Why you should learn to code

Hey there, Gamers and Game Makers!

In this week's blog I'm going to talk about why you should learn to code even if you don't plan on working as a programmer in the games industry.

So, let's say you want to be a game designer, level designer or quest designer in the industry. You might say "I don't need to learn to code. I won't need it" Now, you're not wrong. You have every chance of landing a position in a company based purely on your skills as a designer. However, there a very strong advantages to knowing how to code even on a basic level in a design role.

A lot of game dev roles, even design roles now prefer that the designer be able to at least be able to read and understand a code script in order to make small changes in order to test various aspects of the game. Why is this important?  Well, in a working environment it's not very practical to keep asking the programmers to make one small change every time you want to test a slight change in gameplay or something else. That requires far too much back and forth where more time could be saved if the designer understands what the code they are looking at does and how to make changes to that code in order to test elements of the game.

Learning to code also better develops problem solving skills as coding is nothing more than logical thinking and problem solving. The only trick is understanding the syntax of the language. Learning to code is a lot like learning a new language. Like any language, code is made up of rules that dictate how you use that coding language. Each coding language has it's own set of rules but you will find a lot of similarities between them. Coding requires you to break a problem up into multiple steps in order to solve it. This same approach can be applied to everyday situations which in turn make your everyday problem solving skills all that much better.

Even if you don't intend to work in the games industry, learning to code is an invaluable skill to have as programmers are always in high demand and even working in some IT jobs, if you can code, that will instantly give you an edge over those who don't. If you do plan on working in games as a programmer, then I suggest you start to look at C++. It's the most widely used language in the games industry, especially on the larger 3D titles. If you can master C++, you'll have no trouble getting your foot in the door.

So whether you want to be a programmer on the next big game or a designer, learn to code. Even if it's just at a basic level, it will make a world of a difference to how you approach everyday problems.

​Until next time!