Hey folks.

I'm soon enrolling to college to participate in a Btec Diploma in Media, Art and Games Design (Basically Games Design). As I have know prior knowledge towards coding and making games, the whole process of learning it, and doing it as my future occupations excites me.

But I was wondering if any of you guys who done something similar to me. I'd like to know your opinion on first learning the profession, and what you thought of it when you first started. I'd also like to ask where you are now with your knowledge from taking a course similar to mine.

Thanks for your time,
Dan.

(Sorry if this offends anyone...)

I do not know about Btec, but I strongly advise against ITT-Tech (Cordova, TN). My rescent experience with thier "Game Design" program was very poor to say the most. The "Game Design Association" (GDA) group consisted of people that wanted other people to learn to program with XNA, and make a game for the rest of the group while they played Halo 3 and Call of Duty. The multimedia foundation courses were something of value though, as long as you wanted a multimedia career that does not pertain anything to making an actual game.

Being too quick to look into the overall picture, I really didn't pay any attention to the fact that no person associated with the school had ever produced an actual game, and thier plans to do so consisted of mainly learning how to script with Neverwinter Nights as opposed to actually writing something as simple as Pong.

But my poor experience is only with this school, and I have heard great things about the ITT in Green Bay. But they have actual instructors that have made games and are located near Raven from what I have heard.

However, in truth, I really don't think any college can teach a fruitful game design program without the students taking initiative to learn on the side, apart from the usual courses.

I'm actually willing to learn on the side because of the opportunities it could lead to.

I've been looking into what University offers me from my Games Design course and they have work placements with Sega Europe which would be great!

Also, I live in the UK, which maybe be different to your learning experience you have stated.

Thanks for your reply.

Iv just finished a diploma in interactive entertainment at qantm college london and have learned quite a lot.
I didnt enjoy the first 6 months of my course as it was geared towards the art side and 3d animation, but once they had hired an industry professional software and games engineer it was all go, very good

Yes, mines similar. I have an art strand where we shall be image manipulating. But that isn't me, I just want to dive straight in .

Depends where you're from.

Some of the guys here have done that course (or something similar) and they kick ass.

But, I'm from a place called Cannock, it's near Birmingham (I see you're from the UK)

<rant>
I went for this course, and they were clueless, but the actual concept of the course didn't seem too good anyway~ They basically used this "game design" course to be "use our 5 year old cameras to record crap around the college that we can sell to the local music studio, which is also crap. By the way, don't expect anything from this course!"
</rant>

Anyway, my point is be careful with this course~ If you can find people from the same college who have done this course, ask them how it went.

Good luck

Edit:
Where in the UK are you from, anyway?

I'm from Huddersfield, West Yorkshire. On the opening day, the course "seemed" okay.

well if it only seemed okay to you then maybes its not right for you, when i went to my college open day
i was buzzed, they had all the latest kit and extremely enthusiastic staff. There are a lot of game design courses and some to put it bluntly are shit

i know because i visited quite a few, theres one at northumbria university that has gamecube dev kits to play with
how cool is that and they also place you in the industry for one of the years. i would have gone to this course if i had been a little younger but getting out of university at 27 didn't really appeal to me. The best course that i found unfortunately after i was already 6 months through my last course was Goldsmiths London Msc in computer games and entertainment really really advanced stuff to learn eventually

Dont limit your options to nearby courses as you can get government help for education and travel to somewhere different, trust me you will have to much work to do on a game course to have much of a social life :s

creating games is very difficult but very fun and rewarding as well, lots of maths involved but it not like you have to learn new maths skills everyday just get the important stuff down and your set

good luck to you and i hope you keep us all informed of your decision

This post has been edited by stayscrisp: 23 Jul, 2008 - 08:23 PM

Thanks, mate.

The only reason why I quoted the 'seemed' was because the open day didn't really do anything, just a few things explained. I just can't wait to enroll and get all hands on. That's when I can really say what I thought of it.

@stayscrisp:
You went to one that had a GameCube dev kit?

The one I went to had a PS3, XBox 360 and a Wii... just to play on.

Nothing to do with development.

one i found had gamecube dev kit yeah, it was at northumbria uni in newcastle, wicked place im from there hehe
but the one i actually went to didnt have dev kits just consoles to play on, but there xbox 360 red-ringed and there ps3 just stopped working :s

digipen is supposed to be excellent