Ubisoft and Quebec to Create GameDev Courses

Ubisoft and the Canadian government are coordinating to create a game development university on the scenic Ubisoft campus, reports Gamespot. Marking continued cooperation between Ubisoft and the Quebecois government, the new 'university' would be in direct competition with EA's similar program set in California. From the article: "Ubisoft Campus students will receive degrees accredited by Québec's Ministry of Education. For undergraduates, each study program will be 45 weeks long, divided into three 15-week terms. The school will also offer master's programs in computer science and software engineering, with added courses in digital imaging and electronics."

Comments

Who is this aimed at?

[Nos.]

If this is aimed at kids in high school that have little or know technical knowledge, how far is this really going to get them? I mean 45 weeks is not exactly a lot of time to learn coding for performance and reliability. I don't think grads with this "degree" are going to be snatched up the day they graduate by big game producers.

Re:Who is this aimed at?

[JFMulder]

Actually, they are creating the program with the University of Sherbroke, south of Montreal. It's probably some sort of program where someone takes the normal courses the first year and a half and then the second year and a half you specialize yourself in game programming instead of taking other optional classes like you normally do during you last year.

Re:Who is this aimed at?

[Gherikill]

They are offering Masters in Comp Sci. SO I imagine it is for students with Undergrad degrees that want a master specializing in Game programming. If this is in English I would consider taking it. Anyone have a link to the official University website offering the courses?

Re:Who is this aimed at?

[noselasd]

Ick. Not to mention all the required math.
Perhaps they're educating level/graphics designers and modellers.
45 weeks sounds not so bad then.

--
glSokoban

Re:Who is this aimed at?

[mrseigen]

For Canadians, I know the University of Calgary has a bog-standard computer science degree with a "game design concentration" that entails taking graphics courses and a few game dev courses.

Re:Who is this aimed at?

[magefile]

My gut reaction was that it would be in English. It's used worldwide for development (I have worked with German software companies since the 80s, so this isn't just pulled out of thin air). Then I realized: this is Quebec we're talking about. The odds of it being in English suddenly went down :-)

Re:Who is this aimed at?

[I8TheWorm]

And one already exists at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX.

Re:Who is this aimed at?

[rich99]

The masters will be offered in the Sherbrooke University in Quebec: http://www.usherbrooke.ca/

I am currently studying in Quebec city in the province of Quebec in Canada and most people have a hard time speaking or understanding english although many of our books are written in english. It is the same situation in Sherbrooke where the Ubisoft campus will be located so it is pretty sure that the courses will be in french.

reference in french.

Re:Who is this aimed at?

[rich99]

where the Ubisoft campus will be located

sorry, can't edit previous post... the Ubisoft campus will not be located in Sherbrooke, but in Montreal, but the graduate classes will be given in Sherbrooke.

Lets hope...

[boeserjavamann]

...for those Students that the boom in video games will continue. right now, big titles make more money then most big hollywood flicks (compare a well-sold ego-shooter to a movie like "pirates of the carribean"), but there once was a time where there was a huge downturn in that industry in the early 80's,

Re:Lets hope...

[superpulpsicle]

The most surprising part about the video game industry is that the publisher pockets more than 50% of the total profit.

Unlike the film industry where the producer funds almost everything, the publisher kind of just burn CDs and throw in a commercial here and there.

I am so applying

[9mm Censor]

It better be taught in Enlish.

Re:I am so applying

[Anonymous Coward]

i dont know, but i know one thing: you can learn french, it wont kill you. We frenchies all learned english out of necessity, you live in a bilingual country, why not oblige?

Re:I am so applying

[Anonymous Coward]

You need to be taught some english!

Re:I am so applying

[Anonymous Coward]

The answer is in your own post. Necessity. There is no necessity to learn French in Canada. I have lived from coast to coast, and lived for many years within eyesight of Quebec. In all my years, I have never once HAD to speak french. I took it in school, and I never had to use it. My job involves the internet, by law we must provide our content in both languages (Federal Government). French visits to our site, are less than 10% of our traffic. That statistic hasn't changed in years, and likely never will. Of course, we spend more than 70% of our budget, making sure that 10% of our traffic can get the content in French. It is the same everywhere, the cost is insane.

