I quit college to focus on a game developer career, but my parents said I have to continue college (2 years left to graduate), get a degree, and find a proper job. Should I obey them or follow my will?

In the end, you direct your life. I was in school for a year and half before I decided to drop out. I had known early on in high school that I was not destined for a 9-5 job working for something/someone I didn't care about. I know I needed to have a sense of purpose and direction in whatever it was that wanted to do. What ended up happening was that I made the jump and started working with some non-profits in college and realized that I thoroughly enjoyed it, was excited about working with this particular non-profit in their attempt to help the homeless, the sick, and dying by providing physical/mental/spiritual support. This actually became the driving factor behind my decision to stop going to school and pursue what I felt was my passion at the time. I ventured off with 2 other friends and we were a trio that became a team that led the things that we accomplished for the next 3 years. There was no forseen income. All 3 of us went in because we knew the cause made us come alive, there was a need for what we were doing, and we were young and had energy/balls to pursue it together. This was our cast at the time: 21 year old Ex-amish guy from Montana 20 year old me 27 year old guy from Pittsburg who had a writing degree For the next 3 years, we lived and breathed what we were doing. We were on the streets of San Jose, CA helping the homeless and the sick about every other day. We blogged about it, we made youtube videos about it, made facebook group about it. There was a lot of word of mouth about it, we ended up creating a world-wide following around it... It was somewhat of a phenomenon. We never asked for money, we just had paypal buttons sitting casually on our websites. We weren't swimming in money, but our bills were always paid for. Within a year, we had people flying out from different countries Singapore, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, a handful of states come to us to learn how we were doing what we were doing. We started leading a community of about 30-40 people locally to share our knowledge and teaching/equipping them to do what we were doing. People flew us out to different countries (Finland, UK, South Africa, Thailand) and different states (Colorado, Arkansas, Minnesota, North Carolina) and we spoke in front of crowds of 10-200. Our combined blogs regularly had 30,000 views per month, driven by our facebook pages and youtube channels. After all of that, our trio ended up splitting, we moved on, the ex-amish guy got married, started working. The synergy sort of dropped because of it. The remaining two of us started our own businesses. My [Asian] parents were vehemently against the idea at the time -- actually, they never really got to point where they fully supported it. They were always poking and prodding me to go back to school (at least get an associates degree!). I won't. Not anytime soon. There is a lot of wisdom in what shared, and though objectively, it really looks like what we accomplished was a 'successful' venture, but in hindsight, we were just a couple of passionate, well-intentioned young guys that did a couple things right. It certainly was NOT a well-run, oiled machine. We certainly did not plan for many of the events that happened, we did not have a game plan or strategy, nor did we have a product we were trying to sell. While wouldn't want to discourage you in your excitement (because I very much feel the frustration and tension you are in, I felt the exact same way before made the jump), I do want to give a dose of perspective from my story. I have no regrets. I learned so much about myself, about the world. It forced me to grow up in a lot of ways (I moved out of my parent's house immediately when I made this jump). Those 3 years will forever define my life. I am most definitely glad I didn't take the time to finish up the last 2 1/2 years in that school (I was majoring in Psychology). There was only a small window of opportunity to do what I did. You may only have a small window given the fact that you already have a team and a close friend that is on the same page. 2 years is a lot of time for things to change and develop... There are so many factors to consider, and I understand it's not an easy one.. so feel free to pick my brain! Best of luck moving forward. I hope your venture is successful, regardless of whether or not you go back to school or not.

