• My College list [Game Design]
    54 replies, posted
[QUOTE=Khaotik16;24926230]Columbia College Chicago. Its one of the top rated art schools in the United States. I am currently going for Film. It is a fantastic school.[/QUOTE] Damnit there seems to be a decent amount of people in chicagoland. Should be a facepunch meetup. I had a few friends who went to Columbia.
digipen also if you cant manage to keep your high school grades up enough to get a decent gpa and sat score, you're not going to make it in game dev
I want to dual-major in Computer Science/Engineering and Game Programming, my list is: University of Advancing Technology (AZ) University of Texas at Austin (TX, durr) Poly-technical Institute of New York University (NY, also durr)
[quote]also if you cant manage to keep your high school grades up enough to get a decent gpa and sat score, you're not going to make it in game dev [/quote] Barely passed my GPAs in high school, my SAT is nothing to call home about. There are exceptions to that rule of thumb and my current job was not my only opportunity. I would suggest better advice would be: If you can't keep up a 'sprint' pace of work for long periods of time, if you don't enjoy making videogames enough to work on them 24/7, and if you haven't already toyed around with making games until just recently (last 2 years or after) you're probably not ready. If you make stuff in your spare time for games (levels, concepts, art, assets, etc.) even if they're not games, if you enjoy challenging work, and you don't mind working very long hours, you might be a good fit. In all other situations, ask for an internship or try to apply for contract work if you're really sure you'd like to get an idea of what it's like to work for a studio. Failing that, get seriously involved in modding teams. Find someone who needs your talents and get yourself on that team. Stick with them from as far back to their beginnings as possible; learning the process games go through to be made is important. [b]I consider myself a special case.[/b] I've been making stuff for games since I was 7 waaaay back to ZZT, into Descent, Doom, Duke3D, etc. I'm a hard worker; school wasn't challenging for me and I didn't do homework (despite acing tests) because I was often too wrapped up playing and making stuff for games.
[QUOTE=Firgof Umbra;24931777]Barely passed my GPAs in high school, my SAT is nothing to call home about. There are exceptions to that rule of thumb and my current job was not my only opportunity. I would suggest better advice would be: If you can't keep up a 'sprint' pace of work for long periods of time, if you don't enjoy making videogames enough to work on them 24/7, and if you haven't already toyed around with making games until just recently (last 2 years or after) you're probably not ready. If you make stuff in your spare time for games (levels, concepts, art, assets, etc.) even if they're not games, if you enjoy challenging work, and you don't mind working very long hours, you might be a good fit. In all other situations, ask for an internship or try to apply for contract work if you're really sure you'd like to get an idea of what it's like to work for a studio. Failing that, get seriously involved in modding teams. Find someone who needs your talents and get yourself on that team. Stick with them from as far back to their beginnings as possible; learning the process games go through to be made is important. [b]I consider myself a special case.[/b] I've been making stuff for games since I was 7 waaaay back to ZZT, into Descent, Doom, Duke3D, etc. I'm a hard worker; school wasn't challenging for me and I didn't do homework (despite acing tests) because I was often too wrapped up playing and making stuff for games.[/QUOTE] wait do you have a job in the industry or not?
I do. I work for Blind Mind Studios as the co-lead developer (and quality assurance director, and marketing director, and business relations, and many, many other hats). Granted, we're only two people (possibly three) at this time and we're still on our first game. Still, consumer response on our game has been very positive overall and it looks like we may make enough to actually found the studio (by which I mean launch another game) if our sales don't drop off rapidly in the near future. The Steam launch of Star Ruler should certainly help that along. If nothing else, I know my trade skills are marketable enough to land me contract work as I have successfully approached a studio already with my (now incredibly out-dated) portfolio. Having 'launched a game which sold in the top ten lists of 3 major digital distribution sites for four weeks in a row' in my portfolio certainly will help that even further along.
Any degree with the word game in it won't help you at all. You need a strong portfolio and skills in either math or art. Otherwise, find a new career path.
