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Education Entertainment Games

Champlain College Offers Degree in Computer Game Design 40

Posted by CowboyNeal from the get-your-learn-on dept.
sp00 writes "Computer-game-loving teens and industry professionals take note: a new Electronic Game and Interactive Development degree at Champlain College in Vermont has been unveiled. The career-oriented college will offer a bachelor's degree in this field starting in the fall, and it's the first degree of its kind in the region." While academic programs for game development aren't new, they're still far from being a standard course offering. It's cool to see that they're catching on.
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Champlain College Offers Degree in Computer Game Design More

Champlain College Offers Degree in Computer Game Design

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  • Interesting (Score:1, Insightful)

    by ld_hrothgar ( 755793 )
    I'm not a game designer nor do I work for one... I wonder how the degree will be accepted by design houses? This could easily be looked at as "Oh, you don't have any REAL experiance... just this academic stuff".

  • Game Design is best for graduate school (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Mr. Piddle ( 567882 ) on Friday May 14, 2004 @12:16PM (#9152462)

    Seriously, while gaming can teach serious algorithms and such, it is specific enough to be harmful to all the wannabes who graduate and find that game companies have already been saturated by their classmates. Not only that, game companies are relatively rare and in relatively few cities. There just isn't that much flexibility, and the popular notion that everyone should uproot their families and move to where the money is is naive, IMO. If I grew up in Kentucky or Maine or whatever, why should I want to move to San Jose or Houston? I've heard that game companies don't pay well (supply and demand), so those plane tickets back to mama aren't going to be cheap.

    Honestly, I think Game Design degree prospects would probably be better of going into Nursing or Accounting (established relatively well-paying always-in-demand professions in every city on the planet).

    • Re:Game Design is best for graduate school (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Stubtify ( 610318 ) on Friday May 14, 2004 @12:21PM (#9152527)
      Yes, but the skills they learn could be used to design games of their own. I mean Bejeweled has made that little company quite a few million dollars, and its not the latest and greatest in 3d gaming.

      With some vision and the needed knowelege someone in this program could go far. I understand that a degree in game design is overkill to create a game like bejeweled, but there's more to designing games than doom 3.

      • I mean Bejeweled has made that little company quite a few million dollars, and its not the latest and greatest in 3d gaming.

        Something as simple, elegant, and successful as Bejeweled is rare among human endeavors. Just because Donald Trump has made a little money in real estate doesn't mean that every real estate agent in the world is out to make a billion dollars. Most real estate agents are just happy to write off the milage on their Cadallac.

        Yes, it is true that with vision and knowledge a person can
        • A degree never made a person successful...successful people make themselves. A degree just gets them the interview; beyond that it is a worthless piece of paper. People who think otherwise are heading for burnout and misery.
          Larry Ellison was a college drop out...He later became the richest man in the world, until Bill Gates came along
          • Larry Ellison was a college drop out...He later became the richest man in the world, until Bill Gates came along

            Two of the richest people in the world...both dropouts. They are the rare example of tremendous insight ("Why am I in college? Fuck this! I'm going to go out and get me $40 billion!") that 99.99% of people don't have. This is one reason why capitalism works and why nearly all animals, including humans, organize into various hierarchical social structures from the Silverback on down. Like t
            • Yeah, yeah. Keep listening to the Ayn Rand bullshit. The reason Bill Gates and Ellison are both rich is because they had a lot of money and good connections when they hit the gold. If you think IBM normally awards significant contracts to random dropouts, I got news for you. They don't, and Bill G. probably knew someone on the inside.
              • They don't, and Bill G. probably knew someone on the inside.

                Recognizing and taking advantage of being in the right place at the right time is part of what "significant insight" is. Billy G. could have been a lot like other rich boys, who aquire "affluenza" (not coined by me) and end up working at a video rental store while living off of trust funds. Saying that his current riches came simply from having connections is shortsighted, because only he was unscrupulous to do what he did with DOS and hold IBM
      • Paying tens of thousands of dollars to get a useless degree in games is just stupid. If you think you have what it takes, pick up a C++ book and you will be programming games in about 6 months if you actually read it. Of course, it won't be anything like Doom 3, but for that you pretty much need talent, as well as an extremely strong CS background. You will gain neither by going to one of these places.

