help re comp games courses??

moretothegirl

Hi everyone,
I am trying to help out the younger brother... hes just started fifth year and is in a bit of a downer because he has no idea what to do after school. He's spoken to guidance counsellors who werent much help so I decided to try research for him....

Basically hes not a very strong student academically.... he tries so hard and studies more than I ever did but for some reason just doesnt show up in marks from exams.

However, he has a huge interest in computers, particularly computer games and he would love to work in this area. I know nothing about this area so I am open to any advice from people here at all please!

Are there any fellow boardsies that know much in this area??

AnneElizabeth

I don't know much about the computer games courses myself, but I heard Carlow IT has a pretty good one. The points aren't too high either.

I suggest go on to Qualifax and go into course search. It'll give you a full list of all the courses in Ireland and their points, the entry requirements and info about the course.

Hopefully someone else can give you some first hand info on the courses.

moretothegirl

Bump!

B0X

If he's good at art he could do a 3D design and animation course and get into games that way.

syklops

Is he into programming? If not, I dont think Games programming is for him. At the end of the day its still a programming job, and the companies who hire games programmers look for 2 things, a love of games AND a love of programming. Friends of mine who have gone into the area have been asked to provide portfolios of games they have written, and code they have written. Some of these guys were only 18 when they applied and got in because they had a genuine passion for games development.

Liking computer games and suggesting they become a games programmer is a bit like suggesting someone become an investment banker just because they love monopoly.

What area of computers does he enjoy apart from games? Does he like repair, networking, security, web design?

ED E

The carlow course gets a good rep.

Is he artistic? If so he could consider doing the course IADT do, though I've a feeling its not an easy course to get into.

Other than that, its Computer Science in most places. I'm starting that myself in TCD. The main thing to consider is maths, if he's not mathematically strong its not gonna be for him.

RedXIV

OK, there are a huge amount of areas that can fall under the "games industry" and its important to realise that enjoying PLAYING games is not the same WORKING with games.

As said above, if he's not great academically, particularly if he's weak at Maths, programming isn't the best option in my opinion. I did the Games course in Carlow IT and it's very intensive. On the artistic side, if he's good at art then it's worth pursuing.

There is Games testing, probably the easiest in terms of skills required but can be very difficult to get into. In Ireland its pretty much a "who you know" basis unless you have a second language. But some people get lucky and they get in. Can be a bit monotonous but its games.

Then there's the likes of PR, Sales Rep etc. I worked as a Nintendo rep for a while and I spent my days going to different stores and getting people to play Nintendo games. All I had to do was play games.

Hope some of this helps!

ED E

On the "testing" side, if he's good at languages then he could focus on that. Microsoft have a big game localisation centre(for all of europe) in sandyford(I think). Its specific but multilingual people are useful all over.

RedXIV

There's loads of localisation places in Ireland, Activision's main localisation base is here, Keywords International is another huge one, Goa games, Vivendi games. plenty of work for bilingual people

CreepingDeath

+1 On needing strong maths.

And also physics is important too for modern games which also include physics engines.

From what I hear, games development can be quite stressful, as they work to strict schedules to get games out for Christmas.
And games can be hit or miss, so a few bad games can sink a small company.

If he hasn't the grades to get into a diploma/degree directly, he can do a 1 year computer course after the leaving, and see if he can get into a diploma/degree on the strength of that.
I got a B in pass maths and struggled a lot with 3rd level maths, so he really needs good maths for diploma/degree computer courses.

Games development is a broad area.
If he's artistic, then there's plenty of textures and artwork to be created for games. (computer artist)
If he likes computer programming then there's the games/physics engine development and customisation. (games development)
If he likes languages, then there's localisation of games.
If he likes building maps and games levels, then there's probably a role there for "game content development".
And I'm sure there's some game testing roles too, but a lot of it will be heavily scripted, eg. test that you can walk around every single room without getting stuck.
Although I'm sure there's a bit of "free play" of the game too.
I believe the testers have to write lots of documentation too, so that they can answer customer support questions when players are stuck on some level.

But if he likes developing games, then starting with simple 2D mobile phone games is a very good exercise.
Simple platform games and scrolling games are a good start.
Once he's experienced in 2D games, then progress on to 3D games.

syklops

There is Games testing, probably the easiest in terms of skills required but can be very difficult to get into. In Ireland its pretty much a "who you know" basis unless you have a second language. But some people get lucky and they get in. Can be a bit monotonous but its games.

