Higher Education for Gaming?

Just wondering if anybody on here has actually pursued game dev at a formal college level of education. Whether it's from a place like Full Sail or even just some classes at the local community college.

And if not, are any of you considering it? Why or why not?

I studied GraphicDesign and we made some little animations and games during that time...nothing really deep or special.

Here in Argentina there is a "university" of game programming, i don't do it because it's very expensive.

They even create a League of Legends tournament for free.

I studied GraphicDesign and we made some little animations and games during that time...nothing really deep or special.

as it worth it? I mean, did you learn anything that you still use on a regular basis that you wouldn't have know about before? Did you at least get access to software that you might have otherwise had to pay for? Did you make any connections with other students?

Also, how many classes did you take?

I think you should make a new forum topic:

"Anyone have a Game Degree?"

jbickel

Well, of course such a background doesn´t get you as much advantage as a math-one or something scientific, cause graphic is a very strange field.

Otherwise you get a lot of knowledge you´ll certainly need in real-life business. It´s not enough to be good at photoshop to make real design and advertising. There is a lot more like color-spaces, printing techniques, typography etc. you definitely won´t know before.

Also it´s a good thing to find your part in creative-business, cause there are a million things you can do with it. You can connect with other and build some kind of network for the first time, which is definitely a benefit later. Well, everybody is a specialist at something

Also I now work at a full-service marketing agency which works for the big players like Nike and Toshiba, i´m not really sure, but I guess it would have taken a lot longer without any background on this to get a job like mine. You can be as good as u want, companies wanna see grades. it´s not all about your skills, it´s also about your ability to get jobs done and your "intelligence" in itself I would say.

The last and great point is the time you have while you are still learning. It has been most creative phase of my life. Now timelines are more than hard and if you really consider to do something graphically (in a real agency) consider to have days from 9-22. Got to know many agencies and they all got such a hard workload. At least the money is good and I still LOVE my job. Feels really good to see your stuff for really big names.

Have a good one!

I think you should make a new forum topic:

"Anyone have a Game Degree?"

don't know. To me, a gaming degree could be one of several different types so it's hard to nail it down to just one.

Beaverlicious Thanks for your input. I have been in IT professionally for about 15 years on the networking/infrastructure side and decided about a year ago to start on a degree to expand my resume with software development. The local community college has several two year computer science degrees which can transfer easily to a four year college. One of these degrees follows the game dev track and there is a sizable overlap for it and the software dev track. Up to this point I have been taking classes that work for both (i.e. a requirement for one is an elective for another). I am just getting to the point where the two tracks are diverging and was wondering if anybody else had any similar experience.

Well, if a big company wants to save money they can ship their programming overseas. EA treats their programmers like disposable tissues...and has been thinking of going overseas as well. That help your thinking?

That help your thinking?

ot really. I already have a decent job to support my family, so I am not really looking for a position anywhere (especially not an entry position). If I get into making games with the goal of making money, it would most likely be supplemental income. But that doesn't mean that classes in programming/graphics/marketing would hurt in reaching that goal.

I'm just wondering if anybody else has gone the college route, or do most learn from online tutorials/info, books, or just plain old trial and error?

Once i wanted to go college but was very expensive so i go to the tester/support for applications, years come and i want another chance into the making games in the little time out of the work...

Today if you work hard you can find so much information for free but you are going to waste much time if you dont know what or where to find it.