Any advice?

[Anonymous]

Hello everyone, this is my first post here as I just discovered the website. I’m looking for information on courses that are in Ireland with regards to game development/design. As I am currently in sixth year in secondary school and I am very interested in games development. I have spent literately ages browsing courses in Ireland from it’s to university’s. However I don’t know what is the right one to pick. I already browsed the course options here on gamedevelpers.ie, but I still don’t know what to pick. I was wondering could anyone here point me in the right direction, to what is the most well known or recommended course in Ireland. I was told to not do any course that specialized in games development as it would limit my options in the future. Instead I was told to pick something broader like computer science, because if I wanted to later I could specialize in games development. Is this true?

Anyway what I would really like to know is their any course that I should pick, that stands out from the rest or has a good reputation?

Thanks

[Anonymous]

Hi Zemulos, welcome to the forums.

It really all depends on what expect of game development you’d see yourself enjoying the most. I would say that if programming appeals to you, go for a Computer Science degree in a decent Uni. If you’re more interested in the Art side of things, a classical animation or arts degree may be better suited.

Going the route of a Game Design specific course is also perfectly legitimate and the industry has opened up so much so in recent years that it really doesn’t matter which direction you go in, so long as you spend some of your time working on small game projects, mods, a portfolio etc. Figure out what you have an interest in. Do you like coding/problem solving? Do want to build 3D models and see them come to life?

If you’re just starting off, I would suggest you download something like Unity3D or Stencylworks and just muck about with them. You’ll find extensive help and tutorials readily available and you’ll get your feet wet in all aspects of game development in a relatively short space of time. An important thing to remember is to start small. Try things in bite-sized chunks, otherwise it may seem overwhelming, which can be seriously demotivating.

I know plenty of people who have come from Game Design courses who are employed in the industry, likewise from Comp Sciences courses. There is no right or wrong choice (unless you are dead set on becoming a coding master, in which case the choice is obvious)

For Game Design courses, I’d recommend the 1 year Certificate and 2 year Diploma in Ballyfermot.

Whichever path you choose, good luck and remember, have fun a long the way! It’s an incredibly rewarding industry to get into.

Hope that helps.

[Anonymous]

Hi, I’m currently doing the course in pulse college which covers all parts of game development from concept art, 3d modeling and coding, throught the course you cover various different platforms from unity3d, unreal design kit to smaller tools like gamesalad. You also use some good 3d modelling tools like maya, mudbox and google sketchup aswell as photoshop which is useful in loads of different areas.

All in all its well rounded. We are focussing alot of our time now in the second half of the year honing our skills in unity 3d which is a great engine to work with.

The course is expensive but will definately give you an idea of what you want to do.

I have also heard great things from the ballyfermot course so either of them would be good for you I reckon.

Hope this helps.

[Anonymous]

Thanks very much lads I appreciated the reply. You answered a lot of my questions. The aspect that interests me most about game developing is programming, has anyone here done this as a course if so where? and is their any good books/tutorials for c#?

Thanks again.

[Anonymous]

Thanks very much lads I appreciated the reply. You answered a lot of my questions. The aspect that interests me most about game developing is programming, has anyone here done this as a course if so where? and is their any good books/tutorials for c#?

Thanks again.[/quote:b7b05f65fc]

I myself come from a design background but am learning C# at the moment.

A great starting point is these set of videos on 3dBuzz, that take you through the various stages of building a 2d shooter game. They’re very user friendly and the guys explain the workings and thought process behind everything they do. This will get you up and running pretty quick.

http://www.3dbuzz.com/vbforum/sv_videonav.php?fid=db25cc88fdc47f4afd9562b6abb1332a

[Anonymous]

Hi there Zemulos, welcome to these humble forums.

A few years ago I’d say courses in games design were frowned upon, but since there’s not a stigma associated with it anymore you shouldn’t worry about it.

At the end of that day though I would recommend a course in Software Engingeering, especially if it’s programming you want to learn about. I’m currently doing the one in NUI Maynooth and I have no complaints.

In first and second year you’ll not learn much of relevance to gaming, but it’s all still relevant to work in the big bad world. If you have the drive you can brush up on skills in your own time.
In third year there’s a semester of work experience which is another plus.
This year we’ve finally started to get into graphics, AI and Vision so by the end I’ll be well set for gaming.

In general, a decent software engineering course should teach you everything you need to know in order to work on a large scale project and how to keep your code clean and readable for other people. It’ll teach you all the tools of the trade and how software reports and documentation (Those big books and such that no one ever reads) are written up.

If you’d like to talk more about the course at NUI Maynooth PM and I can answer any questions you have.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the reply, at the moment I’m considering Computer Science in UCD and UCC. Also I’m considering the course you have done in NUI Maynooth Computer Science & Software Engineering. Its one of those three.

[Aphra K]

and just to add some more options to the list – some computer science courses have game options..I know the one in DIT for example in Dublin has some game modules you can do in third year…

Aphra.

[Anonymous]

Thanks very much lads I appreciated the reply. You answered a lot of my questions. The aspect that interests me most about game developing is programming, has anyone here done this as a course if so where? and is their any good books/tutorials for c#?

Thanks again.[/quote:e5f800e0f0]

I answered a similar questions not to long ago for a guy in a different course but same situation as yourself.

You really cant go wrong here. Doing game courses and then specializing may be a fine route to go. I done ballyfermots computing in games development course but found it to be way too narrow. I went of an did computing for four years in ITT which taught me how to program. I just kept games development as a hobby and so far, its worked out for me.

Like I said, you cant go wrong. Just remember to put the work in no matter what college you go too. Colleges provide the skillset, its up to you on how you apply it.

OH, and welcome to the forums :D

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the reply, at the moment I’m considering Computer Science in UCD and UCC. Also I’m considering the course you have done in NUI Maynooth Computer Science & Software Engineering. Its one of those three.[/quote:cc98ddc267]

I can honestly say you can’t go wrong with either NUIM or UCD, don’t know much about UCC.

To top it off, UCD and NUIM are the friendliest universities I’ve been to.

Again, any questions you have, I can help answer, I know a guy who finished the UCD course a few years ago who might be able to give you pointers if that’s where you’re headed.

[Author]

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