[College: Art Institute of Seattle: Project?/Career Path?]

[GabrielBailey74]

Well, this Friday i'll be going into meet with a few teachers, mainly one Lady.

But I was wondering if I should create a little project/2D Demo for her, some files to look at, see what I can do, know she wont understand.

Main reason for this is that I've read alot of.. bad reviews on this college, so i wouldn't want to go there and get taught something that I wasn't looking to learn, or something that wouldn't help me on my career path.

Now she's saying that i'm a step ahead of most of the students (past games, hosting, profit, years of experience in Java), and you know if they can't find something for what I would like: Hard Core Programming, (Not art), actual GAME PROGRAMMING, sitting behind a computer for hours just jamming/testing/contributing, than I hope they can send me in the right direction!, I don't think i'd get very far while I program by myself with the little bit of knowledge I already do have, so I was thinking and most likely what I would like to do is work FOR someone who designs games, wether its extra coding being put in, ideas on improving codes, just helping be that guy behind the computer shoving code.

I wouldn't mind =D I've chose my career path, i code all day, every day, (tiny ass neighborhood, live in a Trailer, and basically on a farm (not a redneck in overalls yet D:<) I'm from the city).

Started coding when i was around 13-14, had problems, solved them, so I do believe that I would be able to complete a 2-4 year degree there and HOPEFULLY find a nice career landing in a Gaming Industry, (Little 2D Demos on websites isn't cutting it).

So I bring this post to you guys to give me feedback, in any way possible, whether about the project (jar file, run file) I should bring into her, or just any advice on a gaming career period, possibly things I should learn on my own before I go in, help me get more further ahead.

Thanks guys hope to get some reply's!

[loom_weaver]

It sounds like you have an aptitude and enjoyment of programming.

If that's the direction you want to go then it is my opinion that you should aim for a bona-fide Computer Science degree from a reputable college or university while picking up as much practical experience as you can along the way (internships, personal projects, etc.).

[roland]

It sounds like you have an aptitude and enjoyment of programming.

If that's the direction you want to go then it is my opinion that you should aim for a bona-fide Computer Science degree from a reputable college or university while picking up as much practical experience as you can along the way (internships, personal projects, etc.).

+1 comp sci degree. You will love it. Especially if you get to skip the first few papers(show what you can do there) Aim for straight A/A+'s and people will want to employ you after your first/second year studying 

Games published by our own members! Check 'em out!

[sproingie]

Ironic ... I code all day, every day, and I wish I were an artist instead.  Ah well.

There's a vast difference in CS curricula, and it sounds to me like you're more interested in the software engineering side than the theory side, but you're still going to want to pick up both: a grounding in complexity analysis will let you recognize NP-complete problems (and know to look for an approximate answer instead of a perfect one).  And understanding type-level fixpoints will have you throwing out the Curiously Recurring Template Pattern with wild abandon to impress the ladies... okay, maybe impress your fellow devs.

Anyhow, don't just pick any old CS program: look at the whole course catalog, look over the syllabuses for each, make sure they're not teaching you something godawful like PL/1 or VB or Java that you already know.  The practice of workmans tools like C++ is something you can learn on your own time: university courses should bend and stretch your brain, that's what you're paying the big bucks for.

[ra4king]

Well then if Computer Science is mostly theory (and I hate theory T__T), what should I study? I'm quite confused on what to do either :/

I'm almost exactly like the OP here, I love to code, started teaching myself when I was 13/14. I'm 16 now and I'm already starting to get ready for college registration.

[sproingie]

Not understanding any theory is like having to figure out everything from scratch instead of solving for the general problem.  Once Galileo figured out 9.8 m/s^2 was universal, he stopped having to drop crap off the Leaning Tower in order to prove it to himself (took a while to convince others of course).  

If you get told to optimize a game AI so that a character fits as many actions with some cost X-Y with into moves of total budget Z and do it as optimally as possible, the words "bin packing" or "knapsack problem" should be lighting up in your head, followed by "NP Complete".  That's theory.

[ra4king]

Well...ok...so I should study Computer Science then? The courses, classes, and subjects are very attractive

[GabrielBailey74]

Thanks for all the wonderful feedback.
All those Microsoft Games, what are those made in C++?

[Shazer2]

Most Microsoft (XBox) games are coded in C# with XNA.

~Shazer2

[GabrielBailey74]

Ah, thank you very much mate.

Games published by our own members! Check 'em out!

[Cero]

Most Microsoft (XBox) games are coded in C# with XNA.

XNA is only for XBLA games / indie games
it can also not use as much resources as "real" games
and I believe the normal 360 SDK is C++

[roland]

Well then if Computer Science is mostly theory (and I hate theory T__T), what should I study? I'm quite confused on what to do either :/

At my university - Victoria University(New Zealand) Computer science is theory based in lectures (So you know how to do stuff) and all the assignments are coding (by yourself or as a group project). Which is the best way really. Its easy to teach theory to a class but I don't know how practicals work very well since normally there is a wide range of skill levels.

Software engineering is split into 2, half are more theory based while the other half are more practical.
Software Engineers earn more money (if you work for someone else) than computer scientists. But then again, if you sell your games for millions it doesn't make a difference  

I chose Computer Science because some of the Software engineering papers I weren't interested in (more based on design, diagrams, etc) Where as all computer science is more based on actual programming.
Although I have chosen Comp Science, half my papers are either network or software engineering. If you choose computer science you get more of a range of choices on what you want to do. If you take software engineering, its more fixed and there's less computer science papers you can take.
You also have to take some engineering papers that have NOTHING to do with coding. (Most software engineering students at my university hate these papers)

But that's just my university, I don't know about any others.

Its good to decide whether you want to do Software engineering or computer science right from the beginning, because it may be hard to change later on.

Hope this helps someone!

[ra4king]

I'm hoping for Georgia Tech

And software engineering doesn't look...attractive. I'll stick with Comp Sci.