Which universty and course ?

Mason- said:
As above, if you are going to do something with games in the title make sure it is a course that says:

Computer Science WITH Games Development

Don't do a course called Games Development etc.

There was an article I read where EA (obviously a massive games company) Will not accept courses of this nature.
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One of the biggest loads of tosh i have heard recently. I am doing Computer Games Design and i know of lots of people who have graduated from this exact course and have jobs in the industry. Infact afaik courses that are 'with' something else or joint degrees are less prestigious(for lack of a better word) because you dont learn everything from either degree so you end up basically stuck between two career choices without all the knowledge you need.

Edit: @ the above quote, i'd love to know how maths has more relevance to game development than actual courses where you learn about game development and design etc :D
 
Skillmister said:
One of the biggest loads of tosh i have heard recently. I am doing Computer Games Design and i know of lots of people who have graduated from this exact course and have jobs in the industry. Infact afaik courses that are 'with' something else or joint degrees are less prestigious(for lack of a better word) because you dont learn everything from either degree so you end up basically stuck between two career choices without all the knowledge you need.

Edit: @ the above quote, i'd love to know how maths has more relevance to game development than actual courses where you learn about game development and design etc :D
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I know several people in the industry. One worked for EA and now works for ubisoft has a games design degree. One works for lionhead has an English degree.

As for your second point, if you are doing anything on the engine, a maths degree is much more useful than games design.
 
Skillmister said:
Edit: @ the above quote, i'd love to know how maths has more relevance to game development than actual courses where you learn about game development and design etc :D
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Design is separate from development and I'll happily admit that the career path for designers might be different. For developers however, games companies typically will prefer candidates from traditional science courses (as I mentioned) to those who have done games courses, Obviously such candidates will need to put a lot of extra work in to create a portfolio or do a masters to transition but the general perception of games courses (with a few exceptions) within the industry seems to be fairly negative - this is from speaking to developers from codemasters, rare, rockstar north, realtime worlds, and more over this summer.
 
@ Skillmister, i take it you mean Staffs Uni, as i recognize the name from the forums :).

I don't get this stigma of any degree with 'Game' in it.

Degrees with Game in the name do work. I know of a friend of a friend who graduated from the Games Programming BSc at Staffs and is a Programmer at Blitz Games in Lemington Spa.

However I know another guy who did a joint maths and game design course, he got a 1st, but hasn't found a job yet. Not saying it was wrong, just what i've seen. I'd imagine maths is great to have for programming etc.

Meh who knows, i can't really speak for the more technical side of things, just my observations. The design side definitely works though :), i've seen many employed who've graduated from a game design degree.
 
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Skillmister said:
One of the biggest loads of tosh i have heard recently. I am doing Computer Games Design and i know of lots of people who have graduated from this exact course and have jobs in the industry. Infact afaik courses that are 'with' something else or joint degrees are less prestigious(for lack of a better word) because you dont learn everything from either degree so you end up basically stuck between two career choices without all the knowledge you need.

Edit: @ the above quote, i'd love to know how maths has more relevance to game development than actual courses where you learn about game development and design etc :D
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Because design is often seen as the media studies of the industry. Not only that, but most of the courses churn out HUD shuffling paper monkeys. Not real designers.
 
Every software development job I have had a look at requires at least a 2.1 in Computing Science or RELATED degree.

I have no idea if this includes those game courses but I'm sure if you have the ability the degree really doesn't matter if you can prove your worth.
 
Personally I would just do the CompSci degree, if you want to move into games development, then do something in your free time, join a mod team or something rather than do the game programming degree, as when you come out of the other side, you will have a portfolio of actual work and a strong background, so you aren't just limited to games development as it were
 
Demoniser said:
@ Skillmister, i take it you mean Staffs Uni, as i recognize the name from the forums :).
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Mhm, back on saturday :rolleyes:

lovedaddy said:
Because design is often seen as the media studies of the industry. Not only that, but most of the courses churn out HUD shuffling paper monkeys. Not real designers.
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I guarentee the 'HUD shuffling paper monkeys' wont do well in a game design degree. Considering how many people failed/did badly in first year and its only going to get harder and more work.
 
I don't see why you wouldn't just pick Computer Science solely, not only does it mean you can work in the games industry it means you can go down different career paths too.

Only reason I can think of is people complaining "I only like gaming and making games therefore I don't want to have to do the generic boring computer science stuff and just the gaming stuff".

Making games whether it be the programming side (physics) or the design side (vectors) requires a decent maths mind, if you're good at maths, good at physics have a logical way of thinking then you'll be good at computer science.
 
Computer Science opens up opportunities to a variety of things, you don't have to follow one strict career path, its a hard degree but worth it.
 
if you want to do something games related do something specific like 3d modelling , programming and sound design etc
 
meghatronic said:
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A game design degree isn't the best way to get into game design from what I hear from friends - who do the job. Two have physics degrees, one comp sci.

I believe it's similar to undergraduate law > lawyer isn't ideal.
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Sorry, my bad, I mis-read your post.

I thought you said:

Well, if you want a job after your degree, "Computer science" is out of that list.
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As in to say that you can't get a job with compsci.
 
meghatronic said:
?

A game design degree isn't the best way to get into game design from what I hear from friends - who do the job. Two have physics degrees, one comp sci.

I believe it's similar to undergraduate law > lawyer isn't ideal.
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Well I'm a Comp Sci graduate, and almost every single one of my classmates is working in IT as a direct result of their degree (or have gone onto postgraduate like me). Variously for games companies, consulting and development firms (HP, IBM, Cap Gemini,...). I couldn't disagree with you more.

@OP: You can often do courses that are Comp Sci with specialism in gaming (i.e. you must to certain modules that are relevant to games development, like graphics, AI, ...). Check out Newcastle Uni's course, as that is what I'm basing my description on.

p.s. CCP games have an office in Newcastle now I gather [eve online]
 
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