The Guildhall @ SMU

I see all of these big names of gaming as designers and teachers in this program....but why a school in Dallas Texas? They don't live there do they?

Can foriegn students apply? I didn't see anything about that on the web site.

SMU going to recruit potential students by giving them sorority hookers during campus visits? LOL! If you don't know what I'm refering too...you're not old enough.

That's a great url, that mobygames.com developer database. Thank you!

Now why the hell is John Carmack credited with Serious Sam: The First Encounter???

http://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId=682/

If I could ask Graeme on question... it would be... "Why were you wearing that gay red mickey-mouse sweater for 'The Making of The 7th Guest'? And what was with your hair at the time?"

Randy Pitchford (Gearbox), Graeme Devine (id), Levelord (Ritual) and other famous gamers like Tom Hall? I'd love to study with them! This is like my fantasy come true! Is this for real or is this some sort of prank?

From what I've heard, they'll have to do quite a good job if they expect to be at Digipen's level.

Romero: Hey Tom, I have a great game idea.
Tom: But we don't have a team or any money and Eidos....
Romero: I got an idea that will solve both of those problems. MWHAHAHAHAHA!

the price of those courses is a joke, at least for me poor european...even private schools here aren't that expensive, but then again, perhaps they need new ferrari cars at that school?
If they want more qualified people they could just sell some video trainning CDs for the mass as the portfolio is what will be the final decison to choose btw candidates. Oh yeah perhaps only rich people who can afford it can make games? heh rather silly... baks here will never donate money, well not that much.
Still would be great to study with those guys but at that price i'd rather try to enter game industry by myself.
*shrug*

Hey I was just wondering...

How many people at the Shack think they are at a level (skill-wise, not time or money-wise) that they could undertake this course successfully? I for one believe I could. I've developed a 3D game engine that rendered Quake 3 levels with a partner in College, I've taken an online course on BSP trees (www.gameinstitute.com) and done a ton of reading on my own.

Just curious how many other shackers are fairly serious game developers.

let's see .. i have 2 college degrees .. physics and computer engr ... I have 3 released titles under my belt from a previous gaming company.. I now work in corporate America making 3x what gaming companies could pay me ... I would like to get back into gaming ... and hey! It's overpriced and It's recommend by industry legends like Killcreek!!! what the hell, why not!

The major project in the last two terms will be treated like an industry development project with schedules, crunch time, and outside evaluations.

Hey, why not teach them how to schedule properly so there doesn't need to be a crunch time! Crunch time is a bad thing!

18 months for degree in gaming production (area specific) + computer = $37,000...um...no thanks.

I'm not saying education isn't important, but, in the end, when trying to get hired, it comes down to two things...
1) Who you know.
2) What you can do.

Most jobs in the gaming industry come from knowing someone that helps you get your foot in the door (as if this wasn't true for many professions).

Also, check out the project requirements.
"...require you to work as part of a team to build a game. ...the project will last for two terms. The teams will have art production, software development, and level design students. Teams will be shuffled for each new major project so you’ll
experience several times the processes and dynamics of team-building."

God forbid any of your team members leaves for any reason before the project is finished...trust me, it happens, I have seen it (and had it happen to me) with just short term regular college projects. There WILL be ppl that drop out (either from lack of ability to keep up or due to real life things).

With only 100 students chosen for the program there will be little (to no) ability for a team to gain a new member if they loose one. At least in the "real world" (tm) you would be able to hire someone new.

Perhaps the "structure" of an educational system will help some ppl produce some portfolio material. But, for $37,000 I think you could find a way to get area specific training/help that would get you closer to working in the industry.

I have seen several demos from "art institutes" that had "team projects". There have only been TWO of those demos that contained anything worthy of consideration for looking further at the person (in a hiring situation). The reason?...Those two ppl already HAD the ability/drive/desire/ideas needed to get into the gaming industry. The only thing they gained in these schools was the ability to produce demo material (which they could have done on their own for MUCH cheaper).

Again, don't get me wrong, I think education is important, however, I think there are going to be some REAL growing pains with this program. It's a "the road to hell is paved with good intentions sort of thing." They mean well, but they still have to impliment it and see what needs "modifying".

I have been teaching 3D Studio MAX for about 2 years now. Out of all the students I have taught, only FOUR were interested/driven/talented enough before they came to the class that they knew what was what. Most of the students are like "I wanted to learn 3D 'because'"...um, okay...it's your money, not mine...lol.

PS: Of those four, two started their own game company and another went on to be hired by a game company. :}

so are they abandoning the program at UT Dallas, then? SMU is hella expensive, I don't know why they didn't stick with UT Dallas. SMU is also far from central Dallas and not really that great of a school.

\m/ Romero \m/
I'm not kidding, when he hasn't gone off the deep end and dragged the entire team with him, he's been a part of some great games

I was in a college course like for one year. I graduated and I'm now a "certified" game developer, I even have the diploma to prove it. The only bad part of this, was that it was Red River College. Ever hear of it? Didn't think so. The cool part is that Radical Entertainment gave us internships for games testing, and that our local government sponsored each os us. Meaning that if we got in with our portfolios, we didn't have to pay tuition, the gov't paid for us. This was because it was the pilot program for it. We learned SoftImage 3.7 and Photoshop 5.0 at the time. It was a great experience, too bad it really didn't prepare us for actually getting in the industry. Lack of organization and professionalism there prevented us from getting that much-needed portfolio. Still working on it though...

speaking of smu, im still debating whether i should enroll...

I wish there was a way to get the tuition sponsored by a game company that you pledge to intern/work for them while in session, and then work for then after completion (for X amount of time). I can do some level design, and I'd absolutely love to get amazing at it, but that tuition is hard to swing once you've already done college and your moneys for college are gone.

It's a good idea, though, and I would be try to be part of it if I was able. Probably more suited as an alternative to tradition college, or those with the moneys.

ooh they say they will put students together in teams and have them make a mod for a 3d game. that is interesting. I wonder what game they will mod? som id based engine me thinks

This a rather confusing news post... I don't know what SMU is and it doesn't say.

More schools around the world could use something like this. American game developers come up with different ideas than French developers or Russian developers and it'd be nice to see some variety in games.

This looks very interesting, I wish I could partake in this.

The selection process looks like anyone who got in would already be a good/great designer, so I don't see you really "learn" how to become a better designer, per se. However, the course still sounds awesome. The experience of working with a team of people who are very dedicated (for that much tuition, they ought to be) will be an excellent asset imo. It sounds like they're really going for a mock gaming company experience there, cool shit. I think that whole deal is probably the best part of that package.

Also, the easiest way (so I hear) to get into the game industry to is know someone already in it. This sounds like an awesome opportunity to get into someones good books and get yourself known to them.

I'd like to see something like this for consoles only.

Why don't Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo sponsor those?

This looks very interesting.....
*reads more*