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Some schools even go as far as doing nothing but teaching a curriculum around making video games. https://www.digipen.edu/

It shares a campus with nintendo, so it may be a bit biased there, but their students tend to get nominated for IGF awards each year.

What you describe was my summer job two years in a row. https://projectfun.digipen.edu/workshops/courses/video-game-programming

My favorite was teaching the level 2 course where I taught kids about making 2D sprite based games in C#. We basically give them a very simple 2D engine and then teach them all the programming and math required to move things around, detect collisions and perform general game logic. It's really fun to teach because I love programming and (almost) every kid there is very eager to learn. It's really cool to see how fast many of them pick things up simply because they're motivated and truly curious.

Oh, did I mention they do this in 2 weeks? The first week is heavy teaching and the second week they make their own games. These kids were anywhere from late middle school to high school.

Your best bet to get a good education with the highest chance of getting into the game industry when you graduate is to go to Digipen
As far as I know they're the only school that will teach you relevant information to the game industry and give you a degree at the same time.

I wanted to go there when I was graduating from high school but being a Canadian couldn't get accepted because they weren't an accredited school yet, now they are except you'll have to be an exceptional student to get accepted.

The original article has a link to the "games program" at Colorado State. This is just a proposal within the school, not an established program. In other words, it's a pre-release beta. In fact, it's not really a "games program", it's really just a list of existing courses being repackaged as a "games program"

There are some well-respected games programming degrees but this isn't one of them. Maybe in a few years.

One thing I can say, as the person who first made ragdoll physics work - if you want to work at that level, you need math. Far more math than most CS majors. Not just the ordinary math for graphics, but the math for dynamics, control, and modern AI as well. Nonlinear differential equations. Computational geometry. Linear and nonlinear control theory. Classifier systems. Bayesian statistics.

On the programming side, you need to understand things down to the bit level. You're liable to have to do something awful like make a computational algorithm work on a GPU that's all wrong for the job.

If you're not good at heavy math, you'll be shunted off into maintaining the level editor or similar low-level programming work. For which the hours and pay are both lousy. Too many low-level programmers want to get into the game industry.

It also helps to have some artistic talent. You won't be doing the real artwork, but you need to be able to sketch, just to talk intelligently to the artists.

Wait, even better: just put in a fake email addie. No annoying fileplanet.

Portal is based on a game called Narbacular Drop that was developed by a group of seniors at the DigiPen Institute of Technology. Valve ended up contracting the entire programming team to work on Portal. It's interesting to see how a game school's relatively small-time project has become front-page news on dozens of gaming sites.

I'm a student at Digipen. Real life is a poor substitute for video games. I'm going to college to keep it that way.

Bleh, that's nothing. Didn't start school until past 11. I did a year at DigiPen Institute of Technology (personal reasons didn't allow me to go back). I remember one day in particular where I started my day by waking up at 7:15, so I could get outta the apartment by 7:45, so I could get to school by 9:00 (I lived 20 miles away). Class started at 9, I (and most of my class) was there until midnight. Then me and a bunch went out to Denny's for breakfast, didn't get home until 2.

Then I had to be back at 10 the next day (Saturday) because more projects were due (was a 22 credit semester, 7 courses, recommended load).

And we had to come up with our own Game Development Documents and Technical Development Documents and create our own game froum our own ideas.

Ahhh, good times.

It is nice to see another school that seems to be pushing students to become (hopefully) good programmers.

What are you talking about? I can name a class here for each of your parenthetical "fundamentals":

-CS280 - Data Structures
-CS330 - Algorithm Analysis
-CS250 - Computer Graphics II: 3D graphics engine creation with 3D math
-MAT250 - Linear Algebra: 3D math

All of those are in the first two years of school, more advanced versions of those classes and classes that build on those classes occur afterwards. In CS270 you make a linked list (in C, with recursion) and in CS280 you go over the O() notation (i.e. O(n) vs O(log2 n)) of using a list or an array, plus you also go over things such as optimization (like pre-increment vs post-). If you're getting people from DigiPen that don't know their shit, then they probably only graduated by brute force (i.e. throwing money at the school until they graduated).