[QUOTE=Firgof Umbra;24932517]I do. I work for Blind Mind Studios as the co-lead developer (and quality assurance director, and marketing director, and business relations, and many, many other hats). Granted, we're only two people (possibly three) at this time and we're still on our first game. Still, consumer response on our game has been very positive overall and it looks like we may make enough to actually found the studio (by which I mean launch another game) if our sales don't drop off rapidly in the near future. The Steam launch of Star Ruler should certainly help that along. If nothing else, I know my trade skills are marketable enough to land me contract work as I have successfully approached a studio already with my (now incredibly out-dated) portfolio. Having 'launched a game which sold in the top ten lists of 3 major digital distribution sites for four weeks in a row' in my portfolio certainly will help that even further along.[/QUOTE] wow, congrats and good luck to you then. I know only a few people who got themselves in the industry, the rest of us moved on to other things or are unemployed :( You mind If I pm you if I can see your portfolio? I'll show you mine, though I don't do that sort of stuff anymore.
go to devry
I hear Art Institutes is not accredited with other schools, so if your looking to plan on going beyond bachelors you will need to retake all those credits over again.
[QUOTE=Nallin;24932999]I hear Art Institutes is not accredited with other schools, so if your looking to plan on going beyond bachelors you will need to retake all those credits over again.[/QUOTE] I'm pretty sure they are actually, there might be some that won't transfer, but I was able to transfer college credits easily to the Art Institute that I earned in school. But don't quote me on that cause I'm not 100% sure. And this is coming from someone who is enrolled in the Art Institute of Portland, just moved up here from Texas. But the AI has a pretty good course when it comes to Game Art & Design, but yes it is pretty competitive. But it's not so much the degree I want, it's more of the connections I'm looking for. And just walking around the school, there are a LOT of creative people. But shit do what you feel is right man, I took a tour of the AI here in Portland and fell in love with it. It really just depends what you're looking for. [QUOTE=Firgof Umbra;24925864]Your portfolio is what will take you places. Build your portfolio. Make it good. If the classes that are being offered there do not help you build your portfolio, they're not worth your time. If they don't prepare you for the break-neck pace of this line of work, then they'll fail you in whatever job you land. If I were to recommend a place to you, I'd recommend the Guildhall. It's expensive; you can't go to school and work at the same time due to how rigorous the courses are; it'll take you about a year before you come out of it. But that's optional; that's if you think you're not ready. If you think you're ready, don't waste your time getting 'educated'; sharpen your skills as much as you can as often as you can, go learn about stuff on your own time. Decide to do things like 'get familiar with UDK' and so forth, follow through, and get reasonable familiarity. Being able to pick up these things quickly in a workplace will seriously help you along and doing that now is good practice. (After all, it's likely you'll be working with an in-house engine; you can't count on everything being built in Unreal or Gamebryo :p) If you don't have a respectable portfolio, I wouldn't be interested in hiring you. Seriously: If you don't have job experience shipping a game, you're going to be hard pressed proving you were taught the skills you need. Get a portfolio, love it, add to it often and keep it up-to-date. Your portfolio is a reflection of how marketable your talents are and 'who you are' in the workplace. You'll be judged precisely on your provided work's merits before all else in all likelihood so it's critical that you demonstrate that you know what you're doing. A shining beacon on portfolios: Games. If you can make a short game, I want to play it. Period. A game by you will tell me more about what you know and what you're ready for than any static or pre-rendered piece of media you could give me. You won't always be able to submit this whenever you submit your portfolio, so also have it online, ready to download and install with minimal hassle whenever the opportunity arises.[/QUOTE] And this, completely. I honestly don't give a shit about what school I really go to, just as long as they teach me something new. But I've been creating a portfolio of art and concepts since my freshman year. It's not the degree that gets you the job, it's literally a piece of paper, instead it's the actual work you're capable of doing.
[QUOTE=Sporkfire;24926560]Damnit there seems to be a decent amount of people in chicagoland. Should be a facepunch meetup. I had a few friends who went to Columbia.[/QUOTE] There is a meeting coming up on October 9th I believe. Are you in Chicago?
