Long Time, No Post

Hello dear readers.  It certainly has been a LONG time since I updated my blog.  Work was incredibly busy in April and May, with business trips to San Francisco, Paris, Berlin, London, and New York, as well as a vacation to St. Thomas for a friend’s wedding.

Nonetheless, the real reason that I haven’t written in a while is simply that I haven’t had a topic come up that has compelled me to write.  Today, however, I was asked a question by a friend about game design/development-related degrees and university programs.  By the time that I finished responding to him, I realized that I had pretty much drafted something worth posting to my blog.  So, if the subject interests you, please read on…

When it comes to game development academic programs, I believe that the most well-respected (or at least the one’s that I’ve heard the most good things about) are, in no particular order:

• · USC’s Department of Interactive Media
• · Digipen
• · The Entertainment Technology Institute at Carnegie Mellon
• · Full Sail University
• · The Guildhall at SMU
• · Savannah College of Art and Design

I also did a quick search and found this site, which lists several more. Also, the Game Career Guide would probably be a useful resource for someone considering a game degree.

Personally, I think that the bigger question is whether or not a person should pursue a professional degree at all. If the individual is thinking about a graduate degree, then I would say “skip it,” and go get a job making games, unless they have tried and failed or are really interested in games on an academic level.

If we’re talking undergrad, I think that there are pros and cons. On the positive side, these degrees generally DO help improve someone’s chances of landing a job in the industry. They show potential employers that the candidate is serious about a career in games, they help the candidates create a portfolio of work (which is increasingly important these days), and they probably do actually impart some useful skills/knowledge about game development (though, precisely how much, is debatable).

As someone whose father spent their career as a university professor, I have the utmost respect for academics. That being said, I also believe that these types of (often) for-profit programs can be places where the adage that “those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach,” most applies. Of course, there are exceptions to this, as I know at least one very successful, respected, experienced game designer who is currently teaching at Savannah College of Art and Design (Brenda Brathwaite). Still, a person will learn more about actual game development in a year at a game company than they would in 2-4 years at a game college (IMHO).

The real downside to this sort of degree, however, has little to do with game design/development programs in specific and everything to do with undergraduate professional degrees in general. Again, this is just my opinion, but I believe that people are best-served as undergrads by a broad, liberal arts, type of education. Very few people at that age (18-21) really know what they want to do with their lives and what one ends up majoring in as an undergrad really has very little bearing on what their options are or what they will become. (This game producer has a BA in Economics).

Meanwhile, that same age range is a crucial one for “training the brain,” and learning about the world. In my opinion, college is not just about setting oneself up to get a job, but about learning how to be a productive and healthy member of an increasingly complicated and diverse global society. For this reason, I strongly believe that most people would benefit both personally and professionally (game designers in particular) from a broad cultural education that includes everything from math and science to history, politics, language, culture, and the arts.

So, I guess what I’m saying is this. If the person in question is just getting out of high school, I suggest that they go to the best traditional college that they can get into. By all means, they should still take relevant classes (computer science, digital art, etc.) and focus on learning about game development in their free time, as a hobby, but they should also try to get the best education that they can. This will be far more valuable in the long-run. If the person is older (particularly if they already have a BA) and has been trying to figure out what to do with their life for a while, then a professional degree might make much more sense. Finally, if the person is considering a graduate degree in games, I’d say that it should be because they want to pursue games as an academic subject or have already tried to get a job in games for some time without success.

Hope that this is more helpful than it is pedantic…