Any good video game design schools in seattle?

miguel

I recently moved up here to federal Way by Seattle and wanted to know since I see alot of polycounters are seattlites is there any good game design schools that are recommended or you've heard good things about.

There's an ITT tech close by me that I went to was wondering if anybody knows or has been in the Digital Entertainment and game design program they have? Is it worth the money and time to get a bachelors of science degree in game design at Itt Tech. Any info anybody has would be really great. Thanks.

-Miguel

miguel

Just recently moved up here to Federal Way by Seattle and was wondering if anyone knew of any good game design schools that they could say they went to or heard from a friend was a great school.

I just got back from talking with ITT tech(south Seattle) for there bachelors of science degree in digital entertainment and game design. Everyone seems real nice and looks like a cool place to learn. Does anyone one in Seattle have any experience going to this school and program? Any advice help would be appreciated. Thanks.

-Miguel

Mark Dygert

https://www.digipen.edu/
Digipen if your serious, but the wait list is long and the tuition is pretty heavy. I know a professor, there great school one of the oldest and most refined. Outside of that most others in the area are a joke...

I work with a lot of people that came from the Art Institute of Seattle, everyone says the same thing they are thankful for the opportunity but they didn't learn much with regard to the job they are doing now. They learned what they needed to know outside of school and basically used school as away to get some kind of paper degree.

I wouldn't waste my time on ITT. I have zero confidence that they won't do anything but rape your wallet and leave you bleeding in the street.

Cody

Go to a four year state school with an art program. You don't want to miss out on the college experience, and from all the threads like this that pop up, the consensus is there is no good game design school. Learn what you need to outside of school, and get the basics of art from a college. Paint, draw, sculpt, and do 3d on the side, and in classes if they have them, you will be better off in the long run IMHO.

miguel

Hey guys,

Thanks for the replys. Digen is a bit to expensive for me dont feel like paying back all that money in loans. Hey Vig, do most people that work in the game industry in or around seattle all have some type of degree? OR are there lucky ones that got in that were self taught and just had really sweet looking demo reels or portfolios.

I tried to ask the guy at the ITT tech that I wanted to sit in one of the classes to see if I liked how the curriculum was being taught and they told me for legal reasons they couldnt do this. Sound fishy or not? Then he showed me the students that got jobs in these fields I didnt see one recognizable game company in there in the seattle area. So I'm wondering do potential employers really go out of there way to employ grads in these game design programs.

Just trying to figure out what road I want to take. I've been level designing partime from home off and on with indie game engines for about 4 yrs now. Really want to get into animation and just wondering if I can use Maya for animation and could rig and animate anything is that enough to be able to get an animation job?

-Miguel

Cody

Ya maya would be fine. There are tons of free rigs out there if you just want to jump right into animating for max and maya. I went to school with a guy who is now an animator at Insomniac. He did a lot of 2d hand drawn animation, and transfered those skills to 3d. I recommend doing some 2d animation. Not only is it a lot of fun, it's rewarding, and can help you in the long run. My friend had a balance of 2d and 3d in his demo reel and got the job, so...ya. Not nessesary but fun. He went to VCU with me in Richmond, and neither of us would have traded the 4 year bachelors for anything. here is a link to his reel that got him the job http://www.coreypeagler.com/webmovies/CoreyPeagler_lg.mov. and this is work he did for the new racket and clank http://www.coreypeagler.com/webmovies/CoreyPeagler_lg.mov

miguel

Thats some really cool animating. Very life like and fun. No wonder he got a job animating. If anyone has anything on ITT tech for there game design program would really love to hear if its worth it or not thru personal experiences.

-Miguel

Mark Dygert

I hear ya about digipen, but it really is the best in the area.

My personal feeling is that portfolio trumps any kind of paper it accompanies.

Out of the people I've met and worked with, a lot of the artists at big and small studios, acquired their how skills through self teaching and they refined their artistic talent either through school or on their own also. If they happen to have a degree its from something unrelated or its a standard 4 year art degree. It could be because we're all old and game schools being a more recent trend, we by-passed it because it wasn't there for us.

The overwhelming conclusion I've come to is that to land a job you need to be good at what you do and your portfolio needs to reflect that. How you get there is up to you but its what matters. School isn't a guarantee, it won't necessarily give you the means to succeed. In fact it might give you a false sense of security. It will take a lot of doing on your part in or out of school to land a job in the industry.

As for animation its a much smaller pool and easier to get into. Good animators are hard to find and very prized.

Being familiar with Maya is great, but also being familiar with 3dsmax and Biped would be a good move. 3dsmax gets used quite a bit in real time games and takes a while to really learn biped. It might also be a good idea to learn MotionBuilder, since both 3dsmax and maya can export to it, it doesn't matter what a studio uses. But I wouldn't put all your eggs in the MB basket because some places might not want to pony up for it or try to incorporate it into their pipeline.

