Hello anyone planning to go to a video game school?

i REALLY want to work and be a part of the video gaming industry. problem is i don't know which schools have the best education, affiliations, graduate placement, etc. i hear a lot about fullsail in Florida or westwood college in Georgia and qantm college in london but i wish i knew some graduates from those schools. if anyone has any knowledge or suggestions for me to look into i'd really appreciate it.

 

I'm currently working on making a game, and I'm VERY interested in graphic design/ programming. I'll look into that college.

 

I might end up going to a school that offers a variety of courses, and has just recently become locally notorious for it's technological programs. There's a lot of video game stuff, and I'd probably be going for computer-related work. I play the vidya too but it's not something I really want in my future so I'll probably stay away from it.

 

Your best bet would be going to open days at University's and researching on the internet.

They have a few down in Melbourne

 

well first of all it depends on where you live and how far you would be willing to live away from the family and friends. grades come into play too. have you any experience with the coding aspect or any of the lower level ide's like alice? i am only asking cause if not it would not be a smart idea for anyone to go to a school specializing in something you have no real experience doing. take it from me i am still paying off ten thousand dollars in tuition when the only thing i learned from that ten grand is that i dont want to be a mechanic. tis an extremely painful mistake to make.

 

I'm in my second year of a game development degree...

It's vital that you understand what you are getting yourself into..
I know it sounds like the ideal career path, but that couldn't be further from the truth

You better be prepared for ****loads of hard work and plenty of sacrifices (social life etc.)

If you want to ask anything specific feel free to pm me...

 

Yes I am planning to go to QUATM or another similar college/university in Australia (better opportunities there). It depends though, there'll probably be other choices later. After that, probably hoping for an internship at a developer (Insomniac etc.). I'm quite used to lower level languages without abstraction, so that should help a lot when it comes to setting registers etc. for systems.

 

thanks for the ideas guys

 

you can get hired by a game company as a graphics designer or a sound artist right? You don't have to know programming in order to work in the game industry. You can go into business and work on advertising or something.

But if you seek to design and test (debug) the games then you have to major in programming (I think). My university offered video game related courses as part of the computer science major.

 

Not sure if you will be a very valued employee though unless you are THAT good. Even someone like Yoji Shinkawa (Artist of metal gear) has great artwork if you see the credits he does other things as well, programming, etc.

Anyway I am taking up games design this year cant wait to see how its like

 

Really? You really can't be a graphics artist only? What a competitive harsh field...

 

You could but only if your artwork is extremely good, I dont think a company would want to hire someone who is only good in one area that would be expensive. They rather hire people with various field of knowledge, both efficient and cheaper. And yes, in fact any form of designing be it fashion, industry, architecture, game is a very competitive field. Even within two companies for instance Sony and Nintendo, fanboys are bickering over who is better when each have their own specialty.

 

Uh they do? I've heard of several people such as this guy who works at Bungie (he only made the icons for online play etc.).

 

Ah but as we know it more and more people are going in to gaming industry. The challenge is growing, if you own the game company and you had to choose from a wide selection of people, who would you hire someone who is good at only one thing or someone who excels in more than one? Things change in the future, even now current employees (senior ones) may have low requirement levels, the new generation would need better qualification dont you think? Even now in Malaysia some of the older employees for companies needed only to graduate high school during their time and look at the situation these days, there are people with a Masters degree who are finding it hard to get a job. And besides it is much more costly to hire a bunch of people each only specializing in one area compared to hiring a group who can do multiple things

And I said you could specialize in one area only but only IF you're good. If you're not very outstanding no one is going to hire you. Even now there are so many artists whose artworks are like that of final fantasy and in fact their drawing are good but not many of them are very successful just for their drawing skills. How many game/manga artists are out there and only how many do we remember?

 

Ha, that's true. Other than a modeller etc. because they're vital, but generally they would know multiple aspects of things.