        Trying to get into programming games as a job is just stupid. Let's see, how many companies hire game

  • Others. (Score:2, Informative)

    by Apiakun ( 589521 )
    For those looking for other programs, the Art Institute [worldwidelearn.com] offers a Bachelor of Science in Game Art & Design. Full Sail [fullsail.com], in Florida, also offers a BS program [fullsail.com].

    • Re:Others. (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Be careful. Full sail is known to be an expensive rip-off of about the same caliber as ITT. Just search for "full sail sucks" on Google and you will see that they shut down a few websites that exposed them.
      • Hahaha, what a joke. There are tons of Full Sail grads working in the game industry. In fact, there are like 3 grads working on Quake 4 right now. I don't know about those sites, but gimme a break.

    • Re:Others. (Score:3, Interesting)

      by BizidyDizidy ( 689383 )
      Here's a column I wrote a day ago about this subject for the Stanford Daily:

      Video Game Studies [stanford.edu]

  • Targeted at Teens? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by mahdi13 ( 660205 ) <icarus.lnx@gmail.com> on Friday May 14, 2004 @12:26PM (#9152587) Journal
    Teens Can Now Major in Computer Game Development
    Does that mean us thirty-something people will be turned down if we apply? Sure, teens are the #1 candidates for college but the 30+ still like to continue their education...oh that's right, we are suppose to lose interest in games after 30...

    • Re:Targeted at Teens? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by oskillator ( 670034 ) on Friday May 14, 2004 @01:09PM (#9153245)
      A 40 year old in the game industry is a very rare sight indeed. This is supposedly because people burn out on the 80 hour weeks during crunch time, which I certainly believe is common, but I have to wonder whether the industry is also biased against hiring older people.

  • Man (Score:1)

    by Apreche ( 239272 )
    Why weren't there BSs in game design offered 4 years ago when I was looking to get into college, now I'm looking to get out. I can probably get a masters in game design if I want though.

    But the timing is more significant than my personal situation. What this means is that the people who are going to be the game makers of tommorow are people who were born in 86-87-88. I'm a senior in college and the NES was my childhood. Some of the freshman who are just 3-4 years younger has the Playstation be their child

    • Re:Man (Score:3, Informative)

      by El_Ge_Ex ( 218107 )
      You want to learn about game design???

      http://www.gamedev.net
      http://www.gamasutra.com
      http://www.cgtalk.com

      Have fun, I just saved you $100k.

      -B

  • Get a _real_ degree dammit! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by El_Ge_Ex ( 218107 ) on Friday May 14, 2004 @01:18PM (#9153379) Journal
    "Yes, now you too can earn a worthless degree in a narrow field working countless hours getting no sleep. For your first job you say? NO! That's just for your demo reel!"

    These degrees are for people to have no motivation to learn on their own time, which by the way is something every game campany looks for.

    You want to be an artist? Get an art degree. Programmer? Comp Sci. Designer? English, Business, or Management are good fields.

    Don't be a fool, GET YOUR DAMN SCHOOL!

    -B

  • But the really annoying side of this... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by dpilot ( 134227 ) on Friday May 14, 2004 @01:22PM (#9153426) Homepage Journal
    ...is that they sort of leaked the information about this in mid-April, when the college selection process is supposed to be nearly done. As a result, we're thrown into another round of decision turmoil, with a deposit at one university and an acceptance at Champlain.

    It sounds as if Champlain is working with industry on this program, and will certainly do all they can to help their first graduating classes get placed. But aren't game jobs pretty much game-to-game, like the Star Trek: Elite Force 2 folks who got laid off at Raven right after the game went gold?

    How generally versatile will a game design degree be, anyway. I suspect careful choice of electives will be the key.
  • My school [cogswell.edu] has offered this for years. Not to mention schools like Full Sail and DigiPen (although those schools are widely regarded as a joke - my school is a full four-year, accredited college). My roommate is in that major right now, in fact (I think they're calling it "Digital Arts Engineering" at the moment).

