Future Game Coders - Online Education or College?

An anonymous reader asks: "My cousin is about to graduate high school and wants to enter the game industry. I told him to get a day job (possibly as QA in a game studio) and get an online degree like DeVry's Game and Simulation Programming degree or The Art Institute of Pittsburgh's Game Art & Design degree. I have a BS and an MS in Computer Science, and I've only found what I learned mildly useful for my game programming hobby. Should he suck it up and get a 4-year degree, or is taking online courses focused on game development the way to go? Has anybody gotten one of these degrees and done well for themselves?"

Comments

That's ridiculous

[Hawkxor]

A 4-year degree is better than a fake degree

"The Future" or "the future"

[SyniK]

If he will love game programming for the rest of his life, skip the 4-year degree.
If he might want to change to something else later, say outside of computer programming even, get the 4-year degree.

Computer science, by far

[Shados]

Unless the university totally sucks, a computer science degree contains most of the important stuff for game development: maths, maths, applied maths, more maths. Did I mention some math? Oh, and some system programming.

In the end, thats all what games are about.

I didn't check by myself, but my girlfriend who goes to CMU told me they have a graduate program for game programming thats fairly popular with EA too I think, so then one can kill 2 birds with one stone: have a fairly decent CS degree, and game specific education, with a potential big name having you in their line of sight as soon as you graduate... Its almost a flawless plan, if it is true.

Re:Art, art, and more art

[namityadav]

It isn't 1984 anymore. There is nothing new in video games to warrent actually having a computer science degree.. I can't stress enough on how nonsensical this statement is. I find statements like, "There's nothing left here to research" very silly.
Please note that the questions is about "Game coders", not about music developers or graphics developers. The reason it's better to educate yourself in Computer Science and Software Engineering is because you want to be a scientist / engineer, not a mechanic. Game programming is still programming and has all the requirements (In fact, at times more challenging requirements) as any other sort of programming. And don't we all keep telling college kids to focus on the "Science" aspect of "Computer Science" for the long run benefits?
A Compsci degree will train the student to think in an analytical way to solve problems and understand the mathematical background of games. While a game design specific degree will train the student to follow an already defined path (Which will get obsolete in a couple of years anyway). A computer science student will be able to handle all problems technical or otherwise reasonably well. Game programming is a complex field. Not having thorough understanding of maths and computer science can only produce average-at-best programmers. In fact, in some cases, even maths and physics graduates will be more valuable to a game programming task than a game design degree holder.
For now, knowing game programming doesn't mean that you understand computer science. But the other way round is true (To some extent).

Advice from a professional game software engineer

[MaineCoon]

I've been programming video games on for about 9 years now, with many shipped commercial titles on various platforms.

For the love of god, get a real degree. "Game" degrees are useless outside the game industry, and a joke and target of pity from within the industry.

Re:Art, art, and more art

[UnknownSoldier]

As someone who has worked on PC, PSX, PS2 games, and currently a Wii title, you're talking out of your @$$, because not everyone works for EA, THQ, etc...

Here's WHY you want a 4 yr B. Sc. degree:

* You will be exposed to the breadth of comp sci. Games are one of the few applications that require you to know a little of EVERYTHING. Specifically:

• hardware (timers, interrupts, input),
  
• math,
  
• graphics (and why and where you need to use the various "cheats/hacks" such as simulating a stencil buffer with alpha, etc.)
  
• audio,
  
• real-time computing,
  
• networking,
  
• compiler optimization (i.e. why you need to know asm, so you can see why gcc sucks so bad generating bloated STL code, and replace it with your own...)
  
• memory management
  
• audio
  
• AI
  
• scripting & language design (i.e. ok, LUA doesn't suck so bad now, now that I've replaced it's memory management...)
  
• software engineering (knowing the trade offs of various designs)
  
• optimization (standard speed vs flexibility)
  
• database design and management (including file formats), and last but not least,
  
• User Interface Design.
  

If games sound a lot like an Operating System, it is because they practically are!

* Sure some of the classes you will never use again, but at least you'll have the language and the background to know WHEN you should choose one algorithm over another, and the pros/cons of each. i.e. static arrays over dynamic lists, etc. Learning big O notation will help in this.

* YES, you probably could be be a great games programmer without a degree, but it's hard to prove it without experience. To get experience you have to demonstrate you have the knowledge. (classic chicken-egg) That piece of paper shows that at least you
  a) understand the basics, and
  b) were committed to finish getting it.

* Lastly, don't get into game programmers for the money. The pay stinks, & the are hours long. (BOO Crunch Time). Only the crazy ones survive in this industry (avg turn around time is There is always something NEW to learn, especially when the "next-gen" consoles come out. (Usually scratching your head at trying to figure out how to best make efficient use of the hardware)

Cheers