So, I’m wondering what one of these educational facilities have the best courses, I’ve done my own investigation but its kind of hard because all the courses have their own ups and downs. I’m wondering if anyone here has experience with these courses? Or if anyone has people they work with who did these courses, The industry seems super hostile towards these courses(Based on sites like Tsumea)
I understand that the game development industry in Australia is kind of lacking, but why does everyone hate these courses? I suppose its just that the companies have lots of people to pick from and clearly people who have only 1.5, 2 or 3 years experience in a classroom are not going to be the best? But still is that the only reason that they are so against these courses? ATM I’m kind of worried that going to a game design course might actually have a negative effect on employment opportunities in the future? Does anyone have any info or experience with these courses?
Qantm offers a bachelor fast tracked to only 2 years. What worries me is that in their showcase of student games Doesn’t look all that great (I don’t mean to be rude)
RMIT offers a 3 year bachelor I haven’t seen any industry anger towards them but then the course isn’t as well known AFAIK. RMIT uses Unity exclusively so thats great RMIT also has two games research labs, one being Exertion Games Lab and the other being GEE lab so thats pretty cool.
So, does anyone have any info on these courses, be great if anyones done them to share their opinion or people working in the Australian industry to share there opinions
I haven’t looked into the courses myself, but from the veterans who I’ve heard give this advice to others, it’s all about what’s a better choice for the student’s career. Note that it’s “career”, which is a term that should cover far more than just “getting your first job”. I’ve only heard it about coding, so I’ll go with that for the sake of discussion.
On one hand, you can do a Computer Science degree and learn general programming. If you’re any good you’ll be able to apply that to game programming, and from there experience is the best teacher. If you’re going to be competitive in the industry then you’re probably already programming anyway and pretty good at it, this is mostly to formalise and/or fill in gaps in your knowledge, and to make connections. If things go well you get into the games industry and you’re as prepared as you can be. If you like it then everything’s golden. If you don’t like it as a career, or if you don’t get into the industry in the first place, then your qualification can get you a programming job at plenty of other places, so you’ve got fallback options.
On the other hand, you can do a games specific degree. From what I hear this doesn’t really prepare you for anything other than an entry level job in the games industry*, so you don’t have too many options without getting more education later. Plenty of people who get into the industry hate it and… well, this goes right back to it not giving you many options. As with the above, the most competitive people for the games industry will be the ones who were already programming anyway, and those people would probably have been at least as well equipped with a normal CS degree (and the strong portfolio they were probably building up anyway). Everyone else is fodder, and those people don’t tend to stick around (check out the churn rates of big publishers, and ask yourself why it’s like that…).
So in short, I don’t think the complaints are about whether or not they prepare you to get into the industry, I think that people in the industry question how well these courses prepare you for a career once you get there.
Also, not to nitpick, but you don’t get “experience” in a classroom. Someone with “3 years experience in a classroom” has 0 experience. The experience doesn’t start until you’re doing real projects outside of a classroom (which could indeed be your own projects).
I don’t understand how these courses work or what makes them games specific. Everything I learned in my 4 year CS/Software Engineering course has been useful, I can’t imagine how someone who missed out on any of it could be adequately equipped. Since these courses go for the same time or less, and teach other things as well, how are they fitting all the important normal stuff in? Or, what are they cutting out to make it shorter and fir their games specific stuff in?
While I haven’t looked at Qantm or RMIT, I have to say that going to the AIE is the best decision I have ever made.
Sure, the courses are aimed towards game dev, but all of the skills that are taught are not game specific.
Note: Though the AIE does have Unity and UDK, you will not get to use them until right at the end of the diploma. Almost everything before that is C++ and OpenGL (with a little bit of C# and Python).
Again, not equivalent to Aus, but from my experiences of getting into the industry.
I would always recommend a code heavy Computer Science course as the starting basis. Something that ideally does C languages as a primary with a Java or a tool language like Pascal to back it up. Doing this for 3 years will give you a good understanding of code practices, how OOP works, the important things in code. You’ll also pick up other useful skills which may help you stand out amongst other gaming candidates.
The big thing you won’t get in a course like this is the Maths.
Maths is the most important language in Computer games. Understand that and you’ve got a great head start. This is why i would recommend a master course in computer games programming. Something that will improve your own knowledge of DirectX, Open GL, shaders, Maths. These are all things you should be self learning as well.
Everyone i know who has done a gaming course on it’s own, who is in the industry did 100 hours outside the classroom on their own projects and self learning. Using the lectures knowledge to support their own learning. Lecturers are great to ask the complex questions and they will enjoy the fact that you are improving yourself beyond their classes. (just don’t be a know it all)
I would say, those that did just a general computer game course (a mix of art, code design) and make it in the industry are a very low %. You certainly can’t rely just on your course.
All that said…
I did a computer games technology course in Scotland, UK and it had a great mix of C code, DX, shaders, open GL. It was heavily math based. I made it. I also did a master though…and a business degree (you don’t need that…no one needs that).
EDIT: The course Sir.Tiddlesworth mentions sounds similar to the one i did. You should be wary of any course that advertises teaching game engines…you don’t want to be taught to use an engine, you want to be taught how to program in general. It’s then up to you to express these skills in an engine.
I don’t know if this might be helpful, but on Thursday there is a meeting of the Melbourne Blender Society, and a couple of the people there appear reasonably knowledgeable about the CG industry. Not sure if any are into games or Unity, but there is a fair bit of cross-over between Blender and Unity. You might be able to talk to someone who knows the local scene. The place can be a bit hard to get into so if you do go, go fairly early. It’s the advanced computing lab in one of the RMIT buildings in Victoria St. I think they used to meet at AIE so someone there must have connections.
I’ll chuck my penny in here and mostly agree with KyleHatch85 (except for the maths bit).
I wouldn’t waste my time doing a games course. Honestly.
Do a programming heavy CompSci course.
In your 2nd or final year you will get additional modules you can take such as Game Design, Mathematics, etc.
Not to mention your final year dissertation which could simply be a game you create!
A decent university will help you get the degree you want, as you can usually negotiate which modules you do. If you have a chat with a course tutor explain your goals, your concerns etc. you should be able to plot out the best pathway.
There’s also other advantages such as later (or sooner) on in life you might have enough of games and want to do something else.
Just to confuse you even more, here’s some general advice about choosing a college from someone who has worked for a university and is married to a lecturer.
Choose the college with the highest entry requirements. You learn most from the other people on the course and the better they are the more you will learn. It might be fun to be the smartest student in the class but you’ll learn more if the other students are as good or better than you. Good teachers want to work with good students so they are attracted to institutions with high entry requirements.
Choose a college with a wide range of subjects which is has a good social scene in a place which people want to be. The biggest benefit from going to a real world college rather than studying online is that you get to meet different people and do different things than you otherwise would. This is less likely to happen if everyone is the same as you and gets out the college area as soon as possible because its a dump.
The successful guys that I know, and the ones I’ve hired to work with me, all did way more than 100 hours of personal project work. Probably into the thousands of hours, in fact (several hours a week for several years). In fact, each of them have completed at least one game or game-like project of their own completely outside of work or study.
I didn’t even ask the guys I hired about studies. I looked at their work and I looked at their code, and I made judgements about how well they’d fit into the team and the impact they’d have on the company culture. Due to the nature of our work I then picked them up for a small project or two and, if things worked out, kept them around.
RMIT also has two games research labs, one being Exertion Games Lab and the other being GEE lab so thats pretty cool.