Get your high school diploma. Since you're in the US, you can get accepted to a ton of colleges if you have your highschool diploma, whereas a GED isn't as preferable.
If you work for a couple years and build your credit, you can take out your own private loans and attend the most expensive college that will accept you. If you're lucky (as in your family is willing), your parents can just take out the Parent Plus Loan and you're set for college. If you're a highly motivated individual (if you aren't, get the fuck into being motivated right now (I can try to help via MSN getting you motivated)) you can become accepted to a top school like DigiPen, even despite a lack of motivation during highschool (there are ways to make up for poor grades your sophomore year of HS when applying to DP), where your future career is practically guaranteed upon graduation.
Basically, your future is vastly a response of what you do to make it so. So do it. You live in the god damn United States; you have more opportunity than pretty much everyone, USE IT.
I know I'm probably going to get kicked out of high school because I always end up with a lot of absences and lose credits. So i figured I should really consider dropping out as a reality and consider what I'm going to do if I do get kicked out.
Go to fucking class.
I need to get out of highschool but I can't wait another two years.
Quit being lazy and go to fucking class. Get as good of grades as you can.
COMON GUIS. HELP ME DECIDE MY FUTURE.
Go to fucking class, so you can go to the meaningful classes called college, so you can enjoy your life and have enough money to not worry about money.
I might switch the Design art and animation with programming as I remember that field is really unreliable and even if you go to gamasutra they don't ask for degrees. They ask for experience.
They really don't care where you had your degree from as an artist, because they can see exactly how good you are in a portfolio
1. This is true. If you're amazing at art, then does it matter how you got be amazing? Similarly, it truly doesn't matter as much as you might think about where you attend school for art. This is because with art in particular, you get out of whatever program you attend, whatever you put into it
2. Although, I highly recommend attending the best college you can to maximize your opportunity to get the jobs you want (DigiPen).
However, you know what type of people you are going to be competing with for a position in the gaming industry (or any art industry)? College graduates and professionals already in the industry. You think you can make it into the industry without a college education? That is a
very hard thing to do, that only highly motivated individuals can accomplish. Based on your current situation, you have no chance seeing as you currently (but I have faith that you'll change) don't have the minuscule motivation required to finish high school. I know I could make it, and have proven it with the art ability I've already gained through independent study
3, my only problem is that I just don't enjoy art as much as programming.
You think you can get into a programming position without a degree? Let me tell you, as a coder
4 and as someone planning to attend DigiPen for Computer Science, that isn't going to happen. Remember how I just said that it would be difficult to become a professional artist? Well, becoming a professional programmer is even more so difficult, especially especially in a high level position like a Game Programmer. You really need a computer science degree to get into any of the interesting programming positions
5, and you really should be studying programming like, every day if you're serious about it.
The same goes for level design, or any other highly desirable position. If you want it, you need to go college to have the most success. On top of that, you really need to go to a top college, preferably one with great contacts in the industry as well as a rigorous and challenging academic program.
*Cough* DigiPen *Cough*
Seems like a good plan.. ( Don't listen to the people who say you need your high school diploma.... all you "NEED" is high test scores on any test you take from now on.
Sorry, but you do need to stay in school in order to be accepted to certain colleges. There are workarounds to attending college, but only very talented and motivated individuals can make it that way -plus, it isn't the optimal path. Imagine if the people talented and motivated enough to make it without college, had the opportunity to attend college? They would be that much more catapulted into success, and college is a really freakin strong catapult.
Sources:
1 https://www.digipen.edu/news/issue-37-career-blast-programming-in-the-game-industry/2 http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=1023153 http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=1920744 http://cecilsunkure.blogspot.com/5 https://www.digipen.edu/news/issue-37-career-blast-programming-in-the-game-industry/Plenty more information about the game industry:
https://www.digipen.edu/index.php?id=2506&type=100
Post has been edited 11 time(s), last time on Oct 8 2010, 4:42 pm by CecilSunkure. Reason: I'm sorry I edited so much.
None.