Where to study?

[xtingu1sh]

Hi everyone, nice little community :)

I'm still in high school at the moment and I'm looking at options at where to study after I leave school in 2 years

I see the UCT offer game design now and i'm wondering if that would be my best bet?

also i was wondering if there are any colleges or places that offer full courses in game design or something VERY SIMILAR?

i stay in Cape Town btw

thanx,
Adrian

[Crowley9]

Hi Adrian,

Do you mean the Computer Science Game Development/Design course? If so, I think these are great courses (the convernor is top notch - I know him personally). These are computer science oriented (programming, algorithms, etc.) - is that what you had in mind? Or are you thinking of the interactive media courses at UCT (at the Centre from film and media studies), which has much more of an art/humanities spin on it?

[xyber]

If you want to go into the design side of gamedev I suppose you need to look at a course aimed at design, but for art and code you don't have to look at something that focus on gamedev though.

If you want to be a coder just get into a good programming course that teaches some good theory and importantly C++ and C#, they also need maths in the course if you can get that. I know that most general IT courses don't have math, hopefully a gamedev focused coding courses will have this. What Crowley9 mentioned sounds good for coding, go for a computer sciences course, its the IT designated ones that are a bit lame as they just want to teach you how to write some SQL and who knows what coding language these days and be done with you.

For the artist side I guess any good art course that teaches the major tools like photoshop and maya/max/etc will be good enough. For art the companies normally check your portfolio and at what they want from you, portfolio for concept art, 3D, animation, texturing, etc.

So what I am trying to say is that you don't need something focused at gamedev. Just get something that teaches the correct stuff.

If you where to apply at W&C we would look at you experience. I would look at someone with a year or so of actual work experience in a major area like C++ or C# and even then I would still want some kind of demos and code samples to see what you have done in your spare time and that you are passionate about gamedev and it up to it. It is fine that you have the papers and can show you finished something but more importantly is to know if you actually know what you are doing and did not just pass via marks gained in team projects and exam papers that where not challenging cause of low standards to get people to pass (I used to be a lecturer I know how these things go).

[Whorse]

I recommend Game Institute. It's where I'm doing my studies now. Their courses are specialised and cover absolutely everything you could possibly need to know.

http://www.gameinstitute.com/

[Crowley9]

[quote][b]13 Jul 2009, 09:38:19 AM[/b][hr]I recommend Game Institute. It's where I'm doing my studies now. Their courses are specialised and cover absolutely everything you could possibly need to know.

http://www.gameinstitute.com/[/quote]

Honestly, this is complete nonsense. Firstly, no courses cover everything you could possibly need to know (especially not specialized ones ;) ). Secondly, looking over these particular courses, the contents are way to brief, skip over all the fundamentals and don't cover advanced topics that are very much (albeit less obviously) related to game development.

A stock BSc (or even one with a few game courses), covers the fundamentals of maths/computer science/applied maths/physics/etc. in a way that it makes it far easier to pick up the the things that you will inevitably have to learn to become a fully competent software engineer in any field. Not to mention that the course is actually properly acreditted and is recognized locally and internationally as a degree.

There is a place for these courses, usually as a very good supplement to a BSc., but never a replacement.

My opinion with all of these game centric "so you want to be a game programmer" courses, is that they are the easy path to becoming a game programmer, but the hard path to becoming a good one.

[Whorse]

Honestly, this is complete nonsense. Firstly, no courses cover everything you could possibly need to know (especially not specialized ones ). Secondly, looking over these particular courses, the contents are way to brief, skip over all the fundamentals and don't cover advanced topics that are very much (albeit less obviously) related to game development.

Complete nonsense? I totally disagree, you obviously didn't have a proper look. I finished the foundation and advanced studies and successfully used the course credits to put towards a BsC focusing on Game Programming. I now work for Square Enix as a junior programmer. The Advanced courses cover the mathematics and physics that are required.

