Deciding on a college for Game Development. What is your opinion on Full Sail?
95 replies, posted
Just get a degree in computer science at a well established university. Think of what your degree will look like from your employers perspective. They may not take a game design degree serious. Furthermore, if you can't land a job in game design, a computer science degree will help you get hired anywhere else programmers are need.
A friend of mine in Sweden is also doing Game Dev for 4 years.
He learns everything related te game making like making levels, scripting events in Unity, making music and texturing/animating/modeling.
Not sure how other game dev educations are but i heard some are just limiting themself scripting only. Here in holland we got a game dev school only teaching UE 2.5 and Flash :v:
[QUOTE=KillerJaguar;38901645]And another general rule of thumb with universities: if a school has to advertise themselves, they're generally bad schools.[/QUOTE]
[video=youtube;hbsdlSpA2GU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbsdlSpA2GU[/video]
[QUOTE=Dakattack;38902749]Explain that first part.
And I would do that, but going to a school for 4 years to learn something that isn't driven towards game development just isn't appealing to me. I'm not sure I'll be able to take having game development only be a hobby for the next 4 years. I'm willing to risk going to a more Game oriented school if it means doing something I love.[/QUOTE]
As Fish_poke said, they basically accept everyone, and the tuition rates are ridiculously high for a subpar education.
The thing is, programming is fairly universal, after all Gabe Newell was a programmer for Microsoft before quitting and establishing Valve. Programming for a game isn't much more different than programming an application; you'll spend your entire time writing code, that's all. With a normal programming degree you have options, unlike specialized ~Vidgee Gayme Colleges~
You don't want to finish school only to find that no one will higher you. Having the universal skills to get a job programming anywhere is better than only being limited to one niche.
[QUOTE=Dakattack;38902517]I am visiting Full Sail in January.
About your school, what is the game development course like? If you happen to know. (different from design)
[/QUOTE]
Sadly don't know, I'm a freshman. I took the required foundations classes last quarter and this quarter, then I move to the intro classes the last quarter of this year. Sophmore year I start getting into the heavier stuff. Guy I'm friends with in Junior year is taking coding classes this next quarter (2nd quarter, we're on break right now). He and a lot of the other kids in game design have already done a lot of stuff in zbrush and maya though.
My own experience has just been making stuff in Unity, I'm teaching myself C# and Blender in hopes of having a small leg up once I start taking dev/design classes :v: It wasn't until the end of this first quarter that I transferred out of Sequential Art (comics) into Game Design (we're one of the only Sequential Arts colleges in the US, and a pretty fucking great one at that).
And if you're focused on the coding side, then by all means take these guys' advice and get a degree in computational science or programming or whatnot. My brother has been going to FSU for 4 years, he's in their graduate program now and he can code C++ in his sleep. Don't go to an expensive private/art school for code.
Once I get my shit together (i.e. work ethic), I'd really like to get into game development and design. I can program well, but I suck at art, though I am trying to learn. Would going for game development help give me introductory classes in art and such so I can try and find if that's something I want to get into? Like 3d modelling, texturing, and digital painting.
[QUOTE=Agent766;38903533]Once I get my shit together (i.e. work ethic), I'd really like to get into game development and design. I can program well, but I suck at art, though I am trying to learn. Would going for game development help give me introductory classes in art and such so I can try and find if that's something I want to get into? Like 3d modelling, texturing, and digital painting.[/QUOTE]
Depends on where you go, honestly. Where I'm at, yeah, you learn the whole 9 yards. But you can learn a lot of this stuff from the internet as well. Also depends if you want to do art or not.
I'm not sure if I want to get into the art side of it. I've just always had better luck at learning art from a class.
In my opinion you are far better off in getting a degree in Computer Science or some sort of tech-oriented field. 'Game development' degrees look like they are far too narrow and they don't seem to flex around as much in the civilian market. Employers would also have a difficult time understanding as to what 'game developing' really is since it technically is a fledgling degree that surfaced just so many years ago.
If you look at the careers of some of these game makers some of them have varied degrees and not many with a specific 'game development' degree.
[QUOTE=KillerJaguar;38902978]If you're really passionate about making games, you can do it on your own. There's already plenty of tools to get your foot into it. I started with just playing around RPG Maker (though I never made anything of it, it was still some good experimenting with game [i]design[/i].) In high school, I took a programming elective, which taught by making simple games like Pong. And during that time, I spent a lot of time at home just teaching myself new programming methods to [i]develop[/i] games. By the end of class, I was amongst the best programmer in the class.
Come first semester of college, I decide to try to make a full game using the design and development I learned mostly on my own. Now it's arguable about how close I've stayed to my original goal, but I've already learned a fair bit about game design and development exclusively through self-experience.