The kind of animation most schools teach is more geared toward film the best being Animation Mentor. Most schools hardly ever touch on real time games. With the exception of Animation Mentor they also gloss over the core principles of animation like weight, timing and anticipation. They get caught up on technical how-to stuff like teaching the interface and rigging (important stuff) but run out of time and talent when it comes to actually making great animation.

I would question the ITT guy on who teaches the classes and what their qualifications are.

Jeremy Lindstrom

Always look at where the money goes. The ITT guy gets money to fill a seat. He needs you to fill a seat and like most game type schools don't even have any requirements to get in.

Sage

dude if you are going to get loans you might as well get in debt so you can get something out of it, a career vs, spending 5 to ten years working odd jobs to pay back for the piece of paper. Any reason you are sticking to Seattle

Thegodzero

If your a great artist and have work to show it thats all the industry cares about.

What it takes for you to get there doesn't matter to the company.


Save your money, and go to school at a community college for the art program and study 3d in your spare time. All "game schools" will "teach" you is what they read in the books they will make you buy. So find out what books they require at digipen and read them. Do the tutorials as they would be the assignments you would get in school anyway. By the time you get your AA for a CC you will be much better off in the wallet and in the skill set.

ebagg

Henry Cogswell College like me!!! Oh wait their Everett branch closed...

Definitely Digipenn. Or just take some art classes and work if you have the self discipline, that will save you a ton o cash.

Ferg

a friend of mine it taking game art classes at Seattle Central Community College, the class is apparently pretty awesome, it's taught by an artist from Arena Net, and there's only a handful of people taking it so you get a lot of one-on-one time.

Josh_Singh

Miguel, don't do ITT bro. I went there for a bit and it was a classic case of student knowing more than the teacher. They will try to sell you, they are gonna be real nice to get you to sign that paper and get some of that pell Grant, Leave it alone. Just walk away from ITT.
Digipen, Last I heard it has ziltch for game artists. Game Designers, Programmers, might find something of interest there.
My advice is what others have said. Go to a regular college with a nice art program, get good at the Basics COLOR THEORY AND ANATOMY with those two weapons in your arsenal you will be a force to be reckoned with. I am telling you get a grasp on that and you will succeed, the software knowledge will come in time.
That is my advice.

Sage

Yeah going to a Community college seems to pay off a lot more than paying the same class at a university because a lot of time you get more one to one attention from the professors, smaller classes, but before you go pay big bucks ask to sit in a few classes to see if you like it. Also the equipment is better at times, funny how that happens. Of course the people that welcome you to ITT are nice that is their job, they are there to sell you on the place. Good luck.

miguel

Wow thx guys for all the advice. I really needed some good sound advice like this before making this huge financial and time commitment. I'm currently waiting on animation mentor to see if I get in or not its really what I want to do is become an awesome character animator and bring things to life:).

Another place I found that was interesting is this site. http://www.gameart.sessions.edu/
Talked with them last week its about $6200 roughly for 12 months. Dont really care about the certificate its the knowledge I want to generate the portfolio I need to get in is what they claim to show you. Seems like they have guys that worked or work in the industry to show whats currently being done in maya.

I work for this company as the level/scene designer.
http://www.friendshangout.com/3dchat.php#play
My old stuff I did in 3dgamestudio and Torque
http://miguelbenitez.carbonmade.com/
Level design's cool but I want to learn maya for animation.

I hear you guys about the getting a strong art background first before tackling program X and so on. I'll just see where I end up after doing some research and thinking first.

-Miguel

Ryno

A degree doesn't really mean much for the games industry. Art skills and technical aptitude do. Most tech schools are mediocre at teaching technical skills, and won't teach you anything about art. Fine arts classes + 1 or 2 intensive tech courses would probably serve you better in getting the skillset that will earn you a job.

I used to teach at Mesmer here in Seattle before they went out of business, and met a lot of the local instructors. I wasn't too impressed with many of their technical knowledge but it's possible there might be better teachers around here now.

nitzmoff

I disagree. A degree is an important thing to have. That said, I would go to a state school instead of a game design program somewhere. I think potential employers are still suspect of such things (myself included).

If you want to do art, get an art degree from a good school and work your ass off in your spare time at game art.

System

I think technical ability is considerably more important than a degree. im basing this off of my experience and thats that your ability itself isnt whats graded at all, its your ability to follow the brief and meet the marking criteria. While that may be a valuable trait to some extent it doesn't count for shit if the work they are producing isn't upto scratch.

Derailing this, my bad - Courses are good for environment and the insentive to do more and its awesome to have the freetime!

Thegodzero

couldn't find your old post?

http://boards.polycount.net/showthread.php?t=56604

Emil Mujanovic

Merged threads.

-caseyjones