videogame studies for people outside US (Latinos)

jose2090 · 04-04-2011, 07:15 PM

Hi everyone!

My name's Jose Striedinger, and I'm a Computer Science student in the University of Los Andes. Video game design, architectura and development is my dream, but well, I dont have family in the US nor a lot of money...

It's been two years since I begun searching for opportunities in US. I cant leave my career neither, so I guess Im looking for a masters degree in the future who knows.

Right now, Im studying Unity3D with some friends, but it's not enough. I guess the questions is: is there anyone who can give good advice about how to start studying about video game design for someone who can not go to videogame schools like Full Sail, Digipen etc??

Please...any advice!
(Sorry if my english isnt perfect...)

tsloper · 04-04-2011, 07:44 PM

Get your CS degree. Then make games.

yaustar · 04-05-2011, 02:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jose2090

is there anyone who can give good advice about how to start studying about video game design for someone who can not go to videogame schools like Full Sail, Digipen etc??

You are going to need to be a bit more specific here as a literally a ton of resources to from. Are you looking more at design? Programming? Modelling? Animation? A combination of everything?

Unity3D is really good and the company itself are making great strides in expansion so I don't understand what you mean by 'its not enough'.

panacuba · 04-05-2011, 10:33 AM

He says its not enough cuz here in latin america we dont have even a piece of videogame education or anything related to it, and he thinks he actually need a big knowledge base in a lot of differents programs.
Ill give you an adivice, first look what you wanna do in the future. Then after you have choosed, start learning from that specific topic.
In my case Im in first year at UTP(Universidad Tecnologica de Panama, Tech. University of Panama), and Im getting a degree in computer science, and studying c++ in my free time

jose2090 · 04-05-2011, 07:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by yaustar

You are going to need to be a bit more specific here as a literally a ton of resources to from. Are you looking more at design? Programming? Modelling? Animation? A combination of everything?

Unity3D is really good and the company itself are making great strides in expansion so I don't understand what you mean by 'its not enough'.

Thanks for the response Yaustar. Just what Panacuba said. Because Im studying Computer Science I'm familiar with Java (not so much with C thou..), so I'm learning Unity3D development with JavaScript with a book called "Unity Game Development Essentials", actually Im with 2 friends. Even thou we are getting the hang of it, I know programming is not enough. In my career I have learned things like software development processes (waterfall, TSP etc), software architecture and the structure a Software Architecture Document, design patterns and stuffs like that. What has been on my mind for quite sometime, is how this topics are studied in game development. After all, a game is nothing more than a software, a program.

I found online about a course in the Worcester Polytechnic Institute about game design. This guys talk about pre-production, post-production, design document, concept document etc, things I just didnt have a clu!. lol this post is getting long...anyway I guess the answer is: programming and game design.

To Panacuba (funny nickname xD): yeah! Im actually doing that. I'm also interested in software development in JEE platform and Information Technology. I have plans for this. I know I wont never find a job for "game programming" etc in Colombia lol xD. Thanks for your advice anyway!

yaustar · 04-06-2011, 01:42 AM

Quote:

What has been on my mind for quite sometime, is how this topics are studied in game development

Same way. From the software development point of view, there is very little different besides the actual software content itself.

Quote:

I know programming is not enough

What do you mean by that?

jose2090 · 04-06-2011, 05:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by yaustar

Same way. From the software development point of view, there is very little different besides the actual software content itself.

What do you mean by that?

What I'm saying is that programming is not enough for a good dev process. Like I said, 2 friends and me are studying Unity3D and I have a friend in Graphic Design who love the idea of game art and working with us....so I just want to know about game dev processes and game design, but I just dont know where to start xD

yaustar · 04-07-2011, 01:14 AM

There is no real formal process for game design (you get an idea, you build on it, iterate over it until it is the standard you want and document it along the way) and there is little different between the software development process of games and non-games.

To give you a starting point. Once you have part of a game idea, try making it and don't get fussed by the details. Just get it made and try it out.

panacuba · 04-09-2011, 06:43 PM

in resume, what yaustar is traying to say its, that you need to focus a lil bit more on practice and not on theory(Im not saying that youstar said that theory is bad...lets make that clear), he is saying that try creating something first then learn from your own mistakes, that will help ya a lot

jose2090 · 04-11-2011, 09:13 AM

Yeah I know...if it's a small team that may be enough, but if the team's bigger it could be a problem to not have design methods and development procedures, or something like that. Anyway, do u guys know of a book about game design, I just feel curious about it xD

I just found out about courseptr.com, from Cengage Learning in case anyone wanna check out!