Topic awaiting preservation: Game Dev Schools (Page 1 of 1)

Well, I'm in the Army and have about a year and a half left on my contract. It's about to be a crunch time to make life-altering decisions, and I have been looking into going to school for Game Dev. Two main schools that I have seen, and with a lot of mixed reviews, are DigiPen and Full Sail. DigiPen seems to be more in depth, but Full Sail is supposed to be more intense in preparing for job stress. Anyways, I'd appreciate if anyone with more info on these schools or first-hand experience could help me out, thanks.

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Quidquid Latine Dictum Sit, Altum Viditur ~
Whatever is said in Latin sounds profound

Well I can't speak first hand as I personally have never went to either. However, I do have 3 friends that went to Full Sail but for music recording. I didn't know they did Game Development now.

The experience that my friends had with full sail in the recording side was very possitive. It was impossible for them to hold down a job while going because it was so intense. They would have classes at like 11pm and shit. Crazy.

But, after they finished and they did very well in class, they both have very well paying jobs and love it.

One friend works for Disney and goes all over the place setting up sound systems for Disney. He has spent many many months over seas and lived in Japan for quite some time. Loved it all.

Another works (or worked) for ESPN. Did the sound system stuff for them when they would travel to different states to broadcast games. He loved it and has since moved to CA with someone else.

The last friend... well he was a looser from day one and not sure what he is doing. Probably still mooching off of daddy at age 40.

Check it out though.

Later,

C:\

What particular part of game development are you interested in? Design? Programming? Art?

My suggestion is to avoid schools which focus entirely on game development, and go somewhere where you can focus on a particular subject but end up with a more widely useful degree. Game development is hard to get into and you'll want something to fall back on. It's also good to have the opportunity to change your mind (without transferring schools). When I started college I was positive I wanted to do web design for a living; now I'm glad I went somewhere with other options (I recently graduated with a computer science and math degree).

Whatever school you go to, spend your time making games on your own (or with peers). You'll need the practical experience - pretty much every game programming job I've looked at "requires" 2 or 3 years of "industry experience." You'll need to be good, and you'll need to be able to prove that you're good. You can't start on this early enough.

As far as specific schools go, I can only tell you about RPI (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute) in Troy, NY, where I graduated. This is probably only relevant to you if you're going for design or programming. They have a game design minor, and I believe they plan to have a major available in the fall. They also have a lot of other technical majors which you could consider. Unfortunately, they're way expensive (over $30,000). Maybe worth a look, maybe not.

Good luck!


 

Thanks, any feedback helps. Right now I am focusing on game design, but also the programming side. I still have over a year and a half before I will be able to actually attend a school, so right now I am mostly brainstorming my method of operations. Once again, thanks

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Quidquid Latine Dictum Sit, Altum Viditur ~
Whatever is said in Latin sounds profound

oops double post

(Edited by Thumper on 08-08-2005 00:44)

I wanted to do game design for quite some time. It is a very competitive arena, so the big game developers go for the best of the best whenever possible. If you are very serious about your decision, you won't have any problem getting placement, as you will have worked your arse off to build a solid portfolio. The pay is great and I can't see boredom setting in anytime soon with this line of work.

Whether it is on the programming end or the visual design end, you'll want to be reverse engineering game engines like nowsville. You'll need a good sense of storytelling if you are thinking concept art. There are a lot of amazing artists out there, stiff competition.

There was a school in CA I was looking at for a bit. Costly, but they were very open to letting you do what you wanted from design to sound. I can't remember the name off hand, but they are fairly well known.

I have created countless custom maps from games like Doom3 and Tribes. Very fun and really easy once you master the mapping software. Doing some of these are a good start and should help pad your portfolio. If you are serious about the field, much of what you learn in school is merely extending what you know already. What I mean to say is that the good students are already half way there before schooling begins.

Good luck...

You might check out The Guildhall at SMU, they seem to have a more industry-oriented approach than a lot of places.

chris


KAIROSinteractive | tangent oriented

Well I know someone who went to school for 3d animation at full sail and never ended up with a job. Part of the problem that you will find with full sail is that it is a really full schedule. You will most likely not have time to work a job while you attend. They gear the classes so that you finish in a year. This means that you spend about 40 hours a week in class and all of the information is not covered very well. Full Sail also has all of the students on a really tight schedule to graduate. This means that you will have classes at all times of the day and night.

Another thing that I wasn't really impressed with full sail about was the cost of attending for a year and them not giving you a gaurantee of getting a job.

This year UCF is opening up a game design section to their digital media department. To get into the program you will have to attend UCF just like every other digital media student. Then I think after your second year (when all your basic classes are done with) they will let you apply to work in the game design section. The cool part about this is when you are accepted you will be working in a real office setting, off campus. As a matter of fact EA games (tiburon) is the one in charge of most of the classes. We all know gaining experience in these type of fields can be very difficult so here is the perfect opportunity.


p.s. just to make sure you might want to call and check with the ucf digital media department to make sure that this is true. Also, This new area is very hard to get into at the moment because it was just started last year and they only except a very limited amount of students.

From what they emails and my teachers are saying, it's not the very best students that they are looking for. It is the ones that almost have what it takes to be great but need the little extra help to get there.

Another good thing is that if you decide that you dont like UCF then Full Sail is right down the road=)

One particular problem does seem to be employment, but not just in that Full Sail does not guarantee it (although I don?t know of ANY school that can guarantee employment in a field that is so competitive.)

Part of the problem is that there appears to be some sort of stigma against Full Sail graduates. According to a friend who graduated at the school, he cannot secure employment because of the fact that he is a Full Sail graduate.

Apparently, a bunch of employers are skittish about Full Sail grads mainly due to their etiquette, or lack thereof. Employers seem to have found Full Sail graduates to be a bunch of overconfident, high-n-mighty people overall. In short, Full Sail grads are stereotyped to have attitudes that a lot of potential employers wish to do without, and understandably so, given the competition from other prospective employees and the overly risky nature (to the employers) of the work involved.

Now, this is definitely not indicative of all Full Sail graduates, but if the employers seem to think this way about Full Sail alumni to the point where they will hire someone else over a Full Sail grad, then this is a very serious problem for anyone who has attended, is currently attending, and is considering attendance to this school.

It is a real pity, too, considering the quality (not to mention expense) of their education. But, ultimately, what good is the education if the mere fact that you attended the school essentially bars you from employment or presents a disadvantage compared to someone who attended a traditional college mainly due to a stereotype? - Reinhart