A scool called Full Sail

#1 I know there is at least one person that goes to Full Sail or Digipen (Seattle game dev school. came before Full sail by about two years I believe)

I guess it all depends on how much risk you're set to deal with in your education.

You go to Full Sail and your skills won't be covering many areas that go into "normal jobs" namely writing, broader areas of program design, and the more "common" fields of education like psychology or socialogy.

I've spoken with a few people about these schools (I intended to attend Digipen, but decided not to because of it not seeming to prepare me for "other" jobs incase the games industry slows down job-wise) and the general consensus is they aren't bad, but the stuff taught is a bit to narrow.

You can make games... but well, you lack a lot of the other stuff that comes with a well-rounded education.

I'm happy with my choice of attending the University of Washington and learning on my own (and in summer, 2-3 games institute classes) the details of game development. I've learned much more from the classes surrounding socialogy and psychology than the ones surrounding mathematics or programming.

While, it might not seem quite so interesting or "fun"... I'm very glad that I chose the "well-rounded" route then the "games-only" route.

I want to go into games, but I'll have my bases covered in case I don't/can't. Dunno if I can say the same about Full Sail/Digipen grads...

Maybe our industry insiders or digipen/full sail students in the community will fill us in?

#2 thanks for the thoughts Matt...hope to hear few more too...and you brought up most of my hesitations i've had about it as well and agree with you on them for the most part

the part i didnt mention..i'm currently going to just a community college and i've taken all of the required accademic classes (psychology/math stuff/english/usual) and only just starting into the computer networking specific classes for the AS degree i'm currently going for...so i have had at least a bit of that

i do totaly see what your saying on almost something to fall back on though...hehe it's a painfull reality that not everyone is gonna make their millions in game design (honestly i'm just looking for a job i can not HATE getting up for every morning..and right now game dev would be that)...however at least in my case i feel i've got a bit of something to fall back on...both computer networking and good old hardware/software stuff for the past few years at our computer store

the only counter thing i would say though...if not for games...i would have never started to learn about computers...never have eventualy gotten into computer networking that i've done as a part time job for a while (masters of orion 2 was the game that drove me to learn about small LAN's for me and my friends)...all that to say even if something is very narrow in what they are teaching....the opertunity to learn far beoynd that is always there it just depends on the person and where their actual interests are imo

#3 Only thing I've seen of Full Sail is the quake clone they wrote in Java 3d.

#4 If you're only going for a 2-year degree that isn't focussing on programming, you'll definately have to do some extracurricular work.

I am going to give Games Institute a whirl this summer for a few of their "medium" level classes, and from what I've heard it's a pretty good choice (especially for $90 for a 12-week course) Of course, you'll need a fairly solid understanding of c++ programming (programming is pretty much all games institute teaches) and some free time.

Even still, as long as you work hard and try to teach yourself a lot of stuff you should do well.

That's the key fact most of the GG guys have been saying. Try hard, and get some experience. Education is second to what you can produce.

#5 I visited Full Sail to see about getting some interns, but nothing really impressed me that much. The school is very expensive (+25k per year). You would be better off going to UCF (University of Central Florida) where they are going to have a degree in modeling and simulation real soon (up to the PhD. level).

I have seen higher quality stuff from the mod community.

But then again, you probably only get out of it what you put into it. I would recommend visiting Full Sail, they have tours all of the time and the people are very friendly.

Good Luck!

#6 I am currently going to Full Sail and I am in the process of making my final project using the Torque Engine. If anyone has any particular questions about the courses or anything, I will be happy to tell you what I know.