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Education Entertainment Games

Life At Full Sail - The Gamer School 46

Posted by CowboyNeal from the back-to-school dept.
WICKED writes "Full Sail: The School for Gamers? Are you the type of person that dreams about getting into the gaming industry, but doesn't know where to start from? Join myself and our guest writer Brett, as we take a closer look at Full Sail's Computer Animation and Game Design programs, and bring you the highs and lows throughout our 14 months." Game programming and design education have been in the news a lot more lately, and it's interesting to see a hands-on perspective of what these programs have to offer.
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Life At Full Sail - The Gamer School More

Life At Full Sail - The Gamer School

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  • What about 3dbuzz.com (Score:4, Informative)

    by krisguy ( 120047 ) <krisguy@@@krisguy...com> on Thursday June 12, 2003 @12:31PM (#6182871) Homepage
    Ever since TechTV mentioned them, the server has crashed. These guys offered movies on game design for free.

  • Let's see... Where to start from? (Score:3, Funny)

    by jpsst34 ( 582349 ) on Thursday June 12, 2003 @12:31PM (#6182874) Journal
    Are you the type of person that dreams about getting into the gaming industry, but doesn't know where to start from?

    I usually tend to start on the other side of that trailing preposition, there, Coach Z.

  • Cool place (Score:3, Informative)

    by Shawn Baumgartner ( 632798 ) on Thursday June 12, 2003 @12:56PM (#6183126) Homepage
    I took the tour one Sunday since they were offering free lunch and I was bored. Pretty tight setup. The VR lab was cool and they had some very sweet computer labs. Some dude who used to work for id gave the intro to the computer animation program, which made me realize was a dork I was for recognizing his name. At least it wasn't until halfway through his spiel and I soon forgot it, so I don't feel too bad. But they had all sorts of machines there, including a room full of SGI workstations for the animation classes.

    The video and audio editing hardware they have... holy shit. They have got some serious hardware on that end. If you've ever considered video or audio editing, you really need to drag your ass down here to Orlando and play with those toys. The mobile stage setup was fairly sweet; a few semis that unload a big outdoor tented stage setup.

    All in all, it looked like you really got your money's worth, which is good because it does cost a pretty penny, hence my attending a public university instead. But if your parents don't know what the fuck to do with all of that money sitting around, have them send you down here. Just don't forget the AC, because the weather sucks.
    • The video and audio editing hardware they have... holy shit. They have got some serious hardware on that end. If you've ever considered video or audio editing, you really need to drag your ass down here to Orlando and play with those toys. The mobile stage setup was fairly sweet; a few semis that unload a big outdoor tented stage setup.

      Yeah, great toys, but a 2-year tech degree, no real knowledge or skills, and the 'guarunteed job placement' they give you is a minimum-wage spot working backstage at Disney

  • But what happens when you decide you can't cut it in the gaming world? You are left with a trade school education that taught you how to press buttons in a certain order to accomplish a specific task.

    In the end design, art and programming aren't determined by how much you paid to learn it but by your talent, which if it isn't natural comes from hard work. You can get that along with a real degree at most public universities if you are serious enough.

    For those interested in learning about the art producati

  • Every Florida resident is probably laughing. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Draigon ( 172034 ) on Thursday June 12, 2003 @01:27PM (#6183473) Homepage
    Full Sail? A gaming school? I find that extremely hard to believe. Everything about Full Sail can be summed up like this: The school has everything to make you want to go, but nothing to make you want to stay.

    They're very slick, stylish looking. They came to my high school with a fancy tour bus where we could play rad video games. They had a guy come to our tv production class to tell us how great Full Sail was which I swear up until that point I had never met any of those cheesy tv infomercial guys before. ...but from everyone I've heard that attended there or had friends that did say job placement rate sucks, only dedicated (as in you teach yourself with their equipment and make your own homework) students learn anything. Before I leave on a really down note, though, Full Sail is good for a certain type of person. The people who already know what they're doing, people looking to find others to start a company, or people looking to play with expensive equipment.

    • Sorry bud ... (Score:2, Insightful)

      by torpor ( 458 )
      ... but: ... only dedicated (as in you teach yourself with their equipment and make your own homework) students learn anything ...

      I hate to tell you this. That's how it is in real life.
    • Well I guess the proof would be in the graduates and not in the opinion of a high schooler. The placement rate for the game development program is close to 75% right now. One of the things that is important about the placement department at Full Sail is that it is a benefit for life. Seriously, you can get placement help for as long as the school is still in business, which to date is 23 years.

