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Hi,
Im seriously considering doing a postgrad in Games Technology over in the UK next year after i graduate from my comp. science degree.
To anyone who is also considering this here are a few places to look:-
1 Caledonian Glasgow
2 University of Albertay Dundee
3 John Moores University, Liverpool
4 University of HullNB There are a few others, but these are the ones which have really impressed me. Go to http://www.prospects.ac.uk if you want to find more.
Anyway ive seen great praise for the course in Dundee but the course in Hull has really impressed me also as ive seen some of their assignment work plus the fact that 8 out of 10 graduates in 2003 have all got jobs with top class employers(e.g. Core Design, Sony)
Irish Employers:- Would you be interested in employing a graduate of this course? More importantly will there be jobs in games in ireland in the next few years?
I want to know this because i dont want to live abroad just for my career. Im planning on maybe 2-3 years in the UK/USA and then to come back to Ireland as im sure lots of you are doing also.
If im not prepared to live in another country for more than this, should i reconsider?
Thanks for reading,
PJ -
I’m sure Omen (Damo) will be in to post his thoughts on Abertay.
Regarding the working abroad thingy – I think 2-3 years will be just about enough time to go get experience…I think I’ll be away a bit longer than that though.
I am just about a year into this project at them moment, with a good while to go. So in 3 years you’d be looking at working on about 2 projects (or less if its a big biggie :p).
Yup, the people I know (er…that would be 4 Irish lads) want to go back and join \ start devco’s back home….eventually…
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Hi,
Ive got about a hundred questions for you….hee hee
Where are you working now? Did you find it hard to get work when you graduated from a postgrad? Also would you recommend doing a postgrad?
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oops must clarify:
I haven’t been on any of the courses you mention, I am just really replying to the ‘working abroad’ points you raised.
I am a design monkey so I have no clue about your wacky coding sciences and what nots :p
Some chappies will be along eventually to offer their take on Abertay – I’ve only heard good things…
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Sorry, slept through my alarm this morning, so only getting the chance to read the boards now….
Right…let me think.
Not sure if it was Hull, but I know a guy who was on the undergrad course in Abertay. Was a bit fed up with it and though about transferring so he drove down, nearly sure it was, to Hull Uni. He was scared of the place and didn’t even get out of the car. After that he was quite happy to be in Dundee. If you thinking Hull, go there first!
As for a grad working in top places, any idea who from the 2003 course who’s working in Core Design, cos I couldn’t tell you and I work there!As for Abertay, if there’s anything specific just ask me, I’ve posted up lots of info on it already in various threads here already and don’t really feel like doing it all again.
Course is good and they ask the class at the end of the year for feedback and actually do act on it. They teach DirectX and have PS2 dev kits that you can use. Teaching faculty is very good and they have lots of contacts. Bonus points, you get to do Dare To Be Digital cos you’re in Scotland. Other than that, ask me.As for 2-3 years abroad, is that including you’re uni time?? 2-3 years is, depending on projects, about 2 game cycles, assuming none of them get canned… I’d consider that a minimum to tell the truth. So few companies in Ireland and if people want to move back, the fight for jobs is going to be fierce.
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Some of my previous posts are here:
http://www.gamedevelopers.ie/community/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=9I’m sure there’s more about it, but no idea where….
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Hey, thanks for the info lads, Hi Damian, no need to give me any info on Dundee, i was the guy emailing you about it at the end of August. Actually yeah there was no graduates from Hull in Core Design. Sorry. I checked it again and they got jobs in Rare, Codemasters, Sony, Lionhead and a few others
Pretty impressive isnt it? For anyone whose interested in Hull check out http://www.mscgames.com.
So Hull isnt the best place to live?
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Hey there PJ,
Have you looked at the course up in Coleraine? http://www.gamedevelopers.ie/resources/courses/index.php?article_number=14
Just thought I’d mention it as I was recently talking to someone about it.
Best of luck. :)
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Well, I’m not certain that it was Hull cos it was awhile ago I got told about that, but I think it was Hull.
