Hi, I want to study game programming in USA, but I don''t know where to study. Could you sugguest me a good one for me? Thanks,

Best advice I imagine anyone will give you:

Go to a university with a good Mathematics department and a good Computer Science department. Work on a BS in Mathematics and Computer Science, then work on a masters degree in CS with an emphasis in CG. While you''re getting your degree diversify your studies on your own time - studying AI, graphics, etc... whatever makes you happy - this is so that you can show understanding and show application of all the things you''ve learned. Showing creativity and vision in your products is important as well.

I say this because I''ve read TONS of articles on "getting into the game industry" ALL over the Internet. I''ve also seen that most of these point out that a "game programming school" does not give you a diversified education, and that most companies (barring AMAZING portfolio work) would rather take on someone who has worked through a degree such as Mathematics and Computer Science.

To emphasise my point, I would like to point you to some school such as Digipen. I''ve seen a lot of good artists come out of Digipen (computer arts, modeling, etc.) but none of this can match what you will learn in a standard accredited university as far as art goes, and then getting your own experience and maybe some guidance from professors who specialize in those sorts of things. Same thing for programming - game programming is mathematics and computer science - take and compare the curriculum you would follow at a university and then compare it to a "game programming school". The content, completeness, and overall versatility of the knowledge you get from a university BS in Mathematics and BS in computer science FAR outweighs what you learn at a "game programming school". Yes, I know - you say, "... but the game programming schools teach you what you need to know to write GAMES." Sure. IF you are REALLY excellent and make some work on your own that shows that you are meritous (sp ? :D) enough to work for that company, sure. If you look at the portfolios that some of these "game programming schools" are proud of, you will also notice that they aren''t even 1/4 impressive as the worst stuff in the portfolios of people (for example some on this forum alone) who most likely really WILL get jobs in the industry.

Also: face it, even those people aren''t going to just have a game programming job fall in their laps. We ALL need to know how to handle SO MANY situations (jobwise, right?) so that we can eat dinner every night while working toward that goal.

In short: Go get a solid, diversified education. If programming is only interesting to you "because you want to make a game", then most likely this profession isn''t for you. Working in this field is hard work. It''s beautiful, fun, rewarding, and you meet excellent people - but it''s hard. If you don''t love mathematics and computer science for what they are, you''re going to get tired, burnt out, and you won''t be able to take a degree in "game programming" to somewhere that they work on say... operating systems... hardware drivers... or any of those exceedingly interesting and exciting fields in computer science.

Take this advice seriously, work hard - never take shortcuts, and never ever compromise your principles.

Good luck.

Errr... Ditto ^_^

(lol, you really typed a long anwser ^_^ Though personally, I''m not going for Computer Science & Mathematics, but rather Artificial Intelligence & Mathematics. CS teaches you technical programming skills quite nicely, but an AI study teaches you creative programming... and that''s damn handy when creating programs )

Point well taken - however a GOOD CS program will aid you in learning the technicals and applications. The idea that I'm aiming for is that one should go for every independent study opportunity they can go for.

One can teach themselves how to be creative problemsolvers with one-on-one assistance from professors... and there is no better place to do this than graduate school of course, where one does alot of "emphasis" type work, papers on things THEY want to do (hopefully )...

My point is definitely not attemtping to be contradictory to yours, while it does not agree either. My real point is I guess - that if one has WILL to be creative and learn what they need, they will succeed. That's the kind of person we all need

Oh yeah. 9 hours until I go to Oktoberfest! WOO! :D

[edited by - Xori on October 12, 2002 4:47:13 AM]

I''m planning on transfering out to the University of Washington where I''ll be duel majoring in CS and physics. Check them out, they''ve got some cool programs. There''s even a game development program through them thats four classes long that has some top developers teaching the classes.

what do you all think of University of Central Florida? I''m going there next fall. Supposedly their competition teams are some of the best in the nation.