gaming schools help!!

[oroxis]

So I'm moving to southern california (Palmdale to be specific) and I'm wanting to go to school to be a game designer. So far I've found USC which is rated number one and Los angeles film school. I was leaning more towards USC but they want you to have a degree in advanced mathmatics from an accredited school that they see fit, which i don't have. so now im leaning towards lafs. I have tried doing intensive research for the gaming aspect in the school but i cant find anything. what i would really like is someones opinion on it who has a little more knowledge about it than i do. Thanks all

[RawMeat3000]

What specific aspect of game design interests you? Private schools tend to be VASTLY overpriced as a result of the government making huge loans easily accessible. I see that the school you want to go to costs $42,162 a year, this is completely insane and you should not do it.

CGSociety has great workshops that aren't that expensive. Gnomon has all the tutorials you'd ever need for not that much (compared to 42 grand a year), and a community college can teach you basic art skills. The rest is up to you, whether you're in school or not, it's still up to you to push yourself and do the work.

[Stormy]

Yeah I have given some thought to going to school for games design. I think the largest benefit is the time you can dedicate to your craft when at school. Going to uni more focuses you and gives you definite goals and timelines, which is something that is hard to impose on yourself. But I don't think school is necessary in an industry driven by portfolios. Maybe for programmers, but not for artists or designers. You're better off looking at a different uni course that can be translated into games design, like interface systems design or even psychology, rather than a course that has been hacked together to cater for an infant industry, and then sold off as the bees knees.

[Jordash]

It depends what you are looking for, the games industry is a strange industry to try and get into, it incorporates a bunch of fields and though there is a benefit to being a jack of all trades, unless you have a specialisation you will find it difficult to crack.

For that reason I see most game design degrees as a waste of time, most hires come from other industries or graduates of computer science, software engineering, various art degrees, architecture, psychology, business and probably some I'm forgetting.

Doing one of those degrees also gives you a tonne of different options when you graduate, I'm doing architecture with the intent of becoming an architect, but I could easily peruse a career in the games industry if I change my mind, had I done a games design degree I would be stuck with one option and no guarantee that the degree would be useful.

[oroxis]

well I'm wanting to do programming specifically and if I were to go through LAFS I was planning on using there internship program. I'm really confused and nervous because i don't want to go wasting tons of money and not find anything. My only problem is I want to be a game programmer specifically. I have done tons of research and found that I would really enjoy that kind of work environment instead of working in a stupid little cubicle all day programming code for anti virus software or something to that perspective. Thanks for all the feed back and if you could give me a little more advise on what sort of classes to take to be a programmer I would greatly appreciate it.

[Major Banter]

Have you ever used code? From Flash to Java to C++?

[AndyFrv]

I`m interested if i can create game in C Sharp besides puzzles and if anyone can offer me some tutorials ,cause i have a project to do for school but i missed the courses . Thanks

[stukabomber44]

I rarely post on here anymore, but I feel obligated to since I do go to a game design school and I would like to say something.

Pros
- Make new friends with same interest
- Meet new people that are in the industry
- Graduate with a game created in class
- On site tutors to help out
- Faculty can give you hands on advice as to what to expect in the industry (possible job opportunities)
- Technology in school can be quite good
- Credibility when applying for job that you can stick with a group for 9 months and pull something off
- Learn vast amount in short time: Maya, Unity, UDK, Documentation, Flash, and Java just to name a few
- Team building skills = necessity in industry

Cons
- Expensive
- Some teachers can be inexperienced/heavily opinionated
- Can learn a lot of the courses you pay for on youtube
- VERY time consuming
- Doing homework requires a good computer

That's just to give a brief idea. I'm nearing the end of my session and I would say yes, it is worth it - to each his/her own.

[kkirspel]

Any good school will teach you team work skills within the programming field; that's not an aspect limited to a games design school because its needed where ever you code.
Basically all the pros listed by stukabomber44 can be obtained at a public university with a good computer science program, and at only a fraction of the price.

At a tenth of the price that LA school is priced at, I'm going to a state university and have so far learned Objective C, C Sharp, C++, Java, Visual Basic, XHTML, and COBOL. All of which give me a good range of areas to work in, not just games programming.

I guess in my amateur opinion/viewpoint, I can see a design/art school being more useful for content creation like painting textures with art styles, color theory application, etc. and level design with architecture, etc. but not so necessary for programming.

[stukabomber44]

To each his own, but I'm just saying for attempting to get into the industry, this will help and be a bit easier since you for the past 1.5 years I've been told how to get into the gaming industry and avoid the mistakes many make (already have a couple jobs available). I'm not saying it is the only way to go. It's all debatable, as I know some programmers came from university and said the programming here is much more focused in gaming - and that they would never learn the same thing at uni. University is also much longer, and game design programs about a year and a half opposed to a 3 or 4 years program, so they get up to entry level industry standard so we can be taken under the studios wing and upgraded constantly over time.

[zombie@computer]

Yeah, if you go to uni and learn programming, you are pretty much guaranteed a job, be it in gaming or some other area. If you go to gaming school your diploma is good for applying at a game producer, but less so for other jobs.

Besides, what good would it do to just learn to work in Flash or UDK or sourcesdk or whatever? In two years time these will probably have changed a lot or disappeared completely. What good are your skills then? A good programming education will allow you to code in practically every language or environment.

[Stormy]

In my personal situation, the biggest positive outcome would be meeting people with similar interests. I don't know anyone at all that has the slightest interest in digital content creation. I don't know a single person who even realizes that Java is a programming language, not just a type of coffee. In short, I am starved for collaboration and external input.
As for the "getting into the industry", my form of "the industry" is working in a small indie team, and indies go on portfolio info primarily. Luckily I have a whole heap of projects to work on and quite a bit of time to do it so I have the advantage of being able to build my portfolio. Since I don't have any contact with tech savvy people, I am finding that I have to either make it on my own and become a one man work horse, or collaborate over the net.
For me it's weighing up the time off I would have to take from all my promising projects to go to school vs meeting developers and finding new projects there. For someone just starting out I wouldn't rush to take the school option. learn a bit of modelling, a bit of programming, and get a feel for what you want to do and then find a course that supports it. Sometimes (if you're like me) there is no course that encompasses the knowledge you want, and you can learn most of it yourself. Just be aware that the skills you'll gain from school will likely be far superior to those you'll teach yourself in a much smaller time span, while self taught skills tend to be more haphazard, but more personal.