      Another thing that Full Sail offers as a benefit for life is that ability to retake classes from your degree progr
      • How many schools can you name that do that?

        Almost every tech school I've ever been to (mostly because my company has a training budget and these are the types of schools they send us to most of the time (not game development schools, tech school)). It pretty much goes like this: if the school charges an excessive amount of money to teach you how to use a specific application (or operating system) to perform a specific task, they almost always offer free retaking of the courses that you originally took (or

  • my old roomate went there.. (Score:4, Informative)

    by butane_bob2003 ( 632007 ) on Thursday June 12, 2003 @02:33PM (#6184139) Homepage
    he was pretty useless. They taught him how to use all the nice gear, but thats about it. Well, he had no talent, it sounds like 99% of the people there with him were the same way. Smoking weed everyday, learning f*k all, having nothing to show for it when its all over. Game programming is just not something you go to school for. I got an entry level job at a big game company, worked my way up fast by showing the ability to learn quickly. 2 years later I was a senior programmer at another company. No degrees, no certificates, no fancy overpriced schooling. Chances are after going to a school that focuses on game design, you will be sick of games by the time you are finished.
    • Just wondering, what was your education/experence background when you got your first job with a game company, and what position was it?
      • I was a high school drop out with 2 years experience as a diesel mechanic (something I also got into with no education). I was taking a network communication class at a community college. (routers,bridges,protocols, etc..) The professor teaching the class was a project lead at Midway games working on a network tournament system. He needed someone to do basic network stuff, punching cables and helping the sysadmin. I took the job, found I had nothing to do most of the time, so I started programming on the de
        • Oooh, I remember the network tournament system midway working on. IIRC they wanted to hook up MK3U or MK4 machines in the arcade to other arcades so they could run huge tournaments, keep stats, etc right? Or was it for "the grid" or whatever their arcade first person shooter was. That is so awesome that you worked at Midway, If I could pick a game company to ever work for it would probably be Midway. Did you ever bump into Ed Boon? Any ideas why the MK games seemed to go downhill after the 2nd one? So
    • The best way to get into the gaming industry is to know someone in the gaming industry. Its impossible to get into, low pay, incredible amount of hours, and very little credit (unless you are the lead designer).

      So, would you be my friend? ;-)
      • Sorry, I was laid off with most of my team in 2001. I was getting tired of long hours, low salary, little recognition, but the job was a lot of fun. I was a few years younger, less jaded then... I am now working on business intelligence stuff, which is pretty well hyped these days, but pretty boring. I dont see games development anywhere in my future, except maybe for fun.
  • After browsing their site I have seen tons of "your life will be cool when you graduate"-isms, boasts, and other such nonsense. And yet I have yet to see the word "accredited". Fuck that. My life is far too valuable to gamble on something that sounds cool.
    • they're accredited.
      • Well then, ignore me, I should have looked at the site a bit more. Now the only question is if a really cool college is worth moving to a state with it's own Fark tag. :)
      • Every half-rate semi-scam technical school is "Accredited." However, most of them are accredited by miscellaneous national networks, which are basically comprised of similar schools, all attempting to give eachother legitimacy

        Unfortunately, if they're not accredited by the "proper" regional and national councils, then your credits won't be worth squat if you ever need to go elsewhere for more schooling. I suggest you compare their accreditation with that at a local state run university, and if they don'

  • What I have heard about this school, is that they have really high job-placement rates for the computer arts (like animation, modeling, music), but pretty lousy placement for programmers. So, if you're looking to be a programmer, don't let them fool you with misleading figures about job-placement.
  • One of my friends from high school raved about this place. Had things all set up with his student loans and everything. He's telling me about all the crazy equipment they have. How people from iD Software, ILM work there. He was always into 3D modeling/animation in HS, and he was pretty damn good too...

    A year later I see him back home and ask him what the hell he is doing here... Turns out getting a job after graduating from here is null. And if you don't get a job you are stuck with a Trade School degre

  • DigiPen (Score:3, Informative)

    by kabir ( 35200 ) on Thursday June 12, 2003 @03:57PM (#6184841)
    Full Sail hasn't impressed me at all, for reasons amply covered by the other posters. But if you're looking to go to school for game design/programming/art-stuff then you should do yourself a favour and check out DigiPen [digipen.edu]. Their name sucks monkey rocks, and they aren't as flashy as places like Full Sail, but they're an accredited university with very solid 2 and 4 year degree programs. They also seem to have a good deal of respect in the industry, and a pretty good placement rate to boot.
    • DigiPen is very solid. I did a lot of research before applying and I will be attending in the fall to start my work on the programming degree.

