Letterkenny It

Key thing to find out would be if they have any links to a games company.

http://www.lyit.ie/courses/computing/Msc_computer_games.htm

yeah looks like there doing the right subjects anyway. Company acreditation would probably be good though. Torc Interactive is probably involved there.

yeah what their teaching seems right as long as the lecturers have industry experience.

[/quote:9d9c034eeb]

i would say few courses in ireland have lecturers with games industry experience.. look at abertay, they’ve been advertising for a games lecturer on gamesindustry.biz for best part of 9 months. These people are hard to find.

i would say the lecturers dont have to be ex-games industry they just need to have close contact with pro’s in the industry and listen to what they advise etc..

hey dillon, which friend was that ;)

My understanding is that they are working with the lads from Torc.
The course has been in the making for the last few years, so I assume they wouldn’t have finally decided to propose it if they weren’t at least backed up by a game dev company.

Personally, I just hope they do the course, because to be fair, all I want is to finally be able to do my MSc with people around me that actually are interested in what I am doing… :oops:

As for the lecturers, well, I am biased, being a student there myself, and having to help other students most of the time. Most of them are helpful, some of them are really good.

For the Library they have definitely made some improvements, with plenty of books on game programming (wish I had had them when I was doing my research), which is always useful if you want to do some homework.

The computer facilities are rather good IMHO, especially some of the media labs (with twin monitors and stuff), and the IT itself is a truly nice place to work in (which is why I’d love to get back :wink: )

Well, anyway, all I can promise is that if you don’t like the lecturers you can always turn to me, given how many years I have been helping people around here. After all, I still have some hope that those 5 years of research haven’t been done in vain, and I sure have some material that could be used by others for their projects

Philippe

P.S. And don’t mind what they write on the site, you can still apply!

well, no thank you actually!
The more people apply, the better chance the course will happen!
It’s about time I get to meet people who actually know anything about game programming around here !
I’d love to be able to create a Gaming society, if there are enough people. I always felt that knowing just computer games is a great loss, and there doesn’t seem to be much of a gaming culture around here (except for Dublin and Cork, I dunno of any roleplaying going on. And even then it’s only the classics…)

Philippe

Hi Philippe,

are they going to be teaching people how to play Battlefield 2 without being a sneaky camping frenchman? Because then maybe Ward would invite you back out to network nights…

;)

…je suis d’accord!

Well, personally I don’t really think they should have a _computer_ gaming club, cos the way I see it, it’s like inbreeding : you don’t create good games by just cross breeding what’s already out there…
I’d much rather be kicking your ass at Magic! :twisted:

anyway I don’t use the sniper rifle unless my opponents allow me.
Unlike other people I know, I don’t see any point in aggravating my opponents before they have even learned to play the game properly (*cough*Frank*cough).

But we digress…

come, join us in Letterkenny, the teaching might need improvement, but the craic is mighty :wink:

Phil,

I’ve been trying to find out more “concrete” details about the course. I understand that it is two semesters, 18 hours a week (class time), and Torc are involved/teaching modules.

what I would like to know, and perhaps you could establish through your lectures, is the practical modules.

C? C++? or C#?

DirectX or OpenGL or both?

Maths? How much? Trig? Vectors? Scalars? Dot Product, etc?

Physics? If so, how much? Specialising development with one product (HAVOK, etc.) or developing with a few?

Modelling? Max or Maya? What versions? More importantly, who’s teaching this module, and how many AAA games/films have they worked on?

Animation? are we talking basic flash/director tweening, or hard-core MotionBuilder? Facial? Mo-Cap?

The obligatory business module? Generic IP, Copyright, Trademarks, Business Startup, Venture Capital, Support Funding Bodies etc? Profit & Loss, Balance Sheet, etc?

These are the type of questions I want answers to, so if you can help me out that’d be great.

Its just I’ve done so many courses, that I’ve covered most of, if not all of the above, and although LYIT is a great place, I don’t want to be sitting in a seat, listening to someone who downloaded a few tutorials the night before, and is reading from a page. Or worse, teaching from a tutorial that I completed 2 years ago…

I don’t mean to come across as pompous, and I know I can’t expect Industrial Light & Magic staff to be lecturing in LYIT, but personally, I prefer to listen and learn from people who developed titles, worked against the clock, and can talk from experience about pit-falls etc.

Am I asking too much?

Anyway Frenchman, if you can answer any of the above questions, I’d be much obliged…

B.

