next »

[Lucaz]

RIght now I'm bout to finish high school. Then I'll spend a year, maybe a bit more, working and feeding my consumist hunger accumulated for years. Then I'll enter UBA (Universidad of Buenos Aires) and study computer science, which is very long, has absurd ammounts of mathematics, and one of the hardest tessis, and maybe I'll never end it, but that's what I really like, so it isn't a problem.

By the way, the UBA is completely free, as it's from the state. Yet it's the best university you can go to for what I know.

[neon]

yeah a lot of TIG are high schoolers, I wish there was a place for older people to hang out and talk about game dev. 

perhaps once you're old enough, you'll realize that it's best to judge people on their breadth of knowledge rather than their age.

 

[isaac]

Seems to be a few Australians around.

Last week I handed in my final assignment, and have now completely done with my animation/multimedia BA from RMIT.

And now I start full-time work in the field in 4 days... so I guess it wasn't entirely wasted.

[Cagey]

Calling HECS (or HELP as it's now called since the marketting police got at it) an "interest-free loan" is a bit of a misnomer/out-right lie.

a) HECS/HELP is indexed to CPI, so it will increase over time. Last year I had 'indexation' of 2.8% applied to my HECS debt.

b) The Interest is built into the loan. There are massive discounts for paying the debt off early.

*edit c) Not to forget that the payments are compulsorily extracted from your salary

Ah ok. I wasn't entirely sure about HECS/HELP so when I posted that I figured if I wasn't right, someone would correct me. So cheers. (c) kinda sucks. What about if you're self employed?

I guess I should've researched that a little, but hey - no uni till next year so i'll leave it till later

Is anyone studying at UNSW?

[Gainsworthy]

Calling HECS (or HELP as it's now called since the marketting police got at it) an "interest-free loan" is a bit of a misnomer/out-right lie.

a) HECS/HELP is indexed to CPI, so it will increase over time. Last year I had 'indexation' of 2.8% applied to my HECS debt.

b) The Interest is built into the loan. There are massive discounts for paying the debt off early.

*edit c) Not to forget that the payments are compulsorily extracted from your salary

Ah ok. I wasn't entirely sure about HECS/HELP so when I posted that I figured if I wasn't right, someone would correct me. So cheers. (c) kinda sucks. What about if you're self employed?

I guess I should've researched that a little, but hey - no uni till next year so i'll leave it till later

Is anyone studying at UNSW?

Hells yes. Second Year Science. Tests finished TODAY! Where abouts are you situated, Cagey?

Also, regardless of "Interest Free" or no, we Australians get it cheap. Commonwealth Supported Placement and such means a couple (many) thousand for Uni. Used to be FREE though. Grumble Grumble.

[Cagey]

I just finished first year Mechatronic Engineering + Computer Science. 'Twas a good year

Do you go to the Kensington Campus? (If so: Awesome! There are many computer science related events that you may be interested in as a game programmer)

[Powergloved Andy]

electronics engineering degree.

So unless I'm completely mistaken, this means you could from scratch create your own computer input devices that were as crazy and cool as you wanted!   

Enjoy that incredible ability sir, as I'm only able to dream/design input devices, not actually construct them! 

It's a little of that, mostly it's using programming to read input from devices. Also, a covers a little software design. I've spread out to take a little bit of everything to sort-of make me well-rounded in the industry =P

[Blaster]

I'm doing a BFA at the university of canterbury, and although we don't have rabbits, we have ducks.

Unfortunately the fine arts department suffers from pretty typical under-funding. (this is typical in New Zealand, at least, I'm not sure about overseas?) My tutor has a wealth of experience that alone makes it worth while, though.

As for financing, I had/have no plans and now have a gigantic loan. Shwee!

[Tobasco Panda]

Digipen is probably the most well known and respected at the moment, but be aware that it is primarily focused around programming. To my knowledge there are no game 'design' courses.

I know USC has a program down in southern California, though I don't know much about it. They are also one of the first to offer a masters program. I'm not sure how valuable that really is though, as developers are really just getting into looking for degrees.

I know quite a few people who went to Cogswell College in California. They have a pretty decent design program offering some programming and art as well, but practically no one has heard of them.

There are lots of other programs around, but I would caution to try to talk to some students going there before you commit to a specific place. All of them will have their good and bad points, but the big thing to remember is that you will get out of it what you put in. If something you want to know about isn't being taught by the college you go to, well then get together with a group of students and teach yourselves! This is invaluable because once you get out of college, you will have to teach yourself to keep up with the changing tools.

Hope it helps! 

[mrfredman]

I'm currently working on a fine arts major at UCSC, and I'm super happy. Once I realized that it was impossible to learn both programming and art from scratch at age 20, and just gave up on learning to program, my life has become simple and happy. College for me has been totally awesome, I spent the first year or so being generally irresponsible and abusing all sorts of substances. Since then, I've cleaned up my act (as I've watched many friends fail to and subsequently drop out) and have been learning so much and having the time of my life. My advice for college is to watch out for traps, there are just so many ways to fuck up your education/career/life in the first few years of college, so be wary and try to make smart choices. That is all.

