Factorio Forums

Hi! I'm obsessed with playing games, but I'll soon graduate from high school and will need to apply to college. I'm afraid that the workload there is too high and I won't have time to play games (inc. Factorio). So I started to think about studying Game Development. I would be thrilled to become a well-known developer. Still, I can't decide where to learn it: apply to college and get through all these tedious and awful admissions, including submitting a personal statement, recommendation letter, etc., or take an online course. Which option is better?

A famous game developer creates games most of his time besides playing them. I recommend also programming games besides studying howto program games.

You don't need to wait until you have studied game design until you can start making games.
You can start make games today.
You will need to have game-making as a hobby to actually become proficient at making games.
Programming is important. You can't just sell ideas without proving yourself first making your own games.
You don't need to formally study game design to become a game designer. You can study programming formally (and/or informally) if you prefer and read up on game design in your free time.
Just don't wait for your career to land in your lap. Famous game designers are rare and if you want to make games you might have to work under another designer or go indie to design your own. Going indie is risky but rewarding. Trying to lead another studio is a longer path but is less likely to critically fail, you might end up in a "lesser" position for a while and might not succeed becoming team lead but at least you can have an income while you improve your skills instead of going bankrupt. Indie game making can be done on a zero budget if you live cheaply, so you can have another unrelated job or even work on a games studio while filing away at your hobby project. It will require a lot of energy though...