When people ask me what I’m studying in college and I say computer science games, they do a double take because they do not expect to hear that at all, especially from a girl. I’m here to tell you that we exist!! More and more girls have started becoming interested in CSGames and there are a lot of us out here, contrary to what people may think.
When those same people ask me why I am studying video games in college, I tell them that it’s a growing industry, it’s what I will enjoy doing and learning about in the future, and it’s fun! For me, it was a pretty easy decision because I am into video games and loved my computer science classes that I took in high school.
While I’ll admit it is a lot of work to be a CSGames major because you have to take the coding classes as well as the design classes, it is well worth it to try it out if you decide it’s something of interest to you. I especially love my games classes because I have met so lot of genuine people who are so passionate about what they are doing. They love it just as much as I do, and being in such a positive environment makes classes that much more valuable. Many of the required classes and electives have a combination of Viterbi students with Cinema school students, and every person I’ve met has different strengths and skills. For example, when making games I sometimes end up doing the coding, another team member will do the art work, someone else will do the design, and the last will be the leader of the project. What’s cool to me is seeing seeing the final product coming from all of our combined talents because it shows the importance of each person and that this industry is as much about collaboration as it is about individual successes. It’s awesome to work in teams with people and learn from them as well as learn new things about yourself (I did not know I could draw more than stick figures at one point!)
So if you are choosing between the CS Majors and:
1) Love video games
2) Like working in team environments
3) Love video games!!
definitely take a class or two and see if it’s something you’d want to do as well!
