How's Full Sail University? (online game dev)

[Grx]

Hi there!

 

Just saw the last video on tech quicky about this university and I am very interested în it!

Soo... Did any one go there? I am expecially curios about the online courses on game design, but any insight will help!

 

I am already making video games with a lesser known program (Construct 2) and I wanted to know if there's was a requiered program to use or if I can use whatever.

 

Also what is the sign-up process?

 

 

Thanks in advance for the comments btw!

[Guest]

If you are to do indie game development, I would recommend learning to use a programming language to make games. You should learn to make games properly instead of using a game maker with no programming required if you expect to have a career in game development.

 

I have never been to Full Sail University, but I do not think that online courses are very useful, and think you will end up better if you self teach. Feel free to ask me anything about beginning programming if you are unsure.

[RangerLunis]

A lotta people down here are going to say "DONT GO ITS STUPID GAME DEGREES ARE SHITTTTTT", but really i'm sure it's a great college with some great programs.

 

While game design degree may not really honestly help you get a job with a company in maybe regular IT, you could have a chance working for indie companies or bigger well known companies, but understand the jobs will be EXTREMELY competitive. I'd honestly recommend looking into their software development program, as mastering programming will let you understand game design so much more and will give you wide options in careers from game companies to regular IT jobs. I also recommend checking out certifications. CompTIA offers some good ones and just that certification alone without any college degree nailed me in a job in the IT department at my local police department. 

 

Good luck!

[Grx]

17 minutes ago, spidsepttk said:

If you are to do indie game development, I would recommend learning to use a programming language to make games. You should learn to make games properly instead of using a game maker with no programming required if you expect to have a career in game development.

 

I have never been to Full Sail University, but I do not think that online courses are very useful, and think you will end up better if you self teach. Feel free to ask me anything about beginning programming if you are unsure.

Thank you for the reply!

 

I think learning a programing language is out of my league (at least for now)

I tried programs like Unity or game maker (witch relley on Java script I belive but also have a vizual elements) and I could not make anything with them =D

Construct 2 is a vizual only program and it does basically all I need it to do except 3D...

 

But if you could link me some good tutorials I'll be sure to check them out.

 

Also, an online course is all I can do as I live in a country with no game dev schools. Do you think they are that useless?

[Guest]

5 minutes ago, Grx said:

Thank you for the reply!

 

I think learning a programing language is out of my league (at least for now)

I tried programs like Unity or game maker (witch relley on Java script I belive but also have a vizual elements) and I could not make anything with them =D

Construct 2 is a vizual only program and it does basically all I need it to do except 3D...

 

But if you could link me some good tutorials I'll be sure to check them out.

 

Also, an online course is all I can do as I live in a country with no game dev schools. Do you think they are that useless?

I have never been to a game dev school, and I know how to code in quite a few languages.

 

Most people would start with Python, but for game dev, you should start with JavaScript in my opinion. Here is how I think you should start learning it:

 

https://www.codecademy.com/learn/javascript

 

Codecademy was used by some friends of mine, and recommended by my school. By the time that I had first heard of it, it was too basic to not be annoying, since I had already learned JavaScript basics.

 

It is a good way to get started programming for modern languages. The coarse is not very long, but it will teach you the basics of programming.

 

I do not like Unity 3d and other similar platforms, I prefer programming the whole thing myself.

[Grx]

30 minutes ago, RangerLunis said:

A lotta people down here are going to say "DONT GO ITS STUPID GAME DEGREES ARE SHITTTTTT", but really i'm sure it's a great college with some great programs.

 

While game design degree may not really honestly help you get a job with a company in maybe regular IT, you could have a chance working for indie companies or bigger well known companies, but understand the jobs will be EXTREMELY competitive. I'd honestly recommend looking into their software development program, as mastering programming will let you understand game design so much more and will give you wide options in careers from game companies to regular IT jobs. I also recommend checking out certifications. CompTIA offers some good ones and just that certification alone without any college degree nailed me in a job in the IT department at my local police department. 

 

Good luck!

Thank you for the comment!

 

I am not looking for a job yet, as I am at the begining of highschool, but I know that I want to make video games (and I am already making them) but I don't know the next "step"

[Grx]

4 minutes ago, spidsepttk said:

I have never been to a game dev school, and I know how to code in quite a few languages.