Also, two DigiPen-made games are in the IGF student showcase, and one in the professional competition. Also, a DigiPen game won the Audience award at the BIG C competeition and the Jury Award winner Revolved is made by a company founded entirely by DigiPen graduates. They look like they have the credentials to me, but I'll let you judge however you want.

What are you talking about? I can name a class here for each of your parenthetical "fundamentals":

-CS280 - Data Structures
-CS330 - Algorithm Analysis
-CS250 - Computer Graphics II: 3D graphics engine creation with 3D math
-MAT250 - Linear Algebra: 3D math

All of those are in the first two years of school, more advanced versions of those classes and classes that build on those classes occur afterwards. In CS270 you make a linked list (in C, with recursion) and in CS280 you go over the O() notation (i.e. O(n) vs O(log2 n)) of using a list or an array, plus you also go over things such as optimization (like pre-increment vs post-). If you're getting people from DigiPen that don't know their shit, then they probably only graduated by brute force (i.e. throwing money at the school until they graduated).

Also, two DigiPen-made games are in the IGF student showcase, and one in the professional competition. Also, a DigiPen game won the Audience award at the BIG C competeition and the Jury Award winner Revolved is made by a company founded entirely by DigiPen graduates. They look like they have the credentials to me, but I'll let you judge however you want.

What are you talking about? I can name a class here for each of your parenthetical "fundamentals":

-CS280 - Data Structures
-CS330 - Algorithm Analysis
-CS250 - Computer Graphics II: 3D graphics engine creation with 3D math
-MAT250 - Linear Algebra: 3D math

All of those are in the first two years of school, more advanced versions of those classes and classes that build on those classes occur afterwards. In CS270 you make a linked list (in C, with recursion) and in CS280 you go over the O() notation (i.e. O(n) vs O(log2 n)) of using a list or an array, plus you also go over things such as optimization (like pre-increment vs post-). If you're getting people from DigiPen that don't know their shit, then they probably only graduated by brute force (i.e. throwing money at the school until they graduated).

Also, two DigiPen-made games are in the IGF student showcase, and one in the professional competition. Also, a DigiPen game won the Audience award at the BIG C competeition and the Jury Award winner Revolved is made by a company founded entirely by DigiPen graduates. They look like they have the credentials to me, but I'll let you judge however you want.

What are you talking about? I can name a class here for each of your parenthetical "fundamentals":

-CS280 - Data Structures
-CS330 - Algorithm Analysis
-CS250 - Computer Graphics II: 3D graphics engine creation with 3D math
-MAT250 - Linear Algebra: 3D math

All of those are in the first two years of school, more advanced versions of those classes and classes that build on those classes occur afterwards. In CS270 you make a linked list (in C, with recursion) and in CS280 you go over the O() notation (i.e. O(n) vs O(log2 n)) of using a list or an array, plus you also go over things such as optimization (like pre-increment vs post-). If you're getting people from DigiPen that don't know their shit, then they probably only graduated by brute force (i.e. throwing money at the school until they graduated).

Also, two DigiPen-made games are in the IGF student showcase, and one in the professional competition. Also, a DigiPen game won the Audience award at the BIG C competeition and the Jury Award winner Revolved is made by a company founded entirely by DigiPen graduates. They look like they have the credentials to me, but I'll let you judge however you want.

Anyone ever heard of http://www.digipen.edu/ before? They're in Redmond, pretty much across the street from a Microsoft office.

Yes it is.

I remember way back in the day, when I was just a little tyke subscribing to Nintendo Power, they mentioned a college in British Columbia called the DigiPen Institute of Technology, who's ONLY focus is video game development. In fact, I believe the only thing you can major in is a B.S. in "Game Development". They've been in the field considerably longer than USC's game development school.

Digipen

they've been around for years. no idea if theyre accredited or not, but i know game companies take digipen graduates seriously.

