Need a lot of college help please

[TSElliot]

Hi,

I need some college help. I want to get into the video game industry, and I just need a bit of advice. There are a few schools that offer specific video game courses - programming, design, art - and I think what I would enjoy most is design. I have a few questions that I'd really like answered...

*I realize have to learn programming languages, what languages should I start looking up?
*Do I have to go to one of these schools that are focusing on video games? If I take a computer science degree, would I still be able to get into the game industry?
*I found a school that offers both online and on-campus... (www *dot* uat *dot* edu/default.aspx) would there be any drawbacks to taking the online course? Since I'm not in the US it would be a lot more convenient and a lot cheaper.
*Do I have to go to the US? It feels like most of the companies/a lot of them are US based, and I'd be doing myself an injustice not going there to school and going to EU/Australia instead.
*Is there anything I can do now that will help me learn? I know a lot of this is self-learning, and I was looking through open positions in game companies, and I noticed that generally they don't require a Bachelor's degree. I figure if I could just school for a bit and learn as much as I can on my own it'd be a lot faster/cheaper in the overall process.

Thanks guys... I really appreciate any answers you give me, and anything else you feel is important that I should know.

[eriseis]

Maybe it would help to check out the job sites for different companies to see what they want. Even if you can't find a university with a specific class set, you may find a college with relevant courses which offer related curricula.

You can start by checking out Blizz's site, they have a pretty nice job board site.

[Varabently]

I like the above response. Check for real job listing that seem realistic and see what they want. That makes the most sense and I wish I had done that before picking a stupid major (psychology) which ended up being worthless.

[eriseis]

I like the above response. Check for real job listing that seem realistic and see what they want. That makes the most sense and I wish I had done that before picking a stupid major (psychology) which ended up being worthless.

I majored in Linguistics...after dropping out of business...if that makes you feel any better...

Now, I did happen to score a sweet job in an amazing IT firm...but didn't have the skill set to keep it. And any job I wanna do requires a 3000 dollar certification, if I could pay for that, I wouldn't be searching for jobs in the first place.

[Archangel Tyrael]

What country are you from mate?

[Brandoh]

Full Sail in winter park FL is pretty popular and has a good job placement program and working parentage.
it is however very fucking expensive.... i was gonna do that, but then i went to a state school and got an English degree...lol

[Adam Jensen]

Well if you want to learn languages, I'd look at the big ones, definitely C++. There is A LOT of documentation on C++ and you can learn a very decent chunk on your own, though much of it can be confusing and better explained in a class room setting (I still don't get polymorphism, and no, not the spell to turn mobs into sheep!) I'd also expand a bit, perhaps grab a bit of VBasic or Java or a few others just to get an idea of what the syntax of programming is like. There are free compilers you can mess with, like Bloodshed as well.

As to whether you want a gaming oriented degree or one based on computer programming in general, I'm sure both can get you a job in the gaming industry, but there are many factors in creating a game that a regular programming course might not cover. I'm not sure how far into graphics and animation, for example, a generic IT degree would take yo. However, an IT degree would be broader and might help you land a computer oriented job if for some reason getting into the game development industry becomes difficult.

I don't know how good of a source this is anymore as I haven't used this software in a long time (I used to mess with Gamestudio as a hobby) but http://www.3dgamestudio.com/ has a forum that, when I used the program, had a number of very experienced developers you could talk to. Just know that that was years ago and I haven't kept up with it.

[vizzle]

Full Sail in winter park FL is pretty popular and has a good job placement program and working parentage.
it is however very fucking expensive.... i was gonna do that, but then i went to a state school and got an English degree...lol

Full Sail costs the bank >.<

[Riavan]

I'd advise just doing an IT degree, instead of a dedicated computer game degree.

[Snakeseye0]

Please please watch this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGar7KC6Wiw Talks about somethings to EXPECT.