      The reason I chose Digipen is because it is the only school that offers an accredited degree in Real-Time Interactive Simulation - games.

      There are plenty of programs that offer certifications and awards of acheivement but I wanted to have a real degree. Full Sail is the only other 'game school' that even comes close to Digipen.

      -Reed
      • I've finished my freshman year at Digipen. Let me tell you something about what it's like/how to servive. I hope you know how to program before you come here. They do have classes on C and C++, but this years freshmen seem to have had real trouble undersanding the basics. (I have taken Computer Science for two years in high school) The RTIS freshmen must take ART210, which is basicly art history but is the most time consuming thing that will have. I spent my nights in the first semester studying who painted
  • I couldn't even view their site: I surf with JunkBuster masking my browser type, and they wouldn't even let me in the front door.

    If they're so incompetent that they can't design a decent, standards compatible web site, then what will they be able to teach about games?
  • My brother graduated from Full Sail's film program. He had a brief, unpaid internship in New York City working on a documentary about the 2000 elections. His most recent job was working at Books A Million, and he's back in school trying to get a worthwhile degree.

    I'm not saying it will happen to everyone who goes there, but I think it was a big waste of time and money for my brother.

  • I donâ(TM)t know much about Full Sail, but I liked my experience at Digipen. I have a college degree and a Digipen degree. The college degree has helped make me well-rounded individual (I can mix chemicals and talk about baroque music) but the Digipen degree challenged me as a programmer like nothing in any other college level class. If I was hiring I would look at any Digipen graduate just for their programming experience alone. They are not just reading âoeLearn DirectX-9 in 24 hoursâ the
  • I am lovnign it. It is deffintally a challange, my class started with about 30 people and we are now down to about 20, we picked up other students who failed classes along the way. I am currently in my 6th month of classes, i am in my 3rd programming class, called Fundementals of Windows Programming. The first programming class, C++, duh, is totally designed to weed out the uncommitted and people who are not ment to be programmers. We do have deadlness for little programs that we have to do. As for the sc
  • From the article:

    Is this a new fad? Can you really make big bucks making games? Well weâ(TM)re not really sure, but to get anywhere in any industry you need to know your stuff.

    So to get anywhere, you need to know your stuff. Do you think you can learn that from people who are not really sure if you can make money in that career path or not? Exactly how much do they know about the industry? Perhaps they should learn their "stuff" before offering courses.

  • I graduated from their Computer Animation course (Heyo, CAP graduates of 11/01). Before even CONSIDERING going to this school you, have to ask yourself one important question: Do I want this to be my life?

    If you're not willing to toil for years as the coffee bitch of the industry, scraping and clawing against hundreds of others with your exact credentials for some vague semblance of recognition...don't bother. Seriously. The school starts up a new class every month that averages about 30 people per deg

  • Full Sail rocks (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Let me set the record straight on all the Full Sail sucks comments. The reason everyone's roommate, or friends friend friend says full sail sucks is usually because they couldn't take it.

    Full Sail is a no-nonsense school. If you can't keep up with the pace, then you're either really dumb, or you're unwilling to learn. Unlike most colleges, no one here is going to put up with people who aren't willing to learn.

    I'm a student there in the game design program a couple months away from starting my final projec

    • Let me set the record straight on all the Full Sail sucks comments. The reason everyone's roommate, or friends friend friend says full sail sucks is usually because they couldn't take it.

      The bottom line with any of these schools are the placement rate into jobs that are relevent to the program you take. A lot of tech schools will brag about a high placement rate but they place students in jobs they don't want that aren't what they went to school for. Why should someone go down there to get into the ga

      • I'm not going to knock any degree program from anywhere. Lord knows, if I had went somewhere else my wallet wouldn't hurt like it does now. And yeah, placement rates should definitely be taken with a grain of salt. Perhaps even a table spoon of it.

        But as the last guy pointed out, the teachers here know their business. And after talking to a few past students before I came here, the ones who didn't "make" it usually complain that they weren't prepared. The ones who did make it? They said they just stu

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