"It is the first official game development education."

I think they forgot about Digipen .

And I quote from Digipen's website: "DigiPen is the first educational institution in the world to offer a Bachelor of Science Degree program in game development."

If it's anything like those other game schools that don't exist, then sure. You work 70+ hours a week at DP.

There are institutions like DigiPen, and there are a lot more game design schools out there.

CNN needs to get their facts straight.

Have a look at http://www.digipen.edu/programs/gallery/games/webs ites/Bontago/. Involves balancing a variety of small blocks in a 3D world. Interface is great.

This raises another good point. I am a CS student, and am currently attending a local community college (limited funds, bad credit, no cosigner, out-of-state tuition, so don't laugh) to get the necessary credits and prerequisites to attend DigiPen. However, I'd like to get an entry-level programming job in the meantime, and, as has been pointed out, experience will be the big factor here. I was unfortunate enough to attend high school in a podunkt village in Nebraska, and had no CS classes to speak of (the most technical was AutoCAD), and so I had to teach myself Java, C, and currently assembler, but I've only worked on small personal projects, the most complicated of which is a single player version of the card game spades, with 3D OpenGL graphics. So I don't really have much in the way of experience to put down on my resume. The question then becomes, if experience is more important than a degree, how do you get your foot in the door? You need a job to get experience, and experience to get the job. Catch 22. How have slashdoters overcome this problem?

Last year, WA-based Digipen held its first video game creation camp in California, and the University of Illinois hosted one for girls.

I took Calc I in HS - but took it again in College (I was too...lazy to Ace the AP test - yeah I know...) Anyway, Calc I in College was a breeze (primarily because I was able to understand everything at a much deeper level with taking it before).

Now, like all aspiring programmers - I'm wanting to become a video game programmer - and believe it or not I just might be (www.digipen.edu- I recently got accepted here and start this fall)

Anyway, take a look at their course curriculum - and you'll see that the Article was right on the money - the more Math the better - I'll end up taking Calc I, II, III and Advanced something or other before I'm done with my Bachelor's of Science.

/two cents

If you want a rigorous education in game design check out www.digipen.edu

Full Sail hasn't impressed me at all, for reasons amply covered by the other posters. But if you're looking to go to school for game design/programming/art-stuff then you should do yourself a favour and check out DigiPen. Their name sucks monkey rocks, and they aren't as flashy as places like Full Sail, but they're an accredited university with very solid 2 and 4 year degree programs. They also seem to have a good deal of respect in the industry, and a pretty good placement rate to boot.

I think it's worth noting that the DigiPen Institute of Technology was the original video game programming school. They have been around since the mid 90ies.

The school is on the Nintendo of America corporate campus in Redmond, WA.

The best teachers I have ever had were at DigiPen. (Dr. Jahn, Claude Comair, many others...)

If you are interested in a video game programming school, I highly recomend checking out DigiPen.

is digipen

They did and still do. If I remember correctly, it's not owned by Nintnedo, but more like sponsered. Anyway it's called Digipen From the little familiarity I have with both of these programs they seem rather similar....

What I like the most about digipen is that you only take courses directly related to video game programming (or computer graphics design). None of this European History nonsense that I'm 99% sure I'm never going to use again.

Required Course List for a B.S. in Real Time Interactive Simulation

-dk

DigiPen has a cool collection of downloadable games created by their students here... None of them open source though :P

I'm not a spammer, honest, it just happens that DigiPen is located just a few blocks from my house.