I encourage you to pursue your passion, but I also encourage you to complete your degree.  Being able to multi-task is an essential skill for being successful in the game industry. When I was in college, I managed to do both.  I pursued my computer science degree while developing games in my "spare" time.  However, I did join a game company full-time before I completed my degree, but I did go back a few years later to complete my degree (which was mostly a matter of getting signatures from professors). Now, there are some who decided to drop out of college, start up a business, and did quite well for themselves -- Steve Jobs is a famous example of this.  However, he did tell a story of how, if he hadn't have taken a calligraphy class in college, the Macintosh wouldn't have been the first computer with beautiful typography. Also be advised that people like Steve Jobs are the exception rather than the rule.  It is very tough to become successful in the game business.  Most games published (80%) never break even. Are you an exception?  I can't help but notice that your grammar and punctuation are atrocious.  Having good communication skills is vital for being successful in this industry, and yours need work. Another thing to take into consideration that it is harder and harder to get hired into a prominent game studio or publisher without a degree.  I had enormous success in my first couple of decades in the industry, but now I find that the fact that I don't yet have a Masters Degree is holding me back from many opportunities. The decision is yours to make, but as a parent, I will point out one last consideration.  Did your parents pay for your first two years of college, or do you expect them to support you if you drop out to pursue your dream?  If so, then they are you investors, and as such, they do have some say in the matter.

I see... You should do a mental check of your time and see if you truly need 8+ hours a day to work on your game. If you only need 3 hr a day there's no reason to do both. Understandably you are excited with the project, your team, and I appreciate it'll be a great journey. However, realistically, what's your current status? Do you have a prototype already? Are you making money on this game? If the answer is no I would suggest stay in school and do this on the side as a serious side project. School is not something you can get back, but making a team to do a game you can do that any time. You won't appreciate the thing you learned in school until much further down the line when you'll wish you learned more things systematically. Team changes, goals drifts, and circumstances show you a new face before you know it. But knowledge persists and will serve you for life. You are at the prime time for growth and exploration, dumping them for a narrow focus developing a game is premature optimization. Can you generate money on your own? If you have no financial independence I'm afraid you'll have to listen to your parents at any rate. I'm currently in grad school, I was in a start up for 2 months and is now working on a game. They are both on the side and not the main focus but I found if you manage your time properly you can do both.

One of the most important characteristics that you need for success in life in general - and gaming in particular - is tenacity. The ability to stick with things when they get hard. The ability to push forward and persevere and get to the finish line.Making games is hard. Its not always fun. Some days I'd say it isn't even usually fun but thats just when I've had a really bad day. But it is hard. Everyone in the industry knows its hard. And so when we are hiring, we are looking for evidence that you can tackle projects and finish things. So take a second and catch your breath. Stay in school and stay focused but make games on the side and see if you are really good at it. Spend your weekends coding and make a game a month. Use that time to learn new skills. Use that time to ask people at school for help on the games you are making. You'll get stuck and there is nothing better than having a group of smart people around to talk to. Even better when you have access to professors who can help. And young art students with free time who might join you on your game making adventures.

It's good to finish what you started, however making games can be a "proper job". Consider finishing college, letting your ideas percolate, seeking a job in the industry to earn your chops (whether games or software in general) and building your first few games as side projects in your spare time. Of which, believe me, you'll realize you have plenty when you get busy with real life later and find it dwindling.You need to have food, shelter, and money for equipment. Your family and friends can't be expected to support you while you chase your dreams - it's not fair to them and disrespects the hard work they put in to earn their living - so you're going to need a paying job for that.Besides, there is so much to learn about making a game, or any piece of end-user software, that has to be earned through study and experience. A couple years of college or independent study is not enough to prepare you for real-life programming. If you want your game to be successful you'll need software engineering skills, regardless of what title you picture yourself having. Games are more performance and stability dependent than most other kinds of software. Make a game that runs like crap or crashes occasionally and nobody's going to play it, and they're not going to take you seriously when you put out the next game. You can do this without letting your dream die. Keep working on it. From personal experience, I've wanted to make games since I first got my hands on an Atari as a kid almost 30 years ago. I'm just now getting around to working on something that I think might go somewhere, and I've been programming professionally for almost 10 years. That still wasn't enough, and I am still learning new things that I'd have been unprepared to learn had I started earlier.All that said, don't let your parents pick your career for you. That's a mistake. Show that you can be an adult, get a good job and take care of yourself and if they're decent people they'll show you respect in return.

If you're good enough to drop out of college, stay so, make a stunning game, get good bucks, buy a large house with a supercar, make next game. Well that's what I did!