Game Design As A Career

[Michi]

I may consider Digipen, but for now I think I'll heed everyone's advice and stick to Electrical Engineering, and make some indie games on the side.

Probably a wise decision. I would suggest, however, if you're not already, to take a couple of general art or design classes. It's always good to start with the basics, and even though you probably won't have an excuse to work on anything game related, at least you'll have a nice artistic outlet.

[Ivo]

I think you are taking a good decision sticking to EE (as I said before, a long as you also like EE). The point is that sticking to EE does not force you to abandon your "dream" of doing game design at all, and given that in game design portfolio appears to be what really counts, even attending a place like Digipen is not necessarily improving the chances of making that "dream" come true that much.

On your free time you can read a lot about game design (it probably won't feel like work, so you can do it on your free time without messing up your grades too much).

I recommend you follow David Sirlin's blog. He discusses game design a lot, although lately he has been focused more on board / cardgames rather than videogames and he is generally interested in multiplayer design issues I think it is still a very worthwhile read. He has some very interesting posts e.g. on the placement of the secret coins on Donkey Kong Country 2.

Similarly you can read the Design and Development columns from WotC. There is a wealth of information there that you may be able to extrapolate toward videogame design - Mark Rosewater has been writing an article on the Design side basically every Monday for years (you will probably need to be a bit selective there as there is a huge archive of past articles, don't read them all obviously). The Friday articles on development also have some real good articles at times.

Gamasutra and arstechnica also often have articles that I think would be useful for you.

Finally, consider attending (I don't know if that is possible) a GDC sometime and talking to the industry veterans there as well.

Ivo.

[Erik_Twice]

Similarly you can read the Design and Development columns from WotC. There is a wealth of information there that you may be able to extrapolate toward videogame design - Mark Rosewater has been writing an article on the Design side basically every Monday for years (you will probably need to be a bit selective there as there is a huge archive of past articles, don't read them all obviously). The Friday articles on development also have some real good articles at times.

Holy crap, this. Magic: The Gathering is the best designed game of all time and they have been designing it for almost two decades now and Rosewater's column is very fun to read, even if you don't play it.

[MrPopo]

I used to read every article on the Magic website back when I was super into the game. Now I onliy play casually, but I still read MaRo's articles because they're extremely well written and very insightful.

[tintinmayo]

Prioritizing the engineering course is best, because once the zombie apocalypse happens the world's not gonna need any game designers but it's going to need a lot of scientists, engineers, teachers, and Daryl.

[driph]

Honestly, if there's any one avenue of game development where I'd recommend against getting a degree in, it's Game Design (okay, that and QA). As it was mentioned above, designers are like artists in that portfolio is everything.

I got my break in the industry as a designer by first working as a community manager; unless you've got a solid portfolio of work, no one is going to hire you directly from school as a game designer (well, you could probably get into a few social gaming shops, but I dont know how long that path will stay open).

If you want to become a game designer, make games. Learn a secondary dev skill, whether it's code, art, whatever, and join forces with another who's skilled in the areas you lack, and just make something. I'd recommend starting with tiny game jam style games, projects that you can bang out in a weekend or two. Get a handful of those under your belt, and go from there. Don't be too ambitious with your first games. Hell, clone asteroids.

Read design documents to get a feel for what's required in a larger scale title. Here's a good resource for that:
http://www.gamepitches.com/game-designs/

In the meantime, keep learning. Study design on the side, but don't be afraid to explore other avenues in your schooling. You'll be surprised at what will help you as a designer down the road.

[MrPopo]

As others have echoed, keeping your EE degree means you have a solid set of tangible skills that you can use in a variety of fields, so if you have trouble breaking in to the industry (or decide you don't care for it) you won't be up shit's creek.