I started out wanting to major in Computer Science, but then I found DigiPen. Real Time Interactive Simulation all the way, baby!

www.digipen.edu

I've always wanted to do game programming. I found a school in Washington called DigiPen. It is across the street from Nintendo and is backed by Nintendo. It is a great place. What is nice about it is that the teachers are actual game programmers using the current stuff. You don't learn old then have to catch up once you are out of there. I was going to goto DigiPen but things fell differently here. Instead I found that I prefered working on game engines than writing actual games. There is a great game engine called Genesis3D. After being in the community for alittle while and people seeing what I could do, I was able to join the small team (about 10 people) that actually write the game engine (the engine hasn't been worked on for a year so we are doing a major overhaul). You don't have to have a CS degree. You don't even have to have high skills in math (unless you are writing complex physics and certain areas of a game engine). What people don't realize is that most games out there use some game engine off the shelf so all the complex work is removed. Barbie: Gotta Groove was written with the Genesis3D game engine (as an example). Even games written on consoles have alot of the hard work already removed as game engines for the consoles have already been written. Some development houses do modify or write their own engine to have different effects but the main game programmers never see this level of detail in their coding. This is why I went for working on the game engine itself instead of writing games as there is more detail in what you have to do and know. Bottom line is that you have to know what area of game programming you want to do. There are alot of areas and everyone specializes in just a few. AI, multiplayer coding, graphic display, sound just to name a few (and the game engine usually takes care of all but the AI so there isn't alot for the game programmer to do other than tell the engine "here's a map. I'm here. Display it").

Schools like Digipen focus mainly on platform programming, eg how to code for the N64. That's fine and dandy, but happens when it takes 4 years to do the curriculum and then the hardware's outdated?

Schools like Digipen focus mainly on platform programming, eg how to code for the N64. That's fine and dandy, but happens when it takes 4 years to do the curriculum and then the hardware's outdated?

I've read about some schools that have training in video game programming and apparently their grads are quite well regarded. There was a fast company story on one, DigiPen a little while ago, they seemed to think it was pretty good.

If you can't get right into the industry, perhaps these would be some ok options.

Have a look here:

www.digipen.edu

In addition to other media, they have a few courses in game design.


--

It is called Digipen Institute, and it has campuses in Redmond and Vancouver. I have never been there, but when I worked at [MEDIUM SIZED GAME DEV HOUSE], I interviewed a ton of graduates, and they had better skills, more diverse skills, and better communications skills (big thing, yeah) then a lot of the industry people I was talking too. They had to build working games, from the ground up, in teams, from their freshmen years, and they used all the top APIs and tools, stuff as good as we had. [MEDIUM SIZED GAME DEV HOUSE] used to be the "college" of the computer game industry, especially outside of CA, but Digipen may have that beat.

Digipen is pretty expensive, (300/hr), but the classes seemed to be pretty hard, and the graduates knew their stuff! If I was a rich kid who wanted to do games, I could think of worse ways (like being a playtester!) to enter the industry.

The URL is HERE

Donut, mere lead programmer

This actually isn't the only degree program in game programming. Digipen University in Vancouver
(there's a Redmond campus too, though I don't know how suspicious we should be about that) has offered one for a few years, and it is reportedly quite rigorous. I'm not sure how broad the program is in terms of the non-technical disciplines. It was sponsored by Nintendo in an attempt to address a perceived industry shortage
in game programmers...

I was just at DigiPen yesterday giving a talk, so I have a few facts and figures about them.

They're the programming branch of the original DigiPen in Vancouver, BC. They teach the math, programming and game design skills needed for writing games and they grant "Degrees in Real Time Interactive Simulation" - i.e; games. They'll have about two hundred students this fall.

I don't think a degree from DigiPen guarantees that you'll be any good as a game programmer, but it certainly gives you exposure to the necessary skills - many self taught game programmers miss some important skills, like linear algebra, or algorithm analysis, or something else.

Most of their work is done on PCs, although they do have a lab of equipment supplied by Nintendo - they're in the same building. Nintendo hires a lot of the grads, but certainly not all.

.Bruce.

I just happen to be the webmaster/sys admin for DigiPen. The school originated in canada, but has since moved to Redmond, WA. I'm pretty sure we are the first school to offer a degree in game programming (officially ``Real Time Interactive Simulation''), and we also offer a 3D Computer Animation Degree.

The website is located at http://www.digipen.edu/, for the curious.