schoolage

[johnm487]

I got accepted to collins college for game design. I start january 17th. Anyone here ever attend that school?

[Spellbinder]

No i haven't but i dont live over "there"!

Congrats just the same!

Hope you do well and get a good, funny and well payed job afterwards.

Spellbinder.

[Alexjfry3]

haha im proud of baby

Congrats just think of us little ppl

[DaanO]

Congratulations dude! I did start at *A* game design school but quit pretty soon, i found it unchallenging and way too theoretical.

[ginsengavenger]

good on ye.

i like central arizona.

but the phoenix basin sux. you have my sympathy

ed: if you're moving there from MA..... well, it'll be... different :x

[OL]

lmao

OK collins college is way way way expensive and also im pretty sure that entire place is one giant scam. You really MUST start a blog when you go there because I have a feeling its going to be hilarious.

and yes I got accepted there too and it took me many many phone calls to get them to stop trying to get me to pay for various things.

[ginsengavenger]

if you could get some old arizona clunker like an 86 GMC truck and live in like, Cottonwood and commute to school... that would be the shit.

[johnm487]

OL, how do they try to scam you? and how will getting scamed be funny, sounds pretty shitty to me. i already know im not buying a laptop through them.

[johnm487]

and the tuition is pretty cheap.

[OL]

Well I doubt it's a scam but they sure rode me hard to keep paying them even after I said I wouldnt be attending.

Also they wanted something like 60,000 a year.

[DD]

The tuition of most those schools are higher than a years salary for any entry level game industry job. Consider that.

If you're going for animation or character design go, anything else I recommend not. In my experience everyone that comes out of game design schools for anything related to art, code, or level design have all sucked.

They're the kids who weren't motivated enough to do things on their own, pushed by their parents in a desperate attempt to make their suckbag children decent human beings. Much like the kids who are forced to be lawyers or doctors who end up sucking at life and getting people killed. Probably how Jack Thompson came to be known. Or not... really depends on the person. Don't be afraid to change your mind if you end up not liking the school.

Code, go to a regular college and mod on the side.

Level Design, ditto.

Art is questionable, depends on what kind of art you want to do.

And anyone that possibly could be considered a game designer worthy of learning from isn't going to be teaching at any school.

[OL]

And anyone that possibly could be considered a game designer worthy of learning from isn't going to be teaching at any school.

except for levelord who teaches at the guildhall (which is awesome and i wish i was going there)

i think he does anyway... hes associated with them somehow

[ReNo]

I'm at a games tech course in Scotland, but I wouldn't say its really worth doing. It is worth doing from the point of view of getting a degree that is wholly related to getting a job in the games industry, but you could learn more in your own time if you are dedicated and take the initiative. Maybe the one you are going to is different though. I've learnt a lot on my course that I wouldn't have otherwise (ie. all the programming), but I'd be a better level designer and modeller if I'd just continued to do it in my spare time. My spare time productivity in games design has been reduced hugely by uni, currently to pretty much nothing.

[ginsengavenger]

DD's got a very good point I think. I'd like to add that depending on what you want to do, at this point in the industry you are probably still better off getting a real, related degree over a games-design specific degree. If you can't get games work you can use a degree in CS, or art, or architecture or something to get a real job, whereas a games degree won't get you work in the rest of the world.

[DaanO]

Onnnnnnnn the other hand game design school does allow you to mod at home WHILE working on school projects. It's like, if you'd study math you would have to do your homework and then work on computer games. It's like extra practise time.

I've had quite a few discussion with Dutch game devs (one with Jesse from Khaeon, Peris and apparently, the best applications they get are from people who have studied something else like architecture, psychology or whatever, and have modded at home.