Hello all. Is there anybody from the UK that can suggest any home learning courses available or that they have done to help get on the right track to breaking into the indusrty.

Hello all. Is there anybody from the UK that can suggest any home learning courses available or that they have done to help get on the right track to breaking into the indusrty.

If it have to be home learning, why not a open university degree?

http://www3.open.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/mathematics-and-statistics/index.htm
http://www3.open.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/computing-and-ict/index.htm

-Daniel

http://www.train2game.com/

This'll teach you everything, and much cheaper than a degree. They'll even help you find work afterwards or you can choose to start your career independently. Gives you lots of experience universities won't.

Oh, and it's at your own pace

http://www.train2game.com/

This'll teach you everything, and much cheaper than a degree. They'll even help you find work afterwards or you can choose to start your career independently. Gives you lots of experience universities won't.

Oh, and it's at your own pace

On the other hand, the universities will give you a lot of experience that that course wont Call me old fashioned, but personally I would go for a "real" degree any day.

I do interviews with new candidates at the company I work for, not game developers, but developers never the less. And its my responsibility to ensure that the people coming though are of a certain quality so obviously the candidates have to do various little tests (which have been made up by a group of people, including me).

The pitfall with some of these "tailor made" courses are usually that they tend to spend time on building something that the candidate can show once done. And have a tendency to skip some very basic stuff. Like, reading though this: http://www.train2game.com/wp-content/uploads/PDFs/T2G-Plan-ofthe-Course-Developer.pdf

it comes off as a advanced C++ course, with a lot of added goodies about the technology being used to produces games. It actually looks quite nice. But, and this is a massive but, Math is covered in one lesson. So is state machines.

Is that really a good substitute for the amount of math and computer science modelling a average CS degree offer? Then there's the algorithms and data structures bits and bobs.

Combine this with a BSc in CS or Mathematics, then your talking

I'm not saying this type of courses are bad, not at all. I'm just saying courses like that usually have the potential of producing students who can only really do what they have been showed to do. And lacks the foundry to actually make them able to produce mathematical models, algorithms etc on their own them-self.

Real life example, I seen candidates who who held quite a lot of certifications, but couldn't produce a algorithm that converted a string (or a list of characters if you wish) into a integer with out using the functions build into the language. I never seen anybody with a CS or a Math degree not being able do it in the matter of minutes (which is obviously how it should be). On the other hand, one of the best programmers I have ever met only has A level education. BUT, and this is the but. He have self studied all the basics, maths, algorithms, you name it.. and he has a obsessive personality in regards of "fully understanding" everything he works with. The amount of books that dude have read is insane, and he's personality and the way he self studies makes it work for him.

So basically, I'm not saying there's a right way, or a wrong way of doing anything. In the end of the day, it depends on the person. But, as a rule of thumb, I would choose a degree rather than a "insert specific product training here" type course. That's just my two cents though