I am currently about to start a college course next month in june
the college course cost a fair bit of money $$$$
**ICA50211 Diploma of Digital and Interactive Games
Our Diploma of Digital and Interactive Games has 16 units structured into 4 major clusters of learning. Each cluster contains units grouped into core study areas that are covered during the 18-month qualification. The clusters covered in the Diploma of Digital and Interactive Games are: Working in the Games Industry, Game Management and Design, 3D Art and Implementation, and Games Development. The units that belong to each cluster of learning are outlined in the table below.
Cluster 1 – Working in the Games Industry
ICAICT419A Work effectively in the digital media industry
BSBOHS402B Contribute to the implementation of the OHS consultation process
Cluster 2 – Game Management and Design
ICAPMG501A Manage IT projects
ICAGAM523A Collaborate in the design of 3D game levels and environments
ICAGAM514A Design and create models for a 3D and digital effects environment
ICAGAM515A Design and create advanced particles, fluids and bodies for 3D digital effects
Cluster 3 – 3D Art and Implementation
ICAGAM526A Create complex 3D characters for games
ICAGAM519A Manage technical art and rigging in 3D animation
ICAGAM516A Animate a 3D character for digital games
ICAGAM517A Produce a digital animation sequence
ICAGAM501A Create design concepts for digital games and 3D media
Cluster 4 – Games Development
ICAGAM511A Manage testing of games and interactive media
ICAPRG501A Apply advanced object oriented language skills
ICAGAM521A Create interactive 3D environments for digital games
ICAGAM528A Create games for mobile devices
ICAGAM503A Create a complex 3D interactive computer game
**
This is what they teach me but im worried about wasting my time learning unreal 3 and money doing a course if im going to have to relearn everything for unreal 4 ?(engine wise)
if i learn unreal 3 will it help me with unreal 4 or do i have to learn everything from the start again ?
What do you want to get a job doing in the games industry? Art? Animation? VFX? Tech Artist? Game Design? Programmer?
Does that college give you an actual degree or just a certificate?
Normally I suggest if you want to do programming for games, get a non-gaming related programming degree.
If you want to do environment or character art, I’d suggest learning it on your own. Most college courses have mediocre teachers and are behind the curve when it comes to new software and techniques.
For animation, I’ve heard tons of great things about Animation Mentor, but I’d do some more research before just trusting my word on it.
If you see yourself trying to get work in another country and moving there within the next 7 years, you should get a degree for when you apply for a work visa. It’ll be next to impossible to get work in another country without a degree or years of professional experience.
I pesonally would also recommend you to do an ordinary programming degree, because it’s much saver to do that + you can also get a job in another industry.
The UE3 skills will just help you a little bit with the UE4 -> it will be easier to get into the UE4, but big parts like blueprints are missing.
Problem with studying game development stuff seems to be that the game industry and the tools we have evolve so quickly that the schools can’t keep up. So you spend however many years learning something that is already slightly outdated when you start and then when you’re done they’re even more so.
There are tons of stuff you will have use for in UE4 that you can learn in UE3, but you would learn them way quicker if you just worked in UE4 instead, and you don’t have to waste time on the outdated parts. There are so much learning resources that are up to date and available for free on the internet that I see no reason to study it at a school. It’s better to learn programming or something that won’t be very different in 3 to 5 years.
Then again, it’s never bad to show that you have studied. But you could probably find something more useful and learn UE by yourself instead.
The only advantage I see in game development studies is that some schools gear heavily towards team oriented course structure where students take on roles and work together from the design doc to the end product in getting shippable content out. In such an environment you get the experience of working on a team as well as the resume addition of having a finished and sellable product or two. Perhaps even be able to network a long standing team.
Of course none of this is true if you don’t put the effort in to pay attention to the connections you’re building within the school and never half-*** your projects.