[QUOTE=Khaotik16;24933409]There is a meeting coming up on October 9th I believe. Are you in Chicago?[/QUOTE] Yeah, not sure if I want to go to six flags though.
[QUOTE=plokoon9619;24921058]Best result would to be getting a Computer Graphics or Computer Science Degree......[/QUOTE] Computer graphics courses are shit, BFA all the way
don't be stupid and get a degree in game design. Unless you have someone who is inside.. yeah maybe depending on relationship. other than that, it's fucking pointless.
SMU Guildhall has a good game design program, though they can be hard to get in. (and it's expensive, though they give out a lot of scholarship money) One nice thing about them is that they are well known and work with local companies like iD You should have a reasonable portfolio to show off by the time you graduate. (All graduate's portfolios are viewable on the site) [URL]http://guildhall.smu.edu/[/URL] But like others have said, a degree is far less important than a portfolio. If you're talented enough to make a portfolio of quality work on your own, you can save yourself a lot of money.
DigiPen all the way. Let me just put it this way, a couple people I know wore their DigiPen shirts to PAX, and they were getting offers for internships. They hadn't even begun attending class yet. The BFA program alone [I]requires[/I] a 75% job placement within a year for it to stay running. And seeing as it's been running well over the years that DP has been in business, I'd say that finding a job shouldn't be too big of a problem. Valve even considers time at DigiPen as industry experience. It's that intense.
[QUOTE=Dlaor-guy;24922318]I don't get why people say that game design/programming/art degrees are bullshit. Here in Holland they have this Game Design and Development course... (...)[/QUOTE] I'm planning to go to that school. Luckely i live in Holland :D. Btw i have that game the blob i didn't know that they made another game. The blob was one of the only good 3rd party games for the wii. [editline]07:34AM[/editline] Get a degree in math and physics and go work for nvidea or make the new crytech engine. Math is very important. [editline]07:35AM[/editline] [b] go and work for hexxehh and learn from the master it saves you some cash ;) [/b]
[QUOTE=Iconic;24920821]I'm kind of only considering schools with track and field. Preferably d2+ [/QUOTE] Not a wise move. Don't restrict your college choices simply so you can play a certain sport.
The game design program I'm in gives us a BA in Information Technology with a specialization in game design. It's also very business oriented. Only catch is that it's in Canada, which likely isn't an option for you.
After reading this i lost my hope with taking a study in Game Design... Was planning to study Game Designing in Oslo NITH University. I do realize that when you are done studying with Game Designing you probably wont get a job that relates to games or such, but you probably have to start somewhere in the movie or some design business before you even could get a job as a game designer. But still i have my hopes on becoming a game designer and create some entertainment.
What's a good collage/uni if I want to get into 3D computer arts for video games? Is DigiPen something to look into or is that primarily programming?
My university Academy of Art in San Fransisco have a Game Design majo that's based on computer science or graphics and art or both depending on which road you take, pretty hard school though, huge dropout rate..
Savannah College of Art and Design, is a good college to look at, if not a bit pricey. The professors are either just coming from the field or still work in the field. The classes have you actually making games, and the college forces you to intern somewhere. Many SCAD graduates are hired just because the classes simulate career skills, so many graduates are more like professionals then graduate. Just build the fuck out of your portfolio, and mod the shit out of games.
It's about location. If you're in seattle area and you're determined enough; you can -easily- attain an internship with Microsoft if you've worked on a portfolio during your design years for example. Game design is very big here, they even offer classes all the way down to Junior year as a Highschooler. @kevlar- Digipen is only robots/art/computer science/game design. Senior year I believe local developers/corporations (Valve, Microsoft, Monolith, Nintendo, etc.) tour around to see your work and talk with you about future careers. They require I believe 23+ peices of "examples" of stuff you're learning to do or have done when applying. ^ Is probably the best place anyone would go to: exactly what Vman is saying. I lost my beefy mail book they sent me but I'm sure you could e-mail them to send you their introduction stuff. It has a lot of info on what they offer and such.
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