its sounds like you're more interested in the graphics artist side of game development, as opposed to the programming side

My biggest problem is that i have got a lot of interests and i find hard to outline my own future study or career path.

I never had clear ideas, but i think that speak with people who know game dev area better than me will be very useful, thank you all for this opportunity

I'll follow your advices =) =)

its sounds like you're more interested in the graphics artist side of game development, as opposed to the programming side

Yes, i recently admit to my self that
My biggest problem is that i have got a lot of interests and i find hard to outline my own future study or career path.
I never had clear ideas, but i think that speak with people who know game dev area better than me will be very useful, thank you all for this opportunity
I'll follow your advices =) =)

There is a book, "What Color Is Your Parachute?", that you might find helpful for that. It has been a top selling book for decades so you can probably find several editions in your local library.

In that book there is a section called the Flower Diagram. It helps you figure out what is important to you (your petals) and ways to nurture and grow your own flower. Work through the process described in the book to build your diagram. It can take some serious work, some people take multiple weeks of soul-searching to figure out their personal answers.

If you have worked through the process carefully, you will discover a highly personal diagram that lets you see:

* Passions and interests you want to follow, and why they are important to you
* Values, purposes, and goals you have in your life that will affect your work, and why they are important to you
* Where you want to be geographically, and why
* People and environments you want to work with, and why
* Working conditions you want, and why
* Levels of responsibility and Salary that describe both reasonable values and ideal values
* The skills and traits that you feel define who you are as they relate to the six areas above

Since you don't seem to know exactly what you want to do (you don't know if you want to create art, or to create designs, or to create code) I think that exercise would be very useful.

if artwork is more to your liking, then as Tom says, check out getting into a graphics art degree program, preferably one with an emphasis on 3d modeling and animation as well as 2d artwork for textures and GUI components. being art related, i would think that italy might tend to have more of these type programs than some other countries. but just as you have to live where the jobs are, you also have to live where the schools are. so you may not want to limit yourself to ireland, and may instead want to go where the best art program is, and vacation in ireland.

its sounds like you're more interested in the graphics artist side of game development, as opposed to the programming side

Yes, i recently admit to my self that
My biggest problem is that i have got a lot of interests and i find hard to outline my own future study or career path.
I never had clear ideas, but i think that speak with people who know game dev area better than me will be very useful, thank you all for this opportunity
I'll follow your advices =) =)

There is a book, "What Color Is Your Parachute?", that you might find helpful for that. It has been a top selling book for decades so you can probably find several editions in your local library.

In that book there is a section called the Flower Diagram. It helps you figure out what is important to you (your petals) and ways to nurture and grow your own flower. Work through the process described in the book to build your diagram. It can take some serious work, some people take multiple weeks of soul-searching to figure out their personal answers.

If you have worked through the process carefully, you will discover a highly personal diagram that lets you see:

* Passions and interests you want to follow, and why they are important to you
* Values, purposes, and goals you have in your life that will affect your work, and why they are important to you
* Where you want to be geographically, and why
* People and environments you want to work with, and why
* Working conditions you want, and why
* Levels of responsibility and Salary that describe both reasonable values and ideal values
* The skills and traits that you feel define who you are as they relate to the six areas above

Since you don't seem to know exactly what you want to do (you don't know if you want to create art, or to create designs, or to create code) I think that exercise would be very useful.

Thank you Frob i ordered it :D

if artwork is more to your liking, then as Tom says, check out getting into a graphics art degree program, preferably one with an emphasis on 3d modeling and animation as well as 2d artwork for textures and GUI components. being art related, i would think that italy might tend to have more of these type programs than some other countries. but just as you have to live where the jobs are, you also have to live where the schools are. so you may not want to limit yourself to ireland, and may instead want to go where the best art program is, and vacation in ireland.

Unfortunately Italy is in a critical situation, there's no job, and those who have degrees or other qualifications is underestimated than those who haven't it. (Italy is the Country of contradictions), courses are expensive, university is bad organized, i hope to find something better abroad, here there's no future.

Well Dundee in Scotland have a good history of game development, GTA started there at DMA design, have a look at this course this sounds perfect for you.

http://www.abertay.ac.uk/courses/ug/comparts/

Well Dundee in Scotland have a good history of game development, GTA started there at DMA design, have a look at this course this sounds perfect for you.

http://www.abertay.ac.uk/courses/ug/comparts/

Interesting, but i don't really understand what are these "levels required" in Italy:

Higher AABB; A Level BCC; ILC (H) AABB; BTEC Extended Diploma DMM
Essential subjects: Art

English and Maths: All applicants must have passes in English and Maths in any of the following: SQA Standard Grade 1-3, National 5 grade A-C, Intermediate 2 grade A-B, GCSE grade A-C.

Advanced entry (year 2)
Advanced Higher/A Level: AAB (Art)

Overseas/EU
All applicants are required to provide certified proof of competence in English Language and the University's minimum requirements are listed here

Alternative Qualifications
Applications are generally assessed on the basis of standard school leaving qualifications such as SQA Highers or GCE A Levels. For those with alternative qualifications, consideration is given to professional qualifications or other forms of formal academic learning as well as experience gained that could provide evidence of ability to benefit from a particular course.

I don't know, you would next to talk to careers advice in Italy. I don't know how EU school qualifications relate to UK qualifications.

I'm Irish, but not in the game making business. I'm not aware of any major game development studios in here, most software companies in general seem to use Ireland more as a convenient tax beachhead than a place to actually make things. There does seem to be a smattering of smaller studios.

That said, I am vaguely aware of several courses in game design that have sprung up in some of the third level institutes here - I know this because they sprung up after I entered college on a more general course! I can't personally vouch for/against them, but if you like living here for whatever reason, there certainly are options to study here. I don't know how highly such game specific courses are thought of (regardless of where you study), I'd definitely recommend researching that.

For reference, I believe that "standard" 4 year university degree here are typically FETAC level 8, so a level 6 would probably not be considered on par with this.

What's the difference between Certificate Courses, Degree Courses, Diploma Courses and Postgraduate Courses ?

from the titles, it appears that certificate courses are short programs (months or 1-2 years).

Degree courses appear to be regular 4 year bachelor's degree programs.

Diploma courses appear to be masters level degrees (>4 years)

postgrad looks to be anything beyond masters, IE PhD and postgrad type stuff.

but i'm in the US, not Ireland.

a number of schools in north america have started degree programs in various aspects of game development. and then of course, there's Full Sail University, which appears to be the only school dedicated solely to game development.

do a google search on game development schools. i got a ton of good hits just now when i tried it. westwood, full sail, etc, even a list of the top 50 US schools for game development. heck, i didn't even think there _were_ 50 schools in the US with gamedev programs!

other folks here who work in the industry may be able to recommend one school over another. when i started, there were no schools, there were no game engines, and EA was just 2 guys with $200,000 to blow. the gamedev forum on compuserv was where all gamedevs worldwide hung out.

to paraphrase a famous quote, "everything i needed to learn about game development i learned on compuserv's gamdev forum" ( and much of the harder stuff from someone who went by the handle of BioHazard ).

actually that's not true, you never stop learning in this industry.