Into the real world.

Hello there, I was just wondering if you could answer me this.

I'm about to go into college for a Btec national diploma in media (games development), although reluctant at first I thought this would be the best choice for me seeing that 6th form (UK) was not the type of thing I feel I would be good for. Im fine when it came to that, phoning up and finding out details and such but what I do wish to know is, When I leave there for university what would be my best option.
I know there is alot of strife about game design diploma's but have done my research and have heard that there is 4, of 80 that are validated and credited by the industry. If I may ask, Is it worth going for these even if they are vallidated and accredited or should I go for a CSciences degree, Also which are the universities which have the accredited degree's and which are the worst universities for it, A older friend of mine recommended northumbria, but Im still not sure if it is accredited or not or even if it is, if it is worth going to.
Hope for an answer soon.
Callum.

 

regarding the accreditation... you should call and ask the university.. i'd be interested as to WHO is accrediting them.

My own person viewpoint, the CS degree is far more useful than a game design degree. Remember... not everyone gets INTO games... you may need to fall back on other learning to earn a living.

that said.. what exactly do you NOT like about the A'level program in 6th form?

 

Problem.

The problem is the lack of creativity, the choice in birkenhead for me is low, due to late timing on my part meaning I can only go for my current, (or late of 3 days) schools 6 from, st-anselms college , or Birkenhead six form.
Birkenhead six form does not rank well on the government leage tables and I fear it would be an education wasted. And st-anselms's It capabilities is not even enough to run anything 3d, plus there is no oppurunity to use programs that they can get for free at home which the college can. Also I wish for a complete change due to past experiences in st-anselms.

Regarding accredidation, I take my source from this "It's not, I should say, all bad. UK creative media industry body Skillset provides accreditation for game-related degrees, and those degrees which are actually accredited by the body generally provide a pretty solid grounding in key game development skills. However, out of over eighty degree courses being offered in the UK, only four have that accreditation." from http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/skill-shortage

 

ok so... i've been in games for over 10 years... and i've never seen anyone require accreditation from that board.

that said... i would still stand by the CS degree for the same reason as before.

BTW - I went to 6th form college in Yorkshire back in the early 90's.

 

Thankyou

Thankyou very much, I will take this into deep consideration, So far it does seem like CS degrees are the way to go, If I may ask though, I have already taken my GCSE's now and I am waiting or my results, so excluding years 11 and lower, is there anything you would have done/not done/done differently to get into the game industry?

 

It probably goes without saying, but only do CS if you're really interested in computers and programming. Even then, consider the other computey courses like Software Engineering, or anything involving a mix of computers and maths.

If not, think about another path like management/production, audio, art, etc. depending on your abilities and tastes.

 

Both

Well Im looking to go into Level/Enviromental design but would still like to have some sort of coding side in it aswell, not as the main part but still A part if you get what i mean.

 

A-Level Maths (or Maths with Mechanics) would be a great start if you fancy a future as a programmer.

 

As I said

Please read what I said, I said that I do not want to, and now can not do A level, and I want programming to be on the side of my passion of level and enviromental design.

 

Well some of our environment artists here write shaders which is pretty Maths intensive. Thought about doing an Architecture degree after college?

 

Hmm

Hmm interesting, An architecture degree does seem relevant, very relevant in fact, May I ask if anybody here works for Lionhead studios, Funcom or SCEE liverpool?

 

why ?

 

Curiosity

As Lionhead is near me so im looking into information from there, SCEE liverpool is also near me but I had minor contact with them to get some information, and Funcom due to reasons I cannot disclose but not something as childish as just liking them. I wish to get some contacts, and be as ready to get into the industry as I can possibly be, im not one of those people who think doing game design just means you sit around and play games all day, as thats naive and stupid in my opinion, I want to seize every oppurtunity that can help me and use it to my fullest potential.

 

i only ask because Lionhead are in guildford and Scee liverpool...are not close at all....

unless i missed something and lionhead opened up a branch up norf

 

Lionhead

Sorry, I mean Amiqus, as lionhead use those for recruitment And we also have a property down in surrey near lionhead.

 

HHHHMMMMMMM

 

Best

What is the best 3d moddeling tool to start practicing with, i've done some with 3ds, maya and cinema4d but im not sure which is more used in the proffesional industry gaming wise.

 

Lego apparently...

 

*sigh*

Recent forum posts suggest Max, Maya, maybe 40% each in US & Europe with XSI, Lightwave and others making up some of the rest. In Japan XSI is supposed to be very popular. Outside of games, Maya has a decent bit of popularity for TV & Film work.

Thus Max and Maya would probably cover you well. But you are aiming to be a level designer with scripting skills? So you'd be better to start making levels in games level editors and using their scripting languages to make cool things happen.

It helps to know what you want, no-one in the games industry is going to pluck you out and make you a star, that's up to you.

 

Its a 3d modelling tool! AND I STAND BY MY COMMENT!