And one more thing Frenchman, you’ve never beaten me in Magic. The aptly named Point-of-damage-machine is unbeaten and unstoppable.

Let no one tell you different.

And one more thing Frenchman, you’ve never beaten me in Magic. The aptly named Point-of-damage-machine is unbeaten and unstoppable.
Let no one tell you different.[/quote:2d609e4c79]
I could beat you :)

Dave

…if that’s true (which I doubt) you’d be the first….

Although I will say this…there is one person…a black-deck wielding meglo-maniac from the dark-side of glenties, who from time to time, unleashes an army of lung-rotting zombies, and bone-dancing bast*rds, that can give me a run for my money.

But I think the evil deck that he wielded for so long, has finally consumed him…

The rest of you mere mortals can feck off back to Magic School, with your pre-made decks, or your blatant FINKLE copy-cats (Flying 6/6 Worms, eh Dell boy, eh? Hasted Blastoderms, sure. I’m sure you came up with that all by yourself Darren. Sure ya did!) and maybe, just maybe, you’ll earn yourselves enough street-cred to sit across the table from me…

That goes for you too Frenchman!

…if that’s true (which I doubt) you’d be the first….[/quote:5d70759ec3]
No seriously, I would beat you.

Incidentally, do you have a name?

Dave

Whatever! :roll:

His name is Brendan ‘Skinny’ Burns and he thinks he can play magic!

His style of play is to lock the game down long enough to try and get a lucky win! But this rarely works.

My 4-Year Old Son beat him with my Red-Green Machine Deck!!!

– DarrenG

What DarrenG said is true. My name is Brendan. But the rest of lies, deceit, and misdirection.

Darren “Yee Haw, Slack-Jaws” style of play is to “BORROW” championship deck ideas from Finkle and the boys, and try and pawn them off as his own.

You came up with 6/6 Flying Worms, did ya, did ya Darren? Really? Finkle just HAPPENED to win with that idea in Dallas the week previously? Amazing coincidence…yeah right Darren, ya “Zero-Ranks-To-Bluff” mo-fo ya.

And Dave, next time there is a shin-dig on, and if your available, I will gladly school you in the Art of Magic the Gathering. Best of three?

If DarrenG was a magic card, he’d be “CLONE” can only target a previously constructed World Championship deck.

Oh, and apologies to Dillon for hi-jacking his thread about Letterkenny IT, and turning it into a trash-talking session about who’s the best at magic…

Frenchman, ya gonna answer those questions about the IT’s games course or not? Or are you too busy stuck in some sniper nest on a E.T. map?

i dunno anything about the course but i would say its either opengl or directx because you wouldnt have th time to do both to a high level. Besides if you can do one you and learn the other pretty easily.Although opengl is some what simpler than directx.

Also i suspect they would probably do C++ seeing as its a standard. Also in relation to the maths you dont really need that much maths to get going with graphics, only if you want to simulate real physics or something. A bit of trig, a dot product\cross product here and there, a vector or 2 and you can do quite alot. Although aplied maths might be handy for those projectiles and particle collisions. :)

As for having lecturers which download and prep the notes the night before, get used to it, thats the way most colleges work in their first year of a new course. The guys teaching are just normal lecturers adapting their knowledge for a new domain (you’d be very lucky if 1 of them was games industry). Then over the years the notes get more refined and expansive. Thats the kind of thing common to all new courses.

Although i suspect if the lads in torc are involved in lecturing\tutoring, then ye will have good guys from the industry at hand. They all know what they’re doing up there, so on paper it could be the best course in the country at the moment. Also if ye’re using their engine ye’re really in for a treat, top notch technology..

anyway thats my rant…

looks like they will be using our tech (& tools & docs), and Mark Cullen, one of our lead artists, will be teaching the modelling course

LYIT were advertising last year for industry experienced lecturers, but I’m not sure if they got someone or not

call them and ask them is your best bet. Ask for Simon McCabe or Thomas Dowling

Idora,

Can you give any further details relating to “your toolset”?

B.

when you are contacting Letterkenny get them to post their reply here so everyone can see it..

Aphra.

Idora,
Can you give any further details relating to “your toolset”?
[/quote:341da673ba]not yet, I’m afraid – more info in October

> Who in the first place got the whole IGDA up and running in Ireland???

Out of interest, when is there going to be an election with regard to the roles in IGDA Ireland?

