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USA- Gaming colleges?
Akureii
Member Posts: 31
Hola. Figured the gaming community would be the best place to ask.
I'm currently a Criminal Justice major and I go to a private military university. Long story short, I was supposed to commission in the Marine Corps, got injured, got disqualified, and now I don't even know why I'm still there. I'm a junior, I'm 19, and i don't think it's too late at all to transfer. Plus. This school is 40 grand a year. I rather go to school for something I'm interested in and I could make a career out of since the whole military thing didn't work out.
So. Game design or administration types of schools. Go. Please, and thank you.
Comments
Most of the major schools have "Game Design & Programming". So, pick your state, pick the biggest school in the state, and more often than not they are going to have a Game Design & Programming degree plan.
Basically, they are a Computer Science degree with 1/3rd the CS and Math classes replaced by Art. Wooooo :-|
By looking at the degree plans, I really can't see anyone caring about it besides a game studio. Where as if you go for Computer Science, you're open to pretty much ANYTHING that is based on computers............... which is pretty much any company in any town in the entire US. Computer Science will also get you up to speed on the math you're going to need, if you do in fact get a job in a game studio. I've looked at the Game Design degree plans for several schools and I don't think I've seen a single one that even required Calculus.
It's not easy to get a job at a Game Studio. Not to mention, the Indy devs don't want Jr. Programmers/Artists and from what I've heard from the very few people I know in the game industry, the big companies have gone completely corporate and are absolutely miserable to work for. Where they used to be a relaxed environment the promoted creativity years ago. Basically, "Here's your cubical and if you're fingers aren't bleeding by the end of the day, you're fired and we're probably going to eat your babies too".
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i agree with this post..
HuNd3Rz
The only school that has a halfway respectable gaming degree is Digipen. Even that is not respectable. Getting a Computer Science, or Writing degree is probably the best if you want to get into the Game Industry.
I will second this. If you get a shake 'n bake 'Game Designer' degree from one of those gaming schools nobody in the industry will take you seriously. If you want to get into game designing or programming even on an extry level your best bet is a BS in Applied Computer Science. Taking some minors in Graphic Arts or Writing wouldn't hurt either.
Bren
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Schools which specifically advertise as a "gaming school" are institutions from which you should stay away. There are many, many shortcomings of such schools, but one of their biggest problems is they do not focus on the necessary math needed to become a game prgrammer.
Univeristy of Texas could be a way to go wo get the CS or writing degree. The city is flooded with studios you could maybe could grab a intership with while completeing your degree. Then if you can't in Austin Dallas just 3 hours north has a number of studios also.
Hold on Snow Leopard, imma let you finish, but Windows had one of the best operating systems of all time.
If the Powerball lottery was like Lotro, nobody would win for 2 years, and then everyone in Nebraska would win on the same day.
And then Nebraska would get nerfed.-pinkwood lotro fourms
AMD 4800 2.4ghz-3GB RAM 533mhz-EVGA 9500GT 512mb-320gb HD
Thanks for all your responses guys.
Besides those listed, what other schools would you guys recommend?
And what do you guys think about a communications major?
Both the University of North Texas and Southern Methodist University have gaming programming related degrees. Well, they did a few years ago. I haven't heard much about it for a while. SMU's program required the creation of a game during the process.
As for communications majors, my personal experience unrelated to game programming is that they usually end up in marketing or human resources departments.
Avoid colleges that have a Gaming Degree like the plague. When i was younger i did some reserch in such things as i wanted to be a game developer. However i soon realised such gaming degrees were not really that usefull. It was soon after i understood that such Courses were just an advertising ploy to attract the gaming crowd.
My advice is to find a good colledge and learn a couple of programming languages such as C++ and High level maths and say cretive writing and or a good CAD course.
Iknow it looks like a lot but if you REALLY want this type of life you need to have a diverse portfolio of usefull qualifications.
Also some work experience in the programming field wont hurt.
Another great example of Moore's Law. Give people access to that much space (developers and users alike) and they'll find uses for it that you can never imagine. "640K ought to be enough for anybody" - Bill Gates 1981
From a perspective of a current senior at a university. A degree doesn't amount to much without a portfolio or work to show. I'm in Computer Science and have completed all of the requirements for this major, but am still pursuing another degree. But honestly, the university really only teaches concepts. Hardly any or no actual application of the concepts. As a result, you'd forget a lot of things. My advice is to focus on a narrow subject that you enjoy and apply the concept and learn outside of school. Your best bet is to find a school with a game club and join in on group projects (because I think group projects are fun which facilitates learning, with the caveat that you're working with qualified and responsible people, which is rather rare though).
Edit: That is, I don't really think the specific major matters all that much as long as you have projects/work to show. However, the main reason I wouldn't recommend a game major is that you'd probably be wasting your time in "design" courses that only ask you to think or be creative on your own (that is, stuff like designing a theoretical game or analyzing game-play elements), which can always be done on your own time or within a game club.
I have not heard much about UNTs program but SMU's is a master level program. But they do have a 5 year program where you get a Undergrad in Science and Master's in one of the 3 gaming degrees they have(programming, art, and I think game company management)
Hold on Snow Leopard, imma let you finish, but Windows had one of the best operating systems of all time.
If the Powerball lottery was like Lotro, nobody would win for 2 years, and then everyone in Nebraska would win on the same day.
And then Nebraska would get nerfed.-pinkwood lotro fourms
AMD 4800 2.4ghz-3GB RAM 533mhz-EVGA 9500GT 512mb-320gb HD