gaming colleges

[str4ngerd4nger]

ok so i know im a bastard to some of yall but lately ive been thinking
i dont really do sports so im not looking for a career in that area and im not really the lawyer type of person... i know theres a lot of choices for jobs but i wanna do something... bigger
i wanna work in the gaming industry really badly if yall have seen my N+ maps or some of my halo 3 maps (recently deleted my halo 3 stuff) im a creative person if i put my mind to it
so i wanna ask yall, What college should i try 2 get into for programing/developing games? ive heard about the EA internships (thanks palyleto) but i think of EA as sports and like ive said, im not much of a fan of sports
so what do yall think is the best college for the gaming industry?
oh yea im in San Antonio, Texas

[burningsaint223]

Full Sail... My brother goes there.

[mac360]

FlashPoint Academy: www.flashpointacademy.com/programs/game.html

This college is in Chicago.

[projectfear21]

Stranger, try this site: www.adigitaldreamer.com/game-design-schools.htm

idk how much it will help but it doesnt hurt to check it out.

[keyweez360]

Where are you located?

First thing you should do is check out your local community college. The advisors there can surely point you towards any game design focused colleges and also give you a place to start. Were you interested in the programming aspect of game design? Or more into the art aspect--creating models, animation, etc.

The Art Institute has locations all over the country, and I know they offer very in depth programs with digital arts. Expensive though, so be serious about the career.
www.artinstitutes.edu/AreasofStudy/SubDisciplines.aspx?ID=26


ITT Technical Institute is located nationwide and they also offer a program specifically for game design.
www.itt-tech.edu/teach/list/degd.cfm

[riutse]

You'd probably do better learning stuff on your own, a lot of the stuff you learn about modelling/programming/mapping etc can be learned online or through experience with the tools used to model and map.

College seems majorly unneccessary when getting a job in the videogame industry, because employers aren't looking for degrees, they're looking at your portfolio, what you've done and what they know you can do.

A guy who has made say, 30 highly complex maps in his mapping career, will easily get a job over a guy who's made 2 or 3 complex maps and been to college. Or a guy who has made hundreds of detailed well put together models will easily get a job over a guy who's made ten or so models, but has a college degree.

The point I'm trying to make here is that if you really want to break into the videogame industry, college isn't THAT important. What really matters is your portfolio, which you should add too as much as you can.

Serously, go download Steam, HL2 and the Source SDK, get really, really, really good with Hammer then make some professional grade maps, then hit VALVe up with your map portfolio and you could very well land yourself a job. You'd probably end up getting attention from gaming companies if you worked on a mod that got a lot of attention also.

Whatever I'm rambling, I don't even know any gaming colleges.

[notoriousv]

You need to know calculus and lots of trig. I hope you are good at math, otherwise you won't do anything in the industry along the lines of mapping or anything like that.

[Reaper5103]

i wouldn't work at EA but they do more than just sports, they have seperate divisions one for sports and one for other type of development, what you could do is sign up to be a game tester and companies will send you their games you play and write a review on how they can improve the game, send it back and when they ship you your next game the money comes with the games

[str4ngerd4nger]

thanks every1 who has suggested something :3

[PunchDrunkGaming]

I went a year to a Gaming college and absolutely hated it.

Unless you are an artist or know your math I wouldnt try it. There is a lot of drawing and a helluva lot of Programming that needs to be done. And the professors were all game designers themselves and they all said that unless you are a great artist and a great programmer, you are wasting your time because companies try to hire the least amount of people. so if your good at both of those then by all means go for it.

Just don't be disappointed if it doesn't work out.

Its a lot more work then you might know.

[exocel]

i would think long and hard about it before you do.

when i left high school 4 years ago i was sure, naively surr, that i would get a job "making videogames" i looked into schools ,did some homebrew stuff, and whilst creating character models was fun the rest is a long hard chore.

in short it wasn't for me, it was a long hard slog of time i would rather spend enjoying video-games.

