MSc: Abertay Dundee -vs- TCD… Fight!

I attended the Abertay course many moons ago…7 years ago…christ!
It was very good then. There are others on the boards who have been there much more recently than I.

Met the guys from Aberty at Develop……their building a Center of Excellence….dedicated building and staff.

Steve is involved in a new venture. The MSc needs a Steve.

Gizmo on here just finished this year at Abertay so he’s probably as fresh from the course as your going to get.

Indeed I did, currently working on my thesis actually but I’d be happy to give you a run down of my thoughts on the course so far. Is there anything specific you’d like to know or just some general info?

As for finance, you should be eligible for an SASS grant in the form of your tuition fees. They also offer bursaries but you’ll need to talk to them about that. All of the relevant info can be found here.

Outside of fees, the actual cost of living over here is nothing compared to Dublin so either some decent savings or a student loan should cover your time over here. If you have any questions then feel free to drop me a PM. :)

Recent discussion about IET here:
http://www.gamedevelopers.ie/forums/viewtopic.php?p=41788

There are videos of some course work as well as dissertations on the IET site.

As for employment those from my year who were willing to apply and move to uk got work with dev houses. Those who stayed are working with with companies here like Playfirst and some started their own companies or are working as contractors or continued on academically to PHD and research.

Not much point in judging on how many are working for big foreign studios as I know most didn’t apply to them (not for lack of ability). But my year had an older demographic than current set of students and so had more ties to stay in Ireland for.

iMrEuphony, sorry for the delay getting back to you, been without the net for the last few weeks due to an house move. Anyway, Abertay…

The course is split into 2 main semesters each with 4 graded modules. First semester is DirectX/Graphics, Maths, AI and "Games Marketplace", a module which covers the industry itself.

The first two modules are great, the lectures are really good, all the relevant material is covered and there’s a nice sense of progression but also some room to do your own thing with the projects. The AI module was, to me anyway, a bit of a let-down in that it was very light on the practical side and focused more on theory. That being said it did serve as a good introduction to the topic, covered most of the main areas and definitely pointed us in the right direction for further study.

The last module was a bit controversial, at least in my class, as some people loved it while others hated it. I definitely fell into the former catagory as it was one of those lessons in the harsh realities of working in the industry. There was no bs and no sugar coating, just getting some great info and advice from someone who has been working in the industry at many levels for a number of years.

The second semester has the follow-up to the previous DirectX/Graphics module, Console Development (PS2) and the practical side of the year-long "Game Design and Development" which is the big group project. The Masters Proposal is also graded along with the mandatory lectures and workshops.

Again I really enjoyed the first modules as they had great lectures, interesting practical work and really inspired you to work your ass off. The GDD module is a weighty module as it is year long however in this semester you are expected to start the practical side whereas the previous semester was more the design stages. Here you work with Artists and Producers to develop a game prototype which gives you some really good practical experience in dealing with folks from other disciplines in a team environment.

On top of all this you have some guest lectures from former students now working in various companies, a visit to RealTimeWorlds for some Masters options and some really good all-round facilities for the CGT (Computer Game Technology) students.

As for criticisms, well unfortunately I have a couple. Firstly, the AI module was, as I said above, far too light on the practical work and it would have been nice to have had some course-related work to be doing. Note: That’s a nice way of saying you should do it on your own in that case :) Secondly, there was no multi-core programming done throughout the course. While we did cover DirectX and PS2 VU programming, it still would have been nice to cover this area. That being said, for your thesis there is plenty of scope to do some work on it, as well as some of your spare time during the year.

Overall I’ve loved my time over here, the course (imo) is great, the lecturers are knowledgeable, extremely friendly and will always take the time to either go over stuff with you after class or even keep an eye on personal projects you’re working on. The facilities are really good, Dundee is a lovely place to live (as far as I’m concerned anyway) and on top of all that you’ll come out with the quite valuable "Abertay" qualification for your CV, something that will be hold some nice weight for potential employers if you work on it…and believe me, you will work over here. :)

If I’ve missed anything feel free to ask away, otherwise drop me a PM and I can go into some of the above stuff in more detail.