It is a serious school that does a good job of getting people ready for game development. It is not a general degree program, which has both its pros and cons. Some universities do an OK job of addressing graphic and entertainment, but not many. There is no middle ground yet.



Glen Martin
Dynamic Adventures Inc.
Zenfar

The school is very good at what it does. The school gets you ready for a job however it doesn''t get you the job. Don''t confuse the two or you''ll be sorely disappointed.

In 15 months you''ll learn what would take a few years of reading books, grasping concepts, surfing the net for info, and programming.

What you don''t learn isn''t really on any website, or in any book, it''s the experience and knowledge that you gain once you get into the industry.

Does Full Sail teach you everything you need to know? Absolutely not, they teach you what you need to know to get started, after that it''s up to you to make contacts, find information, and elaborate on the education that you''ve received.

Full Sail Grad
Nov ''99


Joseph Fernald
Software Engineer
Red Storm Entertainment.
------------------------
The opinions expressed are that of the person posting
and not that of Red Storm Entertainment.

Hi,

If you don''t go to Full Sail you might also consider Digipen (which is where I currently attend). It''s also a great school (although I really didn''t look into Full Sail) and it gives a BSc. It''s a 4 year program like most colleges but it teaches you quite a lot of stuff. Every year is pretty intense also. Here''s a breakdown of the type of games you would make during the 4 years:

1 - Text based (That''s what I just completed last year)
2 - Some type of graphic scroller (topdown RPG, sidescroller, whatever)
3 - Strategy (Starcraft?, MGS?)
4 - 3d (FPS, Flight sim, anything that can be 3d)

So, while not as fast as Full Sail, Digipen covers a lot of topics. They have specialized classes for AI (In which you can work on a RoboCup bot (Robotic Soccer) www.robocup.org) I think, it''s in one of the classes anyway, They also have general education type of stuff, english, mythology, sociology, ... So, all in all, Digipen is a well rounded school that has been endorsed by the industry. Also, every 3rd Thursday of the month a bunch of local game developers meet there and discuss game related topics (so it''s very interesting).

Just my $0.02

I''m learning, just like the best of us...

Hey,

I finished freshman year last April... So that makes me a Sophomore now. (Semester 3)

I''m learning, just like the best of us...

quote:Original post by Soulkeeper
3 - Strategy (Starcraft?, MGS?)

The requirement for 3rd year is a 3D game with some display of reallistic physics, and AI. The 4th year game has to be approved by the game instructor, the rules are more relaxed.

quote:
They also have general education type of stuff, english, mythology, sociology, ...

We take a grand total of 4 gen ed courses over 8 semesters. We are very focused, and ignore most classes that are considered to give a well rounded education.



- Kevin "BaShildy" King
Game Programmer: DigiPen
www.mpogd.com

Well, I guess I don''t know everything

Then again, I never claimed to. And I was just doing it off the top of my head.

I''m learning, just like the best of us...

I graduated from Full Sail this February so I know a little bit about the school. It was an ok experience. I REALLY wish I went to 4 year school instead though. The first 6 months you''re pretty much all over. Full Sail is famous for it''s audio program (they have excellent studios) so all the classes in the beginning focus on that. The history of this and that (phonograph, microphone, CD), memorize a mixer console diagram, learn about film production and techniques (it''s a film school too).

Basically it''s completely non game related for the first 3/5 of your time there. Not a major concern though since you have a lot of gen-ed classes in normal college, but I would have rather been learning about greek culture than the dynamic gain levels on a million dollar+ console. I really enjoyed the entertainment business/law classes though, they were extremelly educational and the instructors very helpful with any questions.

Finally we got to the core classes. Physics and Math were great, Wendy Stahler is an excellent teacher that knows how to relate math concepts to an easy to understand examples. Unfortunetly though she is not a programmer and knows nothing about the applications of the math she teachs (you wouldn''t believe how many uses there are for the dot product for instance and I couldn''t get one out of her).

Later you have real-time this and structure of that, but they''re all basically the same class. You learn quite a bit but the experience was the best (I had never gone for so many days without sleep. next time I learned to plan better, but it still happens and most college grads don''t understand this I don''t think). I wish they went into more useful things like making a level editor or model exporter for 3DS Max, but it never ever got that complicated.

Final project is the culmination of all of your experiences there, but it was so unstructured it was amazing. My group got our project done (it''s actually being hosted by Gamedev.net, the best game development website in the world! ;-) and it looked good but a little over 2 months is hardly enough time to make a project to be proud of.

Overall I''m proud of how I spent my time there and how I went above and beyond the 40+ hour school weeks to learn as much as I possibly could. For a lot of people that went there school was over when you got home. Making games is a passion, no school can teach you that. The nice thing about a 4 year degree is that you have plenty of time to figure things out. I spent close to **********$40,000********** to go to this school!!!!!! And thats with a florida scholarship (75% for public, <50% for private universitys). That''s with living expenses (Orlando aint cheap). Plus the tuiton went up right after I got there. And that is for less than 2 years time. I could have done a full 4 year degree for that much. Well what about the benefits? The C++ Class I took was about 17 people. My friend there just told me it''s over 40 now. So much for small class sizes.

So where am I know. Well I''m not working for Red Storm ;-). But I''m not working for Walmart either, although my cash reserves are dwindling and I''m going to have to get a lame job soon. Joseph (evaclear) is absolutely right though, don''t dare expect a job just for going to this school. Make the best you can of it but do whatever you need to make sure you''re ahead of the game. Right now I''m probably going to go back to normal college for another year or two, and guess what? NONE OF MY 100 CREDITS WILL BE TRANSFERED. It''s doesn''t matter that I got to play D&D with Dave Arneson (creator), or Deathmatch with John Romero. Those things don''t make you more valuable. My personal reccomendation is go to four year school, do your 10 hours a week, and come to these forums and look for tutorials as much as you can, that''s how you can learn. Get a traditional time honored and respected education, and if you are passionate enough about making games, your thesis should be a kick-ass game!

This is not a slam against Full Sail, please don''t think that. It''s a great school, but it''s not for everyone. Don''t go in with overly high hopes, oh, and don''t go there thinking you want to be a game designer, they are making programmers of you (seen quite a few students get chewed out for that). Sorry if my views are a little pessimistic but after a few interviews (Microsoft games for one) and many many resumes sent with few replies, you get a little disappointed with an insitution that was supposed to help you. Anyhow, good coding all.