I thought about suggesting that. A few of my friends do that, but to be honest, its not a career. Its can also be very repetitive. Its not all trying to get to the boss on level 88. You might have to run all the way round the perimeters of the walls in the game to check there are no gaps. That can get very tedious very quickly. And while it might be fine when your 24, when your 34, its not something your going to leap out of bed in the morning to do.

RedXIV

syklops wrote: »

I thought about suggesting that. A few of my friends do that, but to be honest, its not a career. Its can also be very repetitive. Its not all trying to get to the boss on level 88. You might have to run all the way round the perimeters of the walls in the game to check there are no gaps. That can get very tedious very quickly. And while it might be fine when your 24, when your 34, its not something your going to leap out of bed in the morning to do.

True but if he were to get in early in life, it shouldn't take him long to start climbing the ladder towards project managment. After my first year of testing I went on to a project coordinator role in the next company I worked for. Testing is also one of the best ways to get your foot in the door in ANY discipline, be it art, design or programming

CreepingDeath wrote: »

+1 On needing strong maths.

And also physics is important too for modern games which also include physics engines.

From what I hear, games development can be quite stressful, as they work to strict schedules to get games out for Christmas.
And games can be hit or miss, so a few bad games can sink a small company.

If he hasn't the grades to get into a diploma/degree directly, he can do a 1 year computer course after the leaving, and see if he can get into a diploma/degree on the strength of that.
I got a B in pass maths and struggled a lot with 3rd level maths, so he really needs good maths for diploma/degree computer courses.

Games development is a broad area.
If he's artistic, then there's plenty of textures and artwork to be created for games. (computer artist)
If he likes computer programming then there's the games/physics engine development and customisation. (games development)
If he likes languages, then there's localisation of games.
If he likes building maps and games levels, then there's probably a role there for "game content development".
And I'm sure there's some game testing roles too, but a lot of it will be heavily scripted, eg. test that you can walk around every single room without getting stuck.
Although I'm sure there's a bit of "free play" of the game too.
I believe the testers have to write lots of documentation too, so that they can answer customer support questions when players are stuck on some level.

But if he likes developing games, then starting with simple 2D mobile phone games is a very good exercise.
Simple platform games and scrolling games are a good start.
Once he's experienced in 2D games, then progress on to 3D games.

Wouldn't stress too much about the physics just yet. We have physics engines a-plenty that people can plug into their code and when you get down to it, knowing Maths will mean physics will never be too big a problem to learn but that won't work really the other way around.

If he's interesting in making games, I'd suggest something simpler than a mobile game (just my opinion ). There are a few game engines out there that are very beginner friendly and don't involve much code. GameMaker was one we used in college to get us thinking in the right way of making games. If he can get his head around that, then he should be able to learn to code.

OP talk to the colleges, Carlow IT have been very good to students in the past about letting them see what games coding is like. As far as I know, Ballyfermot is the same as regards the artistic side.

Or even email a games company in Ireland and ask can you come up for a day so he can see. You'd be suprised how accomodating alot of companies are

ED E

All the physics is just newtons, aka Mechanics 101. Even LC App Maths is plenty from what I can tell(and what a Havok employee preached).


Never realised just how many companies in the sector we had here:)

Overheal

Carlow has a great course, I wish I had been in the right frame of mind to finish. Your brother needs to be aware it's strong on math, strong on physics. You'd especially want to be very comfortable with things like differentiation, mechanical physics, Flow logic, some electronic and hardware knowledge, Applied Engineering, etc.

I vaguely remember gamemaker. Very different to coding in C, which I think I was much more accustom to. You really can't go wrong picking up Gamemaker though. As well as that theres plenty of C++ tutorials available online.

Games Development is a fairly intense craft and it's not nearly as casual as the games it produces. Theres a lot of coding, patience, debugging involved between successful compiles and rewarding progress. I really can't recommend it unless you do this research and find out its what he wants to do. Computers are a broad field of study, games software being just a facet.

FruitLover

I'll echo the above sentiments about programming probably not being much of an option, so I'd get him to experiment with other aspects of game development. Many games have free 'development kits' available for free that allow hobbyists to create their own game levels, characters, etc. There are free 3D modelling applications (e.g. Blender), free 2D art packages (e.g. Gimp) and free music and sound editors (e.g. Audacity, ACID Xpress, etc) for him to play around with to get a feel for the different aspects of creating a game. There may be one (or more) of these areas that he has a talent or interest in.

Games testing, as mentioned above, can be dreary work, but it's a foot on the industry ladder at least, and I know several people who started a game development career in testing.

And if he's still not sure what he wants to do by the end of school, he could do far worse than taking a year out to see a bit of the world before starting on the career treadmill.