With any organised body assuming some sort of voice for the people, the people should get a chance to vote for those who they want to represent themselves.

Just a thought… with this thread running hot, I’ll re-post this question in the IGDA forums.

With regard to free-speech etc, if this thread ( in which some people have expressed their personal opinion, and others on both sides have rightly or wrongly implied legal proceedings… again, their own personal opinion, I am keeping well out of it ) gets removed, you’ll know that free-speech in the forums isn’t being upheld. I can’t see that happening, due to the following…

As Dave ( one of the moderators ) mentioned, he has had to edit only a few threads to date, and he rightfully and professionally intends to keep the forum and all of its threads open for any kind of discussion related to game development related issues.

To date, he and the other moderators have done a sterling job, and I can’t see this changing.

The gd.ie forums have been great for posting company news, mentioning general game dev related info, showing off personal work, and generally having a bit of a banter. The organisation of the shindigs is also a great outcome of the site.

Also, in case some of the newer members aren’t aware of the history of gd.ie, Dr Aphra Kerr was pivotal, in my opinion, to setting up the gd.ie forum as a way of getting existing game developers in Ireland communicating, and also raising the awareness of this industry to government, and to others who would in the future want to enter this field.

I am very sure that she will strive to ensure that this ideal is kept. Before gd.ie, practically no developers of game related content even knew about each other.

Mal

You do realise Skyclad is/was a professional magic player….

forgive me but I actually don’t see why you say that, there :oops:

If I had said “I begin? Right. Black Lotus, sacrifice it, Channel, Fireball, you’re dead. Thank you for playing.”, I would understand, but there, sorry, I miss it. Or you are adressing someone else?

Hey, I didn’t post that there, I posted that in a different thread!!

I apologise….I saw a thread about people playing magic, and now I can’t see it anywhere….maybe I’m going crazy…. :(

Oh, that must be the little joke I have with Brendan/Jediboy?
I played Magic since The Dark, but I must admit, I’ve never had as much laugh as the numerous times I’ve seen him get his ass kicked at Magic. It’s like, uhm, let me think of something to illustrate the intensity of the man while he loses… yes, it’s like watching a nerd getting his ass kicked at Counterstrike: first the sheer shock of having lost “is it real, did my computer just crash?”, then the horror “My God! Again? This cannot be happening!”, then the anger and hatred “You do what?! Well, that’s just bloody great isn’t it, I’ll just… I’ll just… Bwaaaaaaaaarrrh! :evil:” *throws the table in the air, scattering the cards all over the canteen floor, tries to jump and choke his still laughing opponent with his bare hands*

Ah yes, those were the good days…

And now they have discovered DnD :roll:
I wish there was a patron saint of gaming, I would add it to my sig…

Philippe

Gaming is the tool of the devil, just like Harry Potter.

Neither the devil nor his tools have patron saints.

Dave

So my mother keeps telling me. Since the age of 12.
And don’t even get me started about the time I tried to teach Magic to my younger cousin. My auntie is still very serious about me not teaching any of this stuff to her children.
I would laugh about it if they weren’t actually serious :?

Philippe

You do realise Skyclad was/is a professional magic player[/quote:34e01f6496]

He’d lose. No question of it.

If I had said “I begin? Right. Black Lotus, sacrifice it, Channel, Fireball, you’re dead. Thank you for playing.”, I would understand, but there, sorry, I miss it. Or you are adressing someone else?[/quote:a47167900e]

Look here ya cheating Frog, last time I checked, Black Lotus’s were about as illegal as cocaine.

Cheating frenchies!!!

Omen,

Yeah there was some trash being talked earlier by Le Frenchman, about him being good at magic. He’s crap. Has loads of good cards, but wouldn’t know what to do with them if they came with drag & drop instructions!

If your going to the next shin-dig bring a deck or two. Of course we’ll have to iron out the Sideboard, Type I or II, etc etc etc issues before we sit down at the table…

Wow! Scandalous! I never said I was good, now!
I just said I have played since the Dark.
My thing is that unlike people who play only Magic and kick the shit out of me (except when I start pulling my five colour Planeshift deck), I play anything that will come across my eager hands. Be it roleplaying, board gaming, cards and other media I have recently discovered (Pirates of the Spanish Main!!!)

but anyway, yeah, you have to see Jediboy play. Then you’ll know he has definitely fallen to the Dark Side… :lol:

Philippe