 

Most people would start with Python, but for game dev, you should start with JavaScript in my opinion. Here is how I think you should start learning it:

 

https://www.codecademy.com/learn/javascript

 

Codecademy was used by some friends of mine, and recommended by my school. By the time that I had first heard of it, it was too basic to not be annoying, since I had already learned JavaScript basics.

 

It is a good way to get started programming for modern languages. The coarse is not very long, but it will teach you the basics of programming.

 

I do not like Unity 3d and other similar platforms, I prefer programming the whole thing myself.

Great! I'll take the course and see how I do =D

Thank you!

[Guest]

Just now, Grx said:

Great! I'll take the course and see how I do =D

Thank you!

No problem! Keep me updated if you have any problems.

[flowalex]

Here are some reviews on Full Sail University, personally I would recomend lynda.com for game design if they have it.  It is a for profit university, so all they really care about is getting your money.  Some of the reviews that I read is that you aren't ready for the real world and that credits don't transfer and any degree from it isn't respected and you have to use google to figure out problems not getting help from the teacher

http://www.studentsreview.com/FL/FSRWE_u.html

[RangerLunis]

1 hour ago, Grx said:

Thank you for the comment!

 

I am not looking for a job yet, as I am at the begining of highschool, but I know that I want to make video games (and I am already making them) but I don't know the next "step"

Ah I see, I definitely recommend studying coding like I said, as it's going to help you the most when it comes to game design.

 

I suggest doing a couple of things:

 

- Start doing projects even if you don't really have coding "experience"

This is a bit hard to explain, but really download notepad++ and in the language option choose any one you feel comfortable with, and then start searching references like source code from other simple games people have made and start using it as your own base. This is what best helped me with learning game design and its ins and outs. Web development languages like html, and javascript can be great as they can be easily accessed and viewed visually any time, as well as having the ability to easily publish and embed the game on a website. 

 

-Find "coding standards"

People have a lot of different words for this, but really I see them most called "standards", by this I mean the correct way to organize and write your code from using semicolons, descriptive variables, and commenting frequently. This is going to help you A LOT. I can't stress how important it is to learn proper coding as it's going to help you optimize your game and save you a lot of headaches. Here's some helpful tools with various languages i've found:

 

Html: https://css-tricks.com/wp-content/csstricks-uploads/Beautiful-HTML-small.jpg

 

Javascript: http://www.w3schools.com/js/js_best_practices.asp

 

C++: http://www.edparrish.net/common/cppdoc.html

 

Python: https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0008/

 

-Don't limit yourself just to games

I know you wanna do games, and yes you can and it's awesome!, but don't limit yourself to just them, you'll find you can grow bored pretty quickly, so try all kinds of different things in IT, I personally not only love making games myself, but I create web pages with web development and create custom computer builds as a business, not to mention networking! The point is stretch your roots and really slowly gain as much information as you can in whatever your interests are even if it isnt in computers, personally I love playing the electric guitar, its always great to find things to keep you from being burnt out from work.

 

-Don't stop at just one thing

This is a little hard for me to explain as well, basically think of yourself studying code and just learning variables for one hour and then just stopping for the whole day, this is really difficult to put into words, but really just continue on and don't be afraid to study something you think is going to be difficult for you, because chances are it'll actually help you.

 

Sorry for this bit of a long post, but I wish you luck

 

[RangerLunis]

Thought I'd just post these for you too as some helpful websites to pretty much just find ANYTHING you need:

 

http://www.w3schools.com/

http://stackoverflow.com/

https://www.codecademy.com/learn

https://www.udacity.com/

https://www.lynda.com/

[SteveGrabowski0]

 

2 hours ago, Grx said:

Also, an online course is all I can do as I live in a country with no game dev schools. Do you think they are that useless?

Yes, any game development course that assumes only your current level of knowledge as a prerequisite will likely be useless. Game programming is much more difficult than writing say a word processor, a webserver, and FTP client/server, etc. You have to learn how to program. It's not something you can pick up overnight, it's hard work. It's fun work, but it takes years. If you really want to be a game programmer consider taking a free online course in programming first. Here is a phenomenal one taken by Harvard freshmen which assumes you know nothing about programming and teaches you some of the C language too.

https://www.edx.org/course/introduction-computer-science-harvardx-cs50x

 

It's a challenging course (obviously nothing is going to be easy at Harvard), but I can't recommend it highly enough. If you can do the work in this class (and you can do it at your own pace) you'll have likely made yourself an extremely strong candidate to get into even the best colleges of engineering. Take the course, not just the videos, but do the projects too. See if you like it. If you do, you'll be taking a huge first step towards being a game programmer.