    We're in northern California, so there's no lack of companies around us. I'm majoring in 3D modeling/animation, and I hope to intern for Pixar next summer - it's less than an hour away.
    • If no one has ever heard of your school, chances are it's not the height of reputability.

      For heaven's sake, I live about 20 min from it and haven't heard of it.
      • Um....you wrote a column on video game studies and you didn't even find it? That's pretty sad (of your journalistic abilities, not my school.) Cogswell grads work at PDI, Pixar, EA (that's not just marketing bs, I've met these people)...

        Admittedly it is one of our smallest majors, but it's there.

        I don't expect everyone to have heard of my school, as we don't waste our money on gobs of television ads (like the Academy of Art....yeesh).
    • Full Sail and Digipen regarded as jokes? If that's true then why are 80% of the Student Showcase games at GDC coming from the combination of both schools? Both schools are fully accredited and both turn out great talent who are ready to work today, not in six months after the house who hired a CS grad on who still needs to "learn" how to make a game.

      Face it folks, while Comp Sci per se isn't about programming alone, most CS grads can't code worth crap. I am sick of the students who just want to get into CS
      • Some grads of our video game (DAE) program work at EA.

        The real problems I've heard from Full Sail etc. is that they're insanely expensive, and their job placement sucks.

        Although we really shouldn't be comparing schools against each other in specialized fields like this. The degree you have isn't worth shit if you don't have anything to show for it. If you're in video game design, make a game. If you're in 3d modeling/animation, make a short film.

        I admit there's a large chance I'll drop out before I gr
  • Too bad it seems that nobody knows [insertcredit.com] how to teach it [insertcredit.com].

  • Like the Degree I started (Score:4, Insightful)

    by pudge_lightyear ( 313465 ) on Friday May 14, 2004 @03:11PM (#9155167) Homepage
    It's really sad to see what universities and colleges are turning into. I was a major in Contemporary Music at a college in Illinois for two years. It didn't take long to find out that the only reason that they have the degree is:

    a) Get people into college that don't want to be in college because it's no fun
    b) Get people away from other colleges w/o fun degrees

    The problem is... the effects of the previous are:
    a) People who shouldn't be in college (especially a private one where I was) show up, don't want to be in class and pretty much make a separate class for themselves (the people who just don't care or want to be here)
    b) Nobody likes them because they're just there for fun
    c) They pay a lot for something that is completely worthless (except for the Liberal Arts stuff that they weren't paying attention to)
    d) There is no merit to the degree and the school is knowingly setting 99% of the students up for failure.
    e) They tend to become popular (like sports) and take away from the truly academic leanings of the school.
    f) The best and most creative get the jobs, period. It's not like teaching, where you have to have a degree to do it.

    This computer games thing is exactly the same situation. People will come to it to... Gasp... have fun... not learn... not become part of the institution... they then hurt the institution overall by lowering expectations, education levels, success rates after school, etc... but they are a big draw.

    I say... leave these things to trade schools and bring back to colleges and universities the things that make our schools the best in the world... EDUCATION!
  • I would have expected this from Burlington College before Champlain College, but regardless I love my state. Go Green Mountains!

  • Better combinations? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Fiz Ocelot ( 642698 ) <baelzharon.gmail@com> on Friday May 14, 2004 @04:12PM (#9156044)
    I think I would favor someone who majored in something like computer science and creative writing to be better. Then you would have someone that might have some understanding of how things can be done first of all. And also have experiance in doing things in creative writing.

    I guess what I'm getting at is those are established fields offered in most universities, game design is not. However things in those fields are applicable to game design.

    And on another note, last night I was in a live internet radio discussion with a creative designer in an upcomming mmo (couple years off still). And as much as I like fantasy settings, it seems like that's just overdone these days. And yet there is yet another game with elves and dragons etc etc.

  • As stated somewhere else in these comments, Full sail has many problems with teaching staff, and other issues that current and previous students have spoken about. If you want some more information on this, then maybe you should go have a look here [highend2d.com]. Full sail sued the original website site owner (surprise!) because they were losing business when all of the testimonials were nothing but the truth. The fact is, the only good testimonials that were on that website are from Full sail upper staff themselves. I w

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