Hello all, this is my first post in the unreal forums. I just saw the new professional certificate course that unreal/epic launched recently. I was wondering what are some general thoughts on things like this? I am head over heels addicted to learning game dev stuff but I am still very much so a noob.
The creators of the course are all esteemed individuals and the course claims that after finishing it, you will be ready to apply for jobs within the industry. I find that part hard to be true, but the professional cert and experience from the course canāt be a bad thing right? I really want to get more involved with things and learn as fast as I possibly can.
I figure at the very least, I learn some stuff and have the cert to add to my linkedin! Anyways, let me know your thoughts on cert programs and courses like this! If possible, I would love to hear from some industry professionals as well.
If you are referring to the new āEpic Games Game Design Professional Certificateā on Coursera, I would highly recommend waiting. I enrolled shortly after it launched and itās been broken since launch. Irrelevant practice materials, bugged answers for quizzes, inadequate time limits, extremely dodgy AI grading, itās a mess.
Whatās worse, Coursera staff members have been unresponsive and customer support has been extremely unhelpful. The course instructor hasnāt replied to posts about the broken modules in over 10 days. I canāt speak to the value of professional certs in general, but the course you are describing is not ready for primetime until the glaring issues are fixed. Iām kind of surprised Epic hasnāt stepped in considering they are endorsing the course but maybe they are just unaware.
I see. I would really love for something like this to exist and be of quality. I was hoping, since the professors are all quality and intelligent individuals AND it is backed by Epic, that it would be a great source of educational material.
I agree. Itās one of the reasons I put a pause on a few other courses I was doing and jumped on this. If you are just looking for general tutorials and instruction (not a certification) Epic has hundreds of officially endorsed videos for you here.
If you are looking for a more structured course (and are willing to spend money) Iāve had a great experience with a number of courses from Udemy.com and GameDev.TV
Iāll be honest, I have been completing the course. I will say, the Epic page for the course on their own website, claims that after completing the course, you will be ready to search for a job within the industry. I found that hard to believe but decided it is from Epic themselves, so why would that be false. I am barely starting the second course, but so far, I fail to see how I will be job ready by the time I complete this course. Unreal engine itself is so complex, I do not believe this cert alone could make me competent enough to even have a junior position at a company. I have been working in UE5 nonstop for weeks straight ( i know that is nothing in the long term) and I thought this course would be a launch pad to finally understanding slightly more complex aspects of the engine. I really hope as I continue the course, it begins to actually help me develop the skills I need to eventually make a career transition into this field.
Anyone got actual links to the specific cert / course to see HOW its being promoted / marketed?@Cartermatic The unglamorous truth of Indie game dev is, most of the time, work days are just about adding features, fixing bugs, maximizing performance (plus the whole marketing cesspit side ). If a cert / course helps with that, great. But most of the time, it wonāt deliver. There are detailed past threads explaining why. Will add some links belowā¦
Its Oct 25th and I have made it half way through the cert program but am going to withdraw and put it on hold. The issue with tests being unrelated to the course content has gotten worse, there is no engagement with any instructor, and I have been running in circles for days with coursera just trying to get them to understand that someone needs to address the issues.
The actual issues with the tests aside (questions not covered in course and questions that require a wrong answer in order to be scored right) the courses are all decent intro courses if you have no real understanding of Unreal Engine or game design. I have a few small gems I have taken away from it. I found, however, the frustration from the test issues and the sheer size of the final project for each course to far outweigh the gains from the course videos. For example, writing a complete 30+ page game design document for a game you need to āinventā for the course including UI design, game mechanics, character models, etc. Which at the end of the day is all throw away. I respect the other students going through the course but having all projects marked by peers (other people trying to learn) doesnāt really provide any constructive feedback so itās hard to assess if you are on the right track or not.
There would have been a great opportunity had these courses been planned together to start with a concept in the first course and end with a completed project by the eighth course - one long contiguous project.
I am going to second the opinions expressed above and call BS on this course. As of right now, November 8th, the coursera course is not fit for the public. it is clear that no one at unreal who approved this course being prominently displayed on epic websites ever bothered to take the course. In general, i expect good things from epic considering the build the airplane after jumping off the cliff mentality that competitive tech takes nowadays, but this just isnāt right. Seriously, donāt waste your money. If the fact that the course doesnāt teach to the tests gets worse than this, it is a clear waste of time. By the second practice quiz, they ask at least three questions out of left field that you will only know if you already know. For Example, they ask: In a single word, what is the term for the financial backing a publisher provides for game development? Now, i could say investment, but because there was not a single word about finance anywhere in the video series up to this point, the best i can do is guess. that is a waste of time. Its like whoever edited the videos took twenty or thirty minutes of long winded discussion and tried to edit it down into a one minute clip while still basing the test on the long winded discussion. TOTAL JOKE!
). If a cert / course helps with that, great. But most of the time, it wonāt deliver. There are detailed past threads explaining why. Will add some links belowā¦ 