[game_edu] game_edu Digest, Vol 82, Issue 20
Robert Madsen
madsen.robert at gmail.com
Thu Jun 23 22:46:35 EDT 2011
Hey gang. Just wanted to add my comments on this topic since my career is a
prime example. I made a lateral transition into game development at the age
of 46. I had been a business application programmer all my life and wanted
something with more of a flair and challenge. Since I already had a B.S.
degree in computer science, I chose the self-learning approach by reading
every game programming book I could get my hands on to bring my coding
skills up to speed (see http://tinyurl.com/4gph62u for the complete story).
I also started attending industry events and networking with individuals in
the game industry. It took about 5 years, but in 2008 I landed my first job
as a game programmer. One thing that I will add is that even now there are
holes in my knowledge that I would love to fill with more formal education.
For example, I am considering taking some courses at Gameversity.com and I
am considering pursuing a game related Master's degree.
The summary: it is possible to transition into the game industry, especially
from a related discipline, regardless of age.
Robert
-----Original Message-----
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Subject: game_edu Digest, Vol 82, Issue 20
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
IGDA Education SIG
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Today's Topics:
1. Escapist Article (Suzanne Freyjadis)
2. Re: Escapist Article (Deanna Whaley)
3. Re: Escapist Article (Griffin Gardner)
4. Re: Escapist Article (Chelsea Larson-Andrews)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Thu, 23 Jun 2011 10:12:02 -0500
From: "Suzanne Freyjadis" <freyjadis at austin.rr.com>
Subject: [game_edu] Escapist Article
To: <game_edu at igda.org>
Message-ID: <007c01cc31b7$e7e85140$b7b8f3c0$@austin.rr.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Hi Amazing Game Edu SIG Members!
There is an article in the Escapist on transitioning into the industry as a
lateral career move and how education can help.
I talk about the usefulness of Community Colleges for lateral transitions in
the article. Let me know what you think.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_311/8963-How-Hard
-Can-It-Be
Best,
Suzanne
Suzanne Freyjadis
IGDA Edu SIG Co-Chair
Game Education Evangelist
Freyjadis at austin.rr.com
M: 512-619-4151
Twitter: GameEducation
Skype: suzanne.freyjadis
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Message: 2
Date: Thu, 23 Jun 2011 10:35:19 -0500
From: Deanna Whaley <dwhaley at austincc.edu>
Subject: Re: [game_edu] Escapist Article
To: IGDA Game Education Listserv <game_edu at igda.org>
Message-ID: <BANLkTi=nq3-p1bbgsv3QKtFX6EVCcwh1LA at mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Suzanne - I just wanted to thank you for mentioning Community Colleges in
the article. We always seem to be forgotten when someone writes an article
or speaks at an event. It is usually the proprietary schools or universities
that are mentioned...which is wonderful if you have the time and the money
to attend those schools - more time in school = the more you learn. We do
have an advisory committee of local industry professionals. They are the
ones that come together each year to advise us what to teach, what are the
latest skill trends, etc. All of our adjunct who teach our game
design/art/programming tracks are from the industry. We have an extremely
successful program here in Austin and all of our courses fill up within the
first 2 weeks of registration. We have 35+ graduates just this Summer and
quite a few of them are already working in the industry. It's very difficult
to teach the students everything they need to know in just 2 years so we are
very skill specific. The obstacle we face is articulation with 4 year
institutes. Hopefully we will be able to do that in the future, but most of
our students are wanting to graduate and start working and gaining
experience as soon as possible.
I just wanted you to know that we appreciate you recognizing community
colleges as a viable place for game industry training. Thank you.
On Thu, Jun 23, 2011 at 10:12 AM, Suzanne Freyjadis <freyjadis at austin.rr.com
> wrote:
> Hi Amazing Game Edu SIG Members!****
>
> ** **
>
> There is an article in the Escapist on transitioning into the industry
> as a lateral career move and how education can help.****
>
> ** **
>
> I talk about the usefulness of Community Colleges for lateral
> transitions in the article. Let me know what you think.****
>
> ** **
>
>
> http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_311/8963-Ho
> w-Hard-Can-It-Be
> ****
>
> ** **
>
> Best,****
>
> Suzanne****
>
> ** **
>
> *Suzanne Freyjadis*
>
> IGDA Edu SIG Co-Chair****
>
> Game Education Evangelist****
>
> Freyjadis at austin.rr.com****
>
> M: 512-619-4151****
>
> Twitter: GameEducation****
>
> Skype: suzanne.freyjadis****
>
> ** **
>
> _______________________________________________
> game_edu mailing list
> game_edu at igda.org
> http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu
>
>
--
Deanna Whaley
Austin Community College
Game Development Institute
Visual Communication Dept.