Same thing at the end of the day. I've even spoken to other students who didn't bother applying their courses for university credit who have managed to easily get legitimate jobs.

I recommend you do more research before jumping to conclusions. Just because something works on correspondence, doesn't automatically mean it's completely worthless and an "insta game developer" package of sorts.

[RaVen]

Crowley is in a sence right. One can never learn everything you need to know at a uni / college or whatever especially when it's gamdev related. It is almost impossible to learn everything on game development because it is such broad subject. Game Institute offers the baseline of everything you need to know so that when you break into the industry you have enough experience to continue learning as you work and develop.

Regards
RaVen

[Crowley9]

@Whorse:

> Complete nonsense? I totally disagree, you obviously didn't have a proper look.

I think that it is you who should be looking into what a BSC will buy you that the GI course does not. You have credits towards a BSC, I seriously suggest completing one.

> I finished the foundation and advanced studies and successfully used the course credits to put towards a BsC focusing on Game Programming.

For the record, these credits only form a very small fraction of a BSC. I am not sure what your point is here - I said myself that the course could be very beneficial if paired with a BSC. You should also consider that if this course taught you "absolutely everything you could possibly need to know" (as you stated), then why would they be partnering with Excelsior to provide course credits?

> I now work for Square Enix as a junior programmer. The Advanced courses cover the mathematics and physics that are required.

I am sure that there are plenty of entry level positions where this is quite sufficient, but you are seriously disadvantaged in comparison to someone who has assimilated the knowledge and theory of a relevant BSC.

> Same thing at the end of the day. I've even spoken to other students who didn't bother applying their courses for university credit who have managed to easily get legitimate jobs.

Anecdotal evidence is no way to advance an argument. I know plenty of successful game developers who have nothing more than a matric - this doesn't mean I recommend skipping tertiary educatuon.

> I recommend you do more research before jumping to conclusions. Just because something works on correspondence, doesn't automatically mean it's completely worthless and an "insta game developer" package of sorts.

What does correspondance have to do with anything? I never mentioned that - there are plenty of good courses that can be done by correspondance - they usually involve getting an accredited degree at the end. I also never said that the course was worthless, on the contrary I said "There is a place for these courses, usually as a very good supplement to a BSc.,". I think you are getting a little too defensive here and that you are missing the point.

In terms of being an "insta game developer" package, well, it kinda is. I don't mean to imply that it is worthless - education is always a good thing, but rather that this course is focused on giving you game development related knowledge rather than teaching you the fundamental theory that will allow you to quickly and confidently grasp new and more complex game development concepts in the future. The former will benefit you in the very short term, the latter will benefit you the rest of your life. Really, this is the core difference between a degree and just about any other educational certification.

[Nitrogen]

comming from the Bsc route (which I thoroughly enjoyed), it was no more than a good foundation... There's no way that my class mates could go straight from 4 years of Bsc straight into a game dev job.. There was far too little practical for that..

I'd say you'd ideally need both. Just as Crowley says you need a Bsc to get full use out of a game dev course, I'd say a game dev course would be an excellent extension to a Bsc which would really help you practically. Of course, provided you have the background of either a Bsc or you are willing to dig a bit deeper than they teach you.

[NinjaMedia]

I have read many an interview in many a magazine with many a representative from many a game studio...

One thing that has stood out as common amongst these interviews is that papers are nice, but experience kicks arse! Some of these guys have blatantly stated that they don't even pay any mind to the qualifications simply because there are too many different ones from too many places of study that each devise their own curriculum of 'what constitutes a game oriented course'.

They stated that what really sells them on looking at someone is a person's ability to demonstrate that they are passionate about what they do and then, what sells them on giving them a chance is their portfolio (usually on a website that they can view at their own leasure).

So from what I have surmised from these interviews is that there is no substitute for experience. Working on demos at home and showing you are capable with no papers is worth more than a doctorate with no viewable samples...