[Nowak]

Be aware that it's a for-profit college, so they care more about bleeding your wallet dry than actually giving you a good education. If you can, teach yourself game design or find a private, non-profit school as cheaper alternatives.

[Lurick]

If they are even half as bad as DeVry then let me speak from experience, just don't. Credits won't transfer and you'll be out a TON of money with almost no useful experience in the real world. Instead start by going to a community college and taking some basic programming classes there and getting your general education stuff out of the way and coming out with some associates degree in programming and then working your way up from there. For example, the local community college near me has a few game development classes but focuses a lot on the general programming aspect and less on theory or hypothetical situations once you get into it which I like so don't hesitate to check out any near you since they are far cheaper and if you find you don't like it after getting into it you aren't out tens of thousands of dollars.

[Grx]

6 hours ago, flowalex said:

Here are some reviews on Full Sail University, personally I would recomend lynda.com for game design if they have it.  It is a for profit university, so all they really care about is getting your money.  Some of the reviews that I read is that you aren't ready for the real world and that credits don't transfer and any degree from it isn't respected and you have to use google to figure out problems not getting help from the teacher

http://www.studentsreview.com/FL/FSRWE_u.html

Thank you for the site! I'll also consider Linda too

[Grx]

5 hours ago, RangerLunis said:

Ah I see, I definitely recommend studying coding like I said, as it's going to help you the most when it comes to game design.

 

I suggest doing a couple of things:

 

- Start doing projects even if you don't really have coding "experience"

This is a bit hard to explain, but really download notepad++ and in the language option choose any one you feel comfortable with, and then start searching references like source code from other simple games people have made and start using it as your own base. This is what best helped me with learning game design and its ins and outs. Web development languages like html, and javascript can be great as they can be easily accessed and viewed visually any time, as well as having the ability to easily publish and embed the game on a website. 

 

-Find "coding standards"

People have a lot of different words for this, but really I see them most called "standards", by this I mean the correct way to organize and write your code from using semicolons, descriptive variables, and commenting frequently. This is going to help you A LOT. I can't stress how important it is to learn proper coding as it's going to help you optimize your game and save you a lot of headaches. Here's some helpful tools with various languages i've found:

 

Html: https://css-tricks.com/wp-content/csstricks-uploads/Beautiful-HTML-small.jpg

 

Javascript: http://www.w3schools.com/js/js_best_practices.asp

 

C++: http://www.edparrish.net/common/cppdoc.html

 

Python: https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0008/

 

-Don't limit yourself just to games

I know you wanna do games, and yes you can and it's awesome!, but don't limit yourself to just them, you'll find you can grow bored pretty quickly, so try all kinds of different things in IT, I personally not only love making games myself, but I create web pages with web development and create custom computer builds as a business, not to mention networking! The point is stretch your roots and really slowly gain as much information as you can in whatever your interests are even if it isnt in computers, personally I love playing the electric guitar, its always great to find things to keep you from being burnt out from work.

 

-Don't stop at just one thing

This is a little hard for me to explain as well, basically think of yourself studying code and just learning variables for one hour and then just stopping for the whole day, this is really difficult to put into words, but really just continue on and don't be afraid to study something you think is going to be difficult for you, because chances are it'll actually help you.

 

Sorry for this bit of a long post, but I wish you luck

 

Thanks for all the tips! This will help me a ton to orientate!

[Grx]

5 hours ago, SteveGrabowski0 said:

 

Yes, any game development course that assumes only your current level of knowledge as a prerequisite will likely be useless. Game programming is much more difficult than writing say a word processor, a webserver, and FTP client/server, etc. You have to learn how to program. It's not something you can pick up overnight, it's hard work. It's fun work, but it takes years. If you really want to be a game programmer consider taking a free online course in programming first. Here is a phenomenal one taken by Harvard freshmen which assumes you know nothing about programming and teaches you some of the C language too.

https://www.edx.org/course/introduction-computer-science-harvardx-cs50x

 

It's a challenging course (obviously nothing is going to be easy at Harvard), but I can't recommend it highly enough. If you can do the work in this class (and you can do it at your own pace) you'll have likely made yourself an extremely strong candidate to get into even the best colleges of engineering. Take the course, not just the videos, but do the projects too. See if you like it. If you do, you'll be taking a huge first step towards being a game programmer.