in short you gotta think about why you even want to, do you think it will just be a "cool job" or do you have an actual reason?, i wanted to create story's and tell tales and the like, to impress feelings upon the audience, to make them laugh or cry, but then i got a serious health scare, wich thankfully turned out to be nothing, but when you contemplate your mortality you think about stuff.
i figured that youve only got one life to live, did i want to spend it in a crappy ofice job till i retire in some house in a suburbs, never having left that area i was born in, like so many british people take as the norm?
that was a terrifying idea, so i was sitting watching ...im not sure, clersk or cky, something like that, its was cheaply made with poor equipment adn using freidns, so it could be either, but i remember thinking that anyone could do that, but then i really got that ANYONE could if they chose to, and id been interested in film making since i saw jurassic pakr when i was little, so i dug up an old college prospectus i got when passing some thign in a mall and signed up the next day. i decided filmmaking was for me, so i took film and media at college, and now im taking a digital media production degree at university (everything from digital filmmaking, special effects, dvd production and flash or html based website design and much more) i dont regret giving up on games design because of how ive gone, im setting up a website, doing an ad for a games company and working on my first festival short right now. so i still get to tell stories and spin yarns, but in a slightly different medium.
and whilst its true there's no restrictions in video-games like there are with film, the work is horribly boring and tedious. you cnt compare sitting in a room with 4 or 5 other people typing away and clicking away all day to going out to the top of a small mountain with some friends ,and friends you've made in the industry to film something and have a blast out in the open country whilst you do,

the long and short is if you think its playing games and adjusting this and that your in for a nasty disappointment, its mostly maths and walls of text. if thats up your alley ,right on, i was told when i signed up for college by my parents i was "living in a bloody fairyworld" for wanting to follow my dream, but here i am 4 years later, 12 months away from the cap and gown treatment and they barely finished high school.
dont take this as a put down, anyone CAN do anything they choose, being a rapist or a serial killer is not one id recommend, but if you want to be a games designer ,or a writer, or actor, or whatever you want, then go for it. the worst that can happen is you fail or decide it isnt for you, but thats not bad, its a learning experience.

to put it bluntly, you only have one life to live, how you choose to do so is up to you. stay in a dead end job at a macdonalds or something for ten years (and i work part time at one of them and ive seen that happen, and its horrifying) or do what you choose, see the world, be free and fearless and do what you love.



again, im am not giving said advise to any rapists, just fyi.

[phillip00]

Umm, if you wanted to tell stories, why didn't you become a script writer lol. Not everything in the videogame business has to do with creating the videogames.

But ya, youre kinda getting the wrong idea. N+ and Halo 3 maps is well... far off from what you'd be doing. As people above me have stated before, youve gotta be quite the artist, and youve gotta know your math.

Heres an example. I like videogames, and I want to be a lawyer. Best thing? Join a companies law firm. But then again, that'd be boring, I'd rather be a DA or something.

If not that, I'd love to be a Videogame Marketer, or hell, even a PR. That's some easy shit. You just have to know the right people and have good experience. Thats what it boils down to

[str4ngerd4nger]

Aug 17, 2008 15:05:15 GMT -5 phillip00 said:

Umm, if you wanted to tell stories, why didn't you become a script writer lol. Not everything in the videogame business has to do with creating the videogames.

But ya, youre kinda getting the wrong idea. N+ and Halo 3 maps is well... far off from what you'd be doing. As people above me have stated before, youve gotta be quite the artist, and youve gotta know your math.

Heres an example. I like videogames, and I want to be a lawyer. Best thing? Join a companies law firm. But then again, that'd be boring, I'd rather be a DA or something.

If not that, I'd love to be a Videogame Marketer, or hell, even a PR. That's some easy nuts. You just have to know the right people and have good experience. Thats what it boils down to

no no u got the maps thing wrong im saying im creative if i put my mind to it, not saying that 'oh ok thanks for giving me these walls... il just assemble them like this and here's your level!' im saying like if i can like design a level il do it but idc what i do, testing, programming, anything of the sort will be good for me as long as i get some good money from it

[phillip00]

thats why marketing is great. I think its the easiest job in the world and youll get paid alot. Just look at the new girl for Microsoft, she came from like Fritos or something right.

[PunchDrunkGaming]

I guess stranger you should try it, I mean whats better, saying I tried to be in the gaming industry and found out it didnt work, or saying I wanted to but never took the chance.

Thats why I tried it, very shortly after I started I realized that it was just a dream I had because I love games so much, so I transfered to a different college and now I will never have to wonder whether I could be in the gaming industry because I did try, and gave it my all, but fell short.