Becoming a Level Designer/Environment Artist

This might be a good place to start. It's got some good information on some of the trials the author of the site has gone through becoming an effective designer/artist. Also, you can sign up to it and get some free .pdfs on creating levels and what steps to take to get started.

Anyway, here it is: http://%7boption%7d

Quote from kanine01

I know this is really just a bump, but does anyone know of some really good colleges where I can learn more about level design and game dev in general? Preferably on the East Coast of the U.S.

The only college that I know of with a decent game developer program is SMU. It's expensive, hard to get in and may not be worth it considering that most people can just jump in with both feet and learn on their own. Most other colleges offers basic "game design" programs which don't teach you much of anything, they're just capitalizing on a bunch of kids who play CoD and think they want to be a game developer.

Most professional game developers don't have a "game design" diploma or certificate. If anything, they probably have formal training in other related fields like a bachelors in computer science or from a visual arts program. I know a few with completely unrelated training, one who used to work as a school councillor with a degree in psychology.

I have read people say that many many times, but most game developers got their start before many programs existed, well, maybe not most of the junior designers since the degrees have been around for a few years. But the degrees have been around for a few years so I'm wondering if they have started to come into their own yet? Many many people are doing them now. What is the opinion of people hiring students I wonder?

There is also DigiPen, Art Institutes, and SCAD seem to be good. SCAD (Svannah College of Art and Design) is on the east coast (Georgia). Friend of mine went there, I guess he liked it.