Although we tell people we have a bilingual country, lets not kid ourselves. We are unilingual. Think about it, to the guy in Taber alberta, french is a non-issue. The same way that the guy in St-someone-du-somewhere doesn't speak English, ever. The rest of us sit around and talk about how bi-lingual we all are. Bullshit. The language of business is english, the language of science is english, why learn french? So I can have a chat with some woodcutter who lives 6 hours north of ValDor? No thanks. I think I will get by just fine without it.

BTW, I am not anti-french or anything, just pointing out that there is no need for an Anglophone to learn French, outside of a very few areas of the country. This whole bi-lingual thing is just a political carrot "See, the rest of canada does love you, look, you can read a cereal box anywhere in Canada".

Re:I am so applying

[pkhuong]

Because learning languages is good for you, French especially, in light of the high proportion of galicisms in English. There must be a reason why private _French-immersion_ schools are popping up all over the country, especially in regions with next to no native francophones. We, Canadians, are lucky enough that native speakers of both languages usually aren't too far, yet people on both sides of the issue find reasons to complain about having to learn more than one language. Your own post gives a good reason: it'll help you save/make money (Imagine that, 70% [yeah, right] of a budget that ultimately only goes to bilingual French-English workers).

Americans are often described as closed-minded imperialists. Please don't make it true of yourself; study languages, cultures, history, etc... Not because you need to, but because it'll help you get more out of life and become a better person.

- Second generation immigrant, grew up in a suburb of Québec City, now at U de Montréal, where he frequently finds himself advocating bilingualism to strict francophones.

Re:I am so applying

[Anonymous Coward]

One of the great advantages I see of being bilingual (or multi-lingual) is the ability to swear in several languages, simultaneously! For example: Fuck you, mon estie!

I remember when they done this in Middlesex Uni

[slot32]

I remember, back in the early 90's (1993?), Middlesex University (England) done a BSc in Games programming... About 1/2 way through the course, Nintendo and Sega (IIRC) representatives came in, and offered EVERYONE on the course jobs, which they all accepted... The course died, Middlesex Uni didn't bother starting it up again...

Re:I remember when they done this in Middlesex Uni

[88NoSoup4U88]

What was the reason for them to stop then ?

If a mayor scoop-up like that happens in the first year, that would be promising for the years to come, not ?

Re:I remember when they done this in Middlesex Uni

[slot32]

i think the reasons back then was something like "No-one finished the degree. No-one was going to".

Are the professors good?

[CrazyJim1]

I always doubted my math and physics professors in school. But they could come up with arguments to back up their claims. And when they showed me the facts, I accepted their teaching as superior. How can I accept a game design professor's ideas when I disagree fundamentally on what I think is fun?

Re:Are the professors good?

[flibuste]

Because it's not about *fun* but *design*.

The art part and the storyline is not given to a developer to produce you know...You may not even ever see a sprite on your screen while working.

How can I accept a game design professor's ideas when I disagree fundamentally on what I think is fun?

Because you say I always doubted my math and physics professors in school and it sounds nothing wil change it. If you cannot trust someone that is your teacher in some field, forget it and learn by yourself. But you will never find anyone to trust you either.

This is a joke, right?

[Guspaz]

I'm referring to this line: "scenic Ubisoft campus".

I've been to Ubisoft's offices in Montreal to apply for a job. They don't have a campus. They only have one floor in a run-down multi-floor building in Old Montreal (Semi-downtown). There IS no campus...

Re:This is a joke, right?

[Anonymous Coward]

I was there last year. They now have 3 floors (top two and the basement). It is NOT Old Montreal. It's the sweatshop district.

You are right about it not being a campus though.

Re:This is a joke, right?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not the seatshop district (but it's not scenic either). It's in Mile End, a rather trendy area of Montreal where a lot of artists and musicians live (some quite famous).

The area you are referring to as the sweatshop district (low quality textile industries) is located slightly west of St-Denis, south of the train tracks, but it stops at De Gaspé Street, way before St-Laurent where Ubi is located.

Re:This is a joke, right?

[Anonymous Coward]

From the article: "the French publisher says it will also establish a school. The new training institute will be known as the Ubisoft Campus" Any questions?

Re:This is a joke, right?

[Guspaz]

Bah, that's close enough to the old port to be considered old montreal to me :p

Re:This is a joke, right?

