game design class what do they really do in class ?

Revliss

as the title say, i just curios about what going on in game design class like fullsail as i hurd so much bad press about it and some other game design class. that just get me wodering what going on in the class

Rob Galanakis

I'm pretty sure they speak English, so I don't think you'd understand it anyway.

Revliss

yes i have ploblem spelling .

Tulkamir

Game Design classes are varied. They can range from classes where you learn things like game design theory, more technical parts of game design like probability or Game Theory, or practical classes where you actually make games. They can also range from awesome and worth while to completely useless, and that is entirely dependent on the instructor in my experience.

Also, if you are looking into game design you may want to work on the spelling thing, because it involves a hell of a lot of written communication. Spelling and grammar are requirements.

Revliss

yes i am working at the spelling part for the past 25 years.. what i am going for is is the concept art part .. sine that my strong point, well i can read English well just that it imposeble to spell it right ..
what i want to know why do they still have the completely useless part in class

Cody

i visited full sail 4 years ago before i decided to go to a state school, and everyone i met you was going there told me to not enroll.

Sage

If you want to do Concept Art go to a school that teaches illustration or Fine Arts in a really hardcore way. Gnomon professors at least the dvds I have seen, are really good. Buy some it's cheaper. Concept art is really freaking competitive and going to a school that isn't going to push you and show you proper techniques is going to freaking kill you. Then there is that loan you have to pay back... My friend went to their open house and he said that at least they are honest... They say you are going to be broke the first few years after you graduate.

As far as a game design class, anything goes, it's up to the professor. If you are as lucky as me you'll end up with a guy that thinks games aren't a valid art form and instead of a game design class you'll end up with multimedia classes. I knew another professor that was into video games and also taught the same class and the students were making games with Director.

Tulkamir

Revliss wrote: »

yes i am working at the spelling part for the past 25 years.. what i am going for is is the concept art part .. sine that my strong point, well i can read English well just that it imposeble to spell it right ..
what i want to know why do they still have the completely useless part in class

Alright, important bit of information here, Game Design classes are not at all what you are looking for. Game Design is generally associated with the actual gameplay and functionality/systems of a game, not the aesthetics or art. In some instances a school teaching game art specifically is good for a person, but if you are going for concept art I can't see any reason that you would go to a game art school. Look into fine arts programs and learn the traditional art stuff very well, adapt your knowlege of that to games as you go. Though as was mentioned, concept art is a very tough market. If you want to be a concept artist, be sure of it and work your ass off to be the best.

Ged

good advice from tulkamir. I did design for interactive media hons degree and game design modules for us consisted of concepting and creating entire game prototypes(art,design,programming all ourselves)...unfortunately the lecturer was very knowledgable in flash and director so thats what we got taught. I wanted to learn to make real games(PC,360,ps3) not web games but anyway it was a good foundation but certainly didnt give me much help getting an actual job in the games industry. The closest I got to making a real 3D game was in director 3D with havok physics and a player model with biped animation capabilities.

Revliss

wait that all?? why do i have the impration that i learn more here at polycount and 3dbuzz went it down to the 3d and art stuff. well i am looking in for a fine art class, it just that i seen demoreel from degree holder that look like they just Boot up max for the fist 2 weeks. that why i want to know what going on.
ok hope i don't offend any one with this if so i am sorry

[Deleted User]

I took a game design course through Art Institute Online for the brief period I was enrolled there. It might have only been an intro course, now that I think about it, so maybe the follow-up courses had more going on, but it consisted of pretty much nothing. The instructor was a working industry professional (as a producer at the time, if I recall correctly) and he was helpful in that he was able to answer any questions the class had and he did so promptly; but the course itself (which I'm fairly certain the instructor had no say in the structure of) was just answering questions from a book, doing some basic non-technical analysis of some games (not much beyond what anyone who's given it any thought before has already done on their own while playing them), and then we each were to write up a design doc for a hypothetical game for our final. There was a section on Game Theory (as in the economic thing) too for some reason. They didn't get into the art end of it at all, and the school, as a policy, doesn't teach software. (Or they said they didn't at that time at least. They did have us go online and find some free 3ds Max tutorials and do them as assignments for 3d class though. That's when I stopped attending. )

Revliss

ouch sound like a rip off ( it is a rip off right ?)

Jeremy Lindstrom

A degree wont get you a job in this industry, portfolio is king. If you happen to have awesome portfolio and a degree that may help but having only a degree will not help you. period.

Tulkamir

fly_soup wrote: »

There was a section on Game Theory (as in the economic thing) too for some reason.

It has some very interesting processes for figuring out optimal strategies and ensuring that a game is fully balanced. Though I find it's generally limited to competitive/multiplayer games. So yea, that's probably the reason that it was taught at a game design course.