I was wondering if anyone could do me a favour quick, i am interested in starting a career in game programming/development and wanted to go to school for it, i am interested in more of the programming side of things with how char will move and what they do and how the game will responde, when i talk to a live chat operator on the site he says that it does involve some of that but the class description says its more about visuals i was jsut wondering if someone with some history in the field could take a look at the class list for me and tell me if they think it would be a good place to start. http://www.artinstitutes.edu/vancouver/Academics/Default.aspx?discipline=6&subdiscipline=&command=Programs&program=144&curriculum=true

nunz, I know several people who went to Art Institute for the Visual Game Programming degree. Take it from me and my friends who did / are doing the program -- it is a complete waste of time.

Go to a four year university and get a degree in Computer Science instead. You will not learn about games specifically, but transitioning to making games will not be difficult at all. This is the path that I took and I easily was able to get a programming internship in games with my portfolio that I developed on my own time. In fact, most of the recruiters and engineers that I have talked to in the game industry PREFER students without game-specific degrees (unless you go to DigiPen).

Do not try to take shortcuts in this career path, it will only bite you in the ass. I have beat out hundreds of applicants with game-specific engineering degrees because they simple did not have the low-level understanding of how software (general and game) works -- which you will attain by getting a degree in Computer Science from a good university. Good luck to you, and I sincerely hope that you take my advice.

That's only programming right?

I'd think the art side wouldn't be too bad, since it's just art/modelling with gaming in mind.

Moving to the Breaking In forum.

+1 to colossal.

I'm currently studying software engineering (4 year career here in Spain) and planning to go Full Sail after that. I think that a "real" career it's better in the long run by the following:

You can program your games in your spare time. Perhaps you find out that game programming don't like as much as you thought.

Perhaps you find a branch in computers that fits better your skills or your preferences.

It's hard to say, but perhaps you (or me) haven't enough talent to make a career in game development, and it's easy to move on with more rounded education

Quote:

Original post by nunz02 i am interested in starting a career in game programming/development and wanted to go to school for it, i am interested in more of the programming side of things

View Forum FAQ (above).
And you should always capitalize the word "I"

Listen to colossal.

As a graduate from the Art Institute of Vancouver - Burnaby (which I'll refer to as AIVB), I can tell you straight up: their programming course is utter garbage, and worse yet, it's expensive garbage.

I won't get into the details, but I've interviewed quite a few graduates from AIVB and the nearby BCIT, and on average AIVB graduates score less than a first year student on BCIT student. My favorite was around 4.5/30 in our C/C++ test by an interviewee who wrote he/she had 'expert knowledge' in C++. Worst case, but this was an easy test.

Go for the full 4-year degree, and get as much education and experience as you can. Don't take the shortest path; take the smartest one.