[Guspaz]

I'm from the west island. Everything east of the Ikea is "downtown". And Ubisoft's office is close enough to the old port to be labeled as "Old Montreal" by me, even though it really isn't :P

Re:This is a joke, right?

[Guspaz]

Yes. Where in the city of Montreal they intend to get enough space to build a "scenic campus".

Re:This is a joke, right?

[oblivionboy]

Why is why we like you guy staying in the west island. :) .o.

scenic?

[Anonymous Coward]

on the scenic Ubisoft campus, reports Gamespot.

Where does it say scenic in that article? The Ubisoft building is nice (which has nothing to do with Ubisoft, it used to be the discreet building before they moved to Old Montreal), but it's certainly not scenic. It's smack dab in the middle of Mile-End on St-Laurent street, right next to the remarkably ugly Van Horne overpass.

URL

[Anonymous Coward]

It should be noted that the URL is http://www.ubisoftcampus.com/

(it's not in the article)
--------------- AC's do with with no Karma

Is the EA course

[Nine Tenths of The W]

Going to try and take over the Ubisoft course?

Re:Is the EA course

[evil-osm]

Is the EA course Going to try and take over the Ubisoft course?

No, but EA's course will have a class on buying stocks in rivals companys and how to slowly crush everyone to death.

Staffordshire University Multimedia Degree

[Umopepisdn]

One of the best degree programs that I've seen to date for game and multimedia software engineering is at http://www.fcet.staffs.ac.uk/prospective_students/ comgames.htm Staffordshire University. At one time (started in 1999 or 2000...I forget which), they had a Microsoft sponsored DirectX multimedia degree. I'm not sure if this is still offered. Check out their powerpoint presentation, as it's well worth a read.

The degree program is very close to an apprenticeship where you focus only on courses that are relevant to the market you're interested in. It's counter to how US colleges give you a broad curriculum as an undergraduate. You do not have ancillary courses which have a low impact on your job (such as physical education - while good for your health - doesn't have an impact on how skilled you are as a software engineer).

This is the degree plan I meant to take before I got snapped up by a large game company. :)

How could you possibly care.

[Programmer_In_Traini]

I understand what you are saying...and I somewhat agree....

Je comprends ce que tu dis et ca fait beaucoup de sens.

Comment pourrais-tu comprendre le besoin d'être bilingue si ce n'est pas ta langue qui disparaît.

Toi tu me dis pourquoi apprendre le francais. Et moi je te réponds, pourquoi pas ? Quel mal y a t'il dans l'apprentissage du francais ?

C'est précisément à cause de gens comme toi que personne n'essaie d'apprendre l'anglais au québec ou d'apprendre le francais dans l'ouest canadien. Je ne fais que penser à toute les opportunités d'affaire qui s'ouvrirait si nous voulions bien passer par dessus la question de la langue. Le fait que tout le monde doivent connaitre le l'anglais est un obstacle.

Je suis parfaitement bilingue et je travaille dans les deux languages à chaque jour. Pas parce que j'en suis forcé, parce que ca m'aide à communiquer avec mon entourage, avec le monde sur internet et dans la rue.

I'm sorry to learn that 70% of your budget goes to translating your website, that really scares me about its functionalities. I'm a public servant, working for government of canada. bilingual website are also a mandatory item and i can assure you that with good design, making a a website bilingual doesn't even reach 10% and trust me, we've made some pretty text intensive systems out there... I actually worked a lot on these systems.

Canada's Job Bank
http://www.jobbank.gc.ca/

Labour Market Information
http://www.labourmarketinformation.ca /

My point with all this isn't it isn't a whole of trouble to learn french....or to learn english, wanting is all what's required.

What a scam!

[YGingras]

The current government just chopped 103 M$ in the student
loan program an now they take that money from public education
and give it to the private sector. Free access to public
education is in danger here. I fear that the next generation
will leave many brilliant people to sell burgers because they
couldn't afford to go to the state sponsored private
universities.

: (

they have one at my school

[Anonymous Coward]

The University of Mary Harding-Baylor http://www2.umhb.edu/ CS department has a few game programing classes. the classes are good but if you go here YOU DO NOT WANT TO LIVE ON CAMPUS