 years time. Later, I'll learn OpenGL for 3D rendering and MySQL to add proper leaderboards and other things to my games. Afterwards I see myself going abroad to a College specified in Game Making (I'm still not sure which College, but I have time to decide). There I'll learn special techiques in coding games, as well as other languages like Java, Objective-C, etc. And while I'm there I'll make 1 or 2 indie games in my spare time. After I'm done with college, I'll most likely go to work at a major game company (my dream was to work in Square Enix to make Kingdom Hearts 3, but it looks like that game doesn't suffer the same fate as Half-Life 3) and live happily ever after. The End.

I am just staring a 4 year batchelors in computer science, with the option to do an extra year to get a Masters. The Masters can be in different areas, but the one I'm looking at is game design related.
I'm doing comp sci rather than a game design course because It includes a good deal of the same material, yet if I can't get a job in game development, I can still go into other computing areas.
During the next five years I am going to build up a portfolio of games I have made, and try and secure some interships with gaming companies here in Ireland.
Hopefully I can work off that after I leave college, and secure a job.