Moral of the story, you don't need a school to really teach you game design and development. Schools will more likely give you a taste of what it's like to work for a company instead. Companies are looking more for people who took their own initiative to learn design and development on their own time instead of just using things learned in a class.
(Note: I say design [i]and[/i] development because one lesson I've learned is that those two are drastically different from each other.)[/QUOTE]
I have thought about not going to school, because up to this point I have taught myself C++, basic OpenGL, and basic networking. As well as a couple other languages. So I am perfectly capable of teaching myself what I will be taught in college. I guess my main focus is to go somewhere where I can find people that are interested in game development as much as I am, and collaborate with them.
It's also nice to have a professor to go to when I'm stuck with my code; a professor at Full Sail will be able to find the bugs in my OpenGL code, while my professor in (insert CS major course here) may not.
Programming is vastly different when you are using it for games. C++ and C++ with OpenGL are not the same thing.
Just do CS and use your knowledge from there to make games. A degree in CS >>>>>>>>>>>> gamedev.
you guys do dissertations? (in america?) perhaps its a final year project
Just do a regular computer science degree and base you final big piece of work on the computer game industry that way you can have a wide opened ended degree which will not limit your choice of job after and you also have a piece of worked aimed at a specific industry i.e. gaming.
The reading you will have to do, to complete the work to a high standard will teach you all about the shit you will learn on the game development course.
I could be talking shit but its what Im allowed to do for my course at the moment although its got nothing to do with computer science.
[QUOTE=Dakattack;38905026]I have thought about not going to school, because up to this point I have taught myself C++, basic OpenGL, and basic networking. As well as a couple other languages. So I am perfectly capable of teaching myself what I will be taught in college. I guess my main focus is to go somewhere where I can find people that are interested in game development as much as I am, and collaborate with them.
It's also nice to have a professor to go to when I'm stuck with my code; a professor at Full Sail will be able to find the bugs in my OpenGL code, while my professor in (insert CS major course here) may not.
Programming is vastly different when you are using it for games. C++ and C++ with OpenGL are not the same thing.[/QUOTE]
To be quite honest, companies aren't always looking for programmers who learned by themselves, because everyone in a company works by strict standards and rules for program formatting and what to do/what not to do. I'm not saying it's "bad" to learn by yourself, but as an example, when Valve wanted to hire Notch, they gave him a programming test and after reviewing his result, they told him he had a lot of learning to do if he's supposed to work in a team.
If you want to learn by yourself, by all means, go ahead. But even a friend of mine who practically knows java in-and-out have learned more than a few things in my uni's java lectures (we take a course that's similar to CS but altered a bit towards game programming).
tl;dr: Learn by yourself if you think you can make the next Minecraft, otherwise, if you really want to be in a company, get an education. So basically yeah it's good that you want to find a good school.
Best of luck.
I don't know if someones already posted but, George Mason has a really good game design program
I just finished my first semester at Champlain College in Vermont.
My major is game design with a minor in game programming, and they also offer game art, game programming, and game production (which is the business/leadership/management side of game development)
I'm a student in Game Design & Development at Rochester Institute of Technology. My program is essentially computer science, but with fewer advanced-level programming classes and more art and design-oriented classes, and all of the classes are geared towards game development. It's very different from CS in that respect, because each assignment is specifically geared towards something having to do with game design. Many classes involve making a game of some sort as a final project. It's a four-year program, and includes three co-ops as part of the degree, which means that we all graduate with at least a year of actual industry experience.
RIT alumni work at pretty much every major game studio you could list. Definitely consider it.
I considered going to RIT, I visited and it seems like a really good program. I picked Champlain though, because I liked the look of their program more and the area itself.
[B]I've researched this so i have some insight.[/B]
Before choosing my uni degree i emailed people like valve and other game dev companies to see what they are looking for in a graduate. There was the obvious "works hard", "team player", etc. But not one of them said a degree in game design. They advised i take computer science, and chose a specialty that would help (AI in my case).
I think this is because from a purely game design course you learn one way of dealing with a problem, and you stick to it, not necessarily learning the underlying issues. Doing a comp sci degree, you learn the underlying issues, giving you a better understand of any problems you may face.
I would enjoy going into game design as a career, but I am doing a CS major and digital design minor, which both offer a much wider scope of careers than a game design degree.
Also, what people are saying about game design being an overspecialized degree compared to CS is somewhat valid, but not absolute. I know a lot of people in my major who just want to make games and have no plans for if that doesn't pan out, and haven't prepared themselves for anything but game design.