[george]

mrfredman, that is excellent advice. And while I agree in spirit with the comments up the thread about the best learning being done on your own initiative, the resources of a halfway decent college and most importantly the access you get to people and things can accelerate self-learning like you wouldn't believe. Most people at a good college are there to help you and want to help you, so take advantage of it.

I've heard Georgia Tech (or is it U. of Georgia?) has started a programming/art curriculum for games too.

[Skofo]

I am planning on going to a community college after this summer to get an associate's in management/marketing. By then I hope that I actually finish enough Flash games to pay for it (~$5000), but I keep hitting snags.  Why does Actionscript 3 have to be so damn confusing? Anyway, wish me luck!

[team_q]

Another important thing to look for is who owns the IP you create, you want to, and alot of schools will claim that they do as part of admittance.

[neon]

for anyone who's in high school, i recommend my situation.

i'm going to high school at a community college.  this way, after the normal 4 years of high school, i have an associate's of arts degree.  this allows me to get a master's degree in just 4 years, opposed to 6. 

i have school 3 days of the week, and the others are used for studying as well as hanging out with friends.  i have a 4.0 so far, and it's great.

[Skofo]

i'm going to high school at a community college.  this way, after the normal 4 years of high school, i have an associate's of arts degree.  this allows me to get a master's degree in just 4 years, opposed to 6. 
...
i have school 3 days of the week

Wtf? 

[Xion]

Neon: That's something I'd known about for years, but was too damn lazy to actually do. Now I soooo wish I'd taken that route. *sigh*
Too late now.

[neon]

i'm going to high school at a community college.  this way, after the normal 4 years of high school, i have an associate's of arts degree.  this allows me to get a master's degree in just 4 years, opposed to 6. 
...
i have school 3 days of the week

Wtf? 

let me rephrase that a little bit more realistically.

i have school from 1pm - 7pm 3 days of the week.  i have full college courseloads, meaning that i double the classtime outside of class and devote that to studying.  luckily, i can get things done a bit faster than that, so not all my time is taken up. 


xion:  don't do it unless you have very close friends that you hang out with regularly.. otherwise your friendships will wither and die.  also, the girls at community college are not so great.   

[Skofo]

i'm going to high school at a community college.  this way, after the normal 4 years of high school, i have an associate's of arts degree.  this allows me to get a master's degree in just 4 years, opposed to 6. 
...
i have school 3 days of the week

Wtf? 

let me rephrase that a little bit more realistically.

i have school from 1pm - 7pm 3 days of the week.  i have full college courseloads, meaning that i double the classtime outside of class and devote that to studying.  luckily, i can get things done a bit faster than that, so not all my time is taken up. 

Are you kidding? That's still a shitton better than 7 1/2 hours five days per week. I could've gotten shit done a lot faster and easier in a situation like yours without incompetent teachers trying to "guide" me 1/3 of my life.

[neon]

i'm going to high school at a community college.  this way, after the normal 4 years of high school, i have an associate's of arts degree.  this allows me to get a master's degree in just 4 years, opposed to 6. 
...
i have school 3 days of the week

Wtf? 

let me rephrase that a little bit more realistically.

i have school from 1pm - 7pm 3 days of the week.  i have full college courseloads, meaning that i double the classtime outside of class and devote that to studying.  luckily, i can get things done a bit faster than that, so not all my time is taken up. 

Are you kidding? That's still a shitton better than 7 1/2 hours five days per week. I could've gotten shit done a lot faster and easier in a situation like yours without incompetent teachers trying to "guide" me 1/3 of my life.

academically, yes.  but it's a whole different ballgame socially.  read what i wrote to xion.  all your friendships WILL die out and fall apart, cause you're not seeing people 5 days of the week. 

luckily, i have very close friends that i've known for a long time, and we've remained the same.  but i'm not sure if it would be the same for someone else, so - fair warning.

[Skofo]

i'm going to high school at a community college.  this way, after the normal 4 years of high school, i have an associate's of arts degree.  this allows me to get a master's degree in just 4 years, opposed to 6. 
...
i have school 3 days of the week

Wtf? 

let me rephrase that a little bit more realistically.

i have school from 1pm - 7pm 3 days of the week.  i have full college courseloads, meaning that i double the classtime outside of class and devote that to studying.  luckily, i can get things done a bit faster than that, so not all my time is taken up. 

Are you kidding? That's still a shitton better than 7 1/2 hours five days per week. I could've gotten shit done a lot faster and easier in a situation like yours without incompetent teachers trying to "guide" me 1/3 of my life.

academically, yes.  but it's a whole different ballgame socially.  read what i wrote to xion.  all your friendships WILL die out and fall apart, cause you're not seeing people 5 days of the week. 

You can't take the classes in the morning?