Thanks for the link to the course! It will come în handy! 

[Nexxus]

Here OP
 

 

[Grx]

5 hours ago, Lurick said:

If they are even half as bad as DeVry then let me speak from experience, just don't. Credits won't transfer and you'll be out a TON of money with almost no useful experience in the real world. Instead start by going to a community college and taking some basic programming classes there and getting your general education stuff out of the way and coming out with some associates degree in programming and then working your way up from there. For example, the local community college near me has a few game development classes but focuses a lot on the general programming aspect and less on theory or hypothetical situations once you get into it which I like so don't hesitate to check out any near you since they are far cheaper and if you find you don't like it after getting into it you aren't out tens of thousands of dollars.

Thanks for the comment! I am looking for some Information on this school, but it'still hard to find... (that's why I started this thread)

I don't hink it's that bad since Linus had a sponsor spot with it...

 

As for local collages, I live in a small country with a more "traditional" approach to education...

[Grx]

6 hours ago, Daring said:

Be aware that it's a for-profit college, so they care more about bleeding your wallet dry than actually giving you a good education. If you can, teach yourself game design or find a private, non-profit school as cheaper alternatives.

I don't think that for-profit is a good criteria to stop considering a school...

 

Also a for-profit school will have acces to programs and materials that non-profit schools may not have...

 

I don'the know enough though to know for sure, so I may be completely wrong =D

[Grx]

24 minutes ago, Nexxus said:

Here OP
 

 

Lol I know the video =D But it does not help when I don't know enough about the school...

[Nowak]

6 minutes ago, Grx said:

I don't think that for-profit is a good criteria to stop considering a school...

 

Also a for-profit school will have acces to programs and materials that non-profit schools may not have...

 

I don'the know enough though to know for sure, so I may be completely wrong =D

For-profit colleges are notorious for placing profits above educational quality. As a result, education standards are very, very poor and you end up with a very expensive, very useless degree with minimal knowledge to back up that degree.

 

Oh, most companies don't accept people with degrees from for-profit colleges, namely DeVry and ITT Tech. There's another knock against for-profit colleges. Honestly, save yourself some money and frustration and try to get into a state university or non-profit institution, you won't regret it in the long run (and you won't get a useless degree - but honestly, certifications are much more important than a college degree towards getting a job).

[Nexxus]

11 minutes ago, Grx said:

Lol I know the video =D But it does not help when I don't know enough about the school...

Research bud there is alot of useful info in that video particularly the second half. 

[Nowak]

Honestly, the best advice I can give for anyone wanting to go into college is do your research, apply yourself, open your mind (stop having it be closed) and work hard towards that degree and any certs you need in addition to that degree, if necessary. Also, pay attention in class, that's very important too.

[AlTech]

On ‎7‎/‎29‎/‎2016 at 4:48 AM, spidsepttk said:

I have never been to a game dev school, and I know how to code in quite a few languages.

 

Most people would start with Python, but for game dev, you should start with JavaScript in my opinion. Here is how I think you should start learning it:

 

https://www.codecademy.com/learn/javascript

 

Codecademy was used by some friends of mine, and recommended by my school. By the time that I had first heard of it, it was too basic to not be annoying, since I had already learned JavaScript basics.

 

It is a good way to get started programming for modern languages. The coarse is not very long, but it will teach you the basics of programming.

 

I do not like Unity 3d and other similar platforms, I prefer programming the whole thing myself.

You can make games in JavaScript?

 

On ‎7‎/‎29‎/‎2016 at 4:05 AM, Grx said:

Hi there!

 

Just saw the last video on tech quicky about this university and I am very interested în it!

Soo... Did any one go there? I am expecially curios about the online courses on game design, but any insight will help!

 

I am already making video games with a lesser known program (Construct 2) and I wanted to know if there's was a requiered program to use or if I can use whatever.

 

Also what is the sign-up process?

 

 

Thanks in advance for the comments btw!

I would advise either learning some C++ or C# and try sending them an email asking them what is required for the course.