To be honest, the gaming industry is pretty shitty. Long hours, low pay, no job security whatsoever, and no clout with your employer. There are the firms like Valve, but they have, what, a hundred programmers at most? Most of the industry is small indie companies and soulless corporations like EA.
I have no interest in working in the games industry- been there, done that. I would only recommend it to someone who really, really passionately wants to make games.
I'm studying game design because it's the closest thing to what I actually want to pursue as a career, and I've gotten employed in positions far outside gaming by marketing the skills I learned through my program rather than the program itself. Most employers don't care about where you graduated or what grades you got, they care about what skills you bring to the table.
[QUOTE=Dakattack;38905026]
It's also nice to have a professor to go to when I'm stuck with my code; a professor at Full Sail will be able to find the bugs in my OpenGL code, while my professor in (insert CS major course here) may not.
Programming is vastly different when you are using it for games. C++ and C++ with OpenGL are not the same thing.[/QUOTE]
I wouldn't agree with you on that. I'm currently getting a B.S at Umass Amherst; there are professors here with very specific focuses. For instance, I've heard one of them (whom I hope to meet soon) has a specialty in shader programming.
Second thing to consider is that a lot of the people I've talked to here had the same idea in mind as you. They wanted to go into the industry but then realized after doing some straight comp sci that they actually enjoyed 'normal' programming much more. I suppose they also enjoyed getting swamped in job offers. One friend of my sister got an offer from Google.
Come to Arizona, we have the best schools.
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pb0V49WhGik[/media]
I have a bsc in game dev, and currently am working on a MSc in advanced comp sci. we will see if having both helps ;)
I currently attend Full Sail.
I was in the game development course for about 6 months before I dropped out. I couldn't code to save my life. I'm doing Creative Writing currently.
Know this: The game development here is brutal. And I'm not exaggerating. It is INCREDIBLY brutal. Because of the way Full Sail is constructed, you get 2 classes per month, which is about 4 hours of lecture and 4 hours of lab. You complete those classes during that month, then get another 2 classes the next month and so forth for the next 2 and a half years. And, as you would probably guess, it's incredibly accelerated. The first 3 months aren't that bad but once you start moving into the extensive stuff you pretty much have tons of work and tons of coding to do. One of the early classes has you utilize stuff from the previous class on top of learning brand new stuff that you have to utilize into a final project on the same day to create a fully working text-based game for the final class project.
One time my schedule there was classes from Monday through Friday. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I had Programming I from 5 in the afternoon to 1 in the morning. Tuesday and Thursday I had Calculus from 9 in the morning to 5 in the afternoon. Yes, I had extensive shit to do for 8 hours, slept about 6-7 because that's how much time I had once I got home, went to class for another 8 hours to do Calculus. It. Sucked.
If you're not ready to handle the workload (and trust me, you'll have NO SOCIAL LIFE) or don't have any bit of coding history as a background, you're going to be overworked, stressed, and you'll flunk. Full Sail's game development program only has a 33% graduation rate.
Luckily for me, I am going to UTD in Dallas. Alot of studios in the area recruit from there, and I can still major into something more useful.
But from what I have seen, most people who are in the industry don't exactly have a game design degree....
[QUOTE=Tudd;38914593]Luckily for me, I am going to UTD in Dallas. Alot of studios in the area recruit from there, and I can still major into something more useful.
But from what I have seen, most people who are in the industry don't exactly have a game design degree....[/QUOTE]
Well most of the people that are already in the industry graduated when game dev degrees weren't around/popular.
So how does everyone feel about getting a degree in Game Art Design? It seems like most of the discussion is about programming, but what about creating the art for games?
[QUOTE=Swebonny;38905324]Just do CS and use your knowledge from there to make games. A degree in CS >>>>>>>>>>>> gamedev.[/QUOTE]
I'm taking a CS degree right now at one of the better universities in Canada. It's the way to go in my opinion. With many "arts" Game programming degrees you are often put on the easier path, not learning as much of the optimization, low level coding, and maths that go into making a fantastic game. I like my path because it's going to allow me to really get my hands dirty, and allow me to still have many doors open if I find game design is not for me.
There is a great fantastic video on picking a game design school here. It tells you about red flags and things to watch out for.
[URL="http://www.penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/so-you-want-to-be-a-game-designer"]http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/on-game-schools[/URL]
[QUOTE=slayer20;38917256]So how does everyone feel about getting a degree in Game Art Design? It seems like most of the discussion is about programming, but what about creating the art for games?[/QUOTE]
Why get a degree in game art, when you could get a more general degree in art and likely be just as qualified?
[QUOTE=Dakattack;38916843]Well most of the people that are already in the industry graduated when game dev degrees weren't around/popular.[/QUOTE]
Basically my point. You don't need one.
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.