Well, if you want to compare to Abertay, you’ve got:
EA, Core Design, Creative Assembly, Rare, Elixir, Eutechnyx, Visual Science, Vis Entertainment and people starting their own companies.
And thats just the people I know… -
Well, if you want to compare to Abertay, you’ve got:
EA, Core Design, Creative Assembly, Rare, Elixir, Eutechnyx, Visual Science, Vis Entertainment[/quote:cdeaaa344c]Some from my year (last year’s graduates) also at Denki, Criternion.
Should point out that EA and Rare were heavily involved and supportedly poaching from this year’s Dare.
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How many did EA nab this year?
They took 3 last year. -
Hi Paddy O
You finished in Dundee last year? Great cos ive been trying to get onto somebody in charge over there to ask a few questions but there not replying to me…
Do you know if they teach OpenGL/DirectX 50:50 or is one more thought than the other?(Damian told me when he was there OpenGl was the main one)
Also do they have any module now on A.I.?
Finally what consoles exactly do they get experience on now? PS2, Xbox….
Oh yeah and must i be really good at C++ starting off there because in my comp. science course they mainly have concentrated on teaching Java?
Thanks
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OpenGL ‘was’ the main one.
They had a dedicated DX module the year after me cos we told them to :) Also Alistair Huston who used to do the OpenGL stuff is now gone, so I’d guess DX is now the main language.You’ll get PS2 experience. Possibly PS1, although thats crap.
You don’t need to be great at C++, I was mainly a java coder when I went over, but knew my way around C++. Its basically Java with pointers added, isn’t it! Obviously the more comfortable you are with it, the more you can do with it….
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I did the Honours course, not the masters.
And it has changed a bit since I started. They now do GBA programming in First year. We started the Net Yaroze (PS1) in second year doing 2D and then 3D in second year. The introduction of the PS2 linux kits may change that, they only got them last year and the first modules were for last year’s masters folk, although some of the 2nd year poeple who should have been doing Net Yaroze got permission to use the PS2s.
They also got hold of a couple og Gamecube dev kits last year :) as did a few other places but I don’t know what came of that.
OpenGL and DirectX is 50:50, but it isn’t…. We learnt the OpenGL API in the first semester of second year. We then learnt DirectX in the first Semester of third year. Also in the first semester of third year we had a ‘3D simulation and Rnedering’ module, so to complete it you could use any API you liked, hell right a software renderer if you want but as we were only learning DirectX as we went the vast majority of people did it in OpenGL.
Personnally I was so much happier in OpenGL anyway that I did my honours and networking module in it too. We had a separate module in DirectSound.
There was no AI teaching as such except there may have been some pathfinding for the 2 yaroze modules.
Oh and Alasdair was due to leave but last I heard he was teaching for the start of this year again, they’ve also brought in a former graduate too.
Hope it helps.
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Great, thanks for that lads. The only thing Dundee is missing is an AI module as far as i can see but even so it has the edge over all of them with the Dare Digital comp. Dont know what im doing yet but it sounds good anyway.
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They also got hold of a couple og Gamecube dev kits last year as did a few other places but I don’t know what came of that.[/quote:7d22619398]
Louis Natanson has one on his desk and there is one in IC-CAVE. They got 3, not sure where the other is, probably IC-CAVE.
One of the guys in my course was doing a dissertation on using Python on the GameCube and got the use of it for a short while. -
OpenGL ‘was’ the main one.
You’ll get PS2 experience. Possibly PS1, although thats crap.
[/quote:4aced861b8]
Waves non Programmer flag:
Isn’t the PSP meant to be closer to PS1 in terms of coding \ libraries (rather than power) ?
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Not sure.
Power of the Net Yaroze sucks. For example, you can only have 3 lights in a scene.
I think what you’re talking about is that the PS2 allowed you to code down to a much lower level. With PSP, much of this is taken care of with Sony’s libraries.
I think thats what I heard ages back anyway…
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