I have long asked the question of weather or not to go to a game development school or not. Well I have emailed about 10 difference developers on this topic to get a real indepth answer from the peoples that will be hiring us in the future. I emailed such studios as StormFront, Obsidian, RedStorm, Collective Studios, Planet Moon, Surreal, and Insomniac Games. These may not be the big name companys like Bungie or THQ but these are the people that you will possibly be working for. The Question: Hello, I am an aspiring young programmer, still in highschool, and looking for advice on colleges. I would just like your professional opinion on who you would hire. Would you hire a Full Sail or DigiPen student over a general BS in CS graduate from a University? This would really greatly help me in my attempts to decide where I would like to go after graduating from high school. Any help and advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. Sincerely, Austin Overton The Answer: Obsidian Austin, I haven't yet taken the time to look into the program at Full Sail, so it's hard for me to judge. In general I would say that coming from a place like Full Sail that focuses on game development would carry more weight than someone coming from a normal computer science program. I can also highly recommend Digipen as an option worth looking into. I have hired programmers graduating from there and I feel they have an excellent program for giving you the foundation you will need as a game programmer. That said, just having gone through a game development program is generally not enough. You need to demonstrate a love of games and a passion and desire to work in this industry. I would strongly suggest modding existing games or developing smaller-scale games as a hobby to see if game development is really what you want to spend your life doing. A lot of the people we hire for junior-level/inexperienced positions are people who have an impressive game mod, demo or small scale game to show us. There is an old thread on our forums that discusses this very topic here: http://forums.obsidianent.com/index.php?showtopic=560 Hope this helps. Feel free to e-mail me with any other questions you have. Chris ^^^- Permission Recieved Surreal: Hi Austin, To be honest we've hired a good number of folks from both camps, but I'd say we give slight preference to graduates of a traditional University because in general they provide a more well rounded education. Ultimately though, it's up to the individual. -tim ^^^- Permission Recieved I will provide the answers from the other developers, if they respond, as soon as I get them. Hopefully this will provide some more insite as to what type of college you will want to go to. Note: These are more focused on Full Sail and DigiPen. Nothing like Devry or your local college game dev programs. [Edited by - whitin on May 25, 2005 7:32:43 PM]

While this is helpful and interesting, I wonder if you asked their permission to re-post their replies? It's one thing to reply via email to someone who's asking for personal advice. It's another entirely to represent your company in a public forum...

Quote:Original post by Telastyn
While this is helpful and interesting, I wonder if you asked their permission to re-post their replies? It's one thing to reply via email to someone who's asking for personal advice. It's another entirely to represent your company in a public forum...

Ok, I am now remembering to ask permission when I recieve replys. Thanks for the reminder.

[Edited by - whitin on May 25, 2005 6:55:48 PM]