512.223.4830
dwhaley at austincc.edu
austincc.edu/viscom
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Message: 3
Date: Thu, 23 Jun 2011 12:15:11 -0500
From: Griffin Gardner <griffin at griffingardner.com>
Subject: Re: [game_edu] Escapist Article
To: IGDA Game Education Listserv <game_edu at igda.org>
Message-ID: <BANLkTimJSQUtkdZoVNkFS+R-b+Ssunu4FQ at mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Just my 2 cents... I took the Video Game Design course at ACC in 2007,
learned SO much and immediately got hired by Critical Mass Interactive after
I got my certificate. That experience, plus my membership in IGDA, gave me
the basic knowledge, networking opportunities and confidence to reinvent my
life (I am a woman in my 40s, BTW...) I applaude the community college
efforts and successes.
-Griffin Gardner
On Thu, Jun 23, 2011 at 10:35 AM, Deanna Whaley <dwhaley at austincc.edu>wrote:
> Suzanne - I just wanted to thank you for mentioning Community Colleges
> in the article. We always seem to be forgotten when someone writes an
> article or speaks at an event. It is usually the proprietary schools
> or universities that are mentioned...which is wonderful if you have
> the time and the money to attend those schools - more time in school =
> the more you learn. We do have an advisory committee of local industry
> professionals. They are the ones that come together each year to
> advise us what to teach, what are the latest skill trends, etc. All of
> our adjunct who teach our game design/art/programming tracks are from
> the industry. We have an extremely successful program here in Austin
> and all of our courses fill up within the first 2 weeks of
> registration. We have 35+ graduates just this Summer and quite a few
> of them are already working in the industry. It's very difficult to
> teach the students everything they need to know in just 2 years so we
> are very skill specific. The obstacle we face is articulation with 4
> year institutes. Hopefully we will be able to do that in the future,
> but most of our students are wanting to graduate and start working and
gaining experience as soon as possible.
>
> I just wanted you to know that we appreciate you recognizing community
> colleges as a viable place for game industry training. Thank you.
>
>
>
> On Thu, Jun 23, 2011 at 10:12 AM, Suzanne Freyjadis <
> freyjadis at austin.rr.com> wrote:
>
>> Hi Amazing Game Edu SIG Members!****
>>
>> ** **
>>
>> There is an article in the Escapist on transitioning into the
>> industry as a lateral career move and how education can help.****
>>
>> ** **
>>
>> I talk about the usefulness of Community Colleges for lateral
>> transitions in the article. Let me know what you think.****
>>
>> ** **
>>
>>
>> http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_311/8963-H
>> ow-Hard-Can-It-Be
>> ****
>>
>> ** **
>>
>> Best,****
>>
>> Suzanne****
>>
>> ** **
>>
>> *Suzanne Freyjadis*
>>
>> IGDA Edu SIG Co-Chair****
>>
>> Game Education Evangelist****
>>
>> Freyjadis at austin.rr.com****
>>
>> M: 512-619-4151****
>>
>> Twitter: GameEducation****
>>
>> Skype: suzanne.freyjadis****
>>
>> ** **
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> game_edu mailing list
>> game_edu at igda.org
>> http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> Deanna Whaley
> Austin Community College
> Game Development Institute
> Visual Communication Dept.
> 512.223.4830
> dwhaley at austincc.edu
> austincc.edu/viscom
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> game_edu mailing list
> game_edu at igda.org
> http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu
>
>
--
Griffin Gardner
SUPERCYBERS LLC
http://www.linkedin.com/in/griffingardner
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:
Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and you will help them
become what they are capable of becoming. -- Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
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Message: 4
Date: Thu, 23 Jun 2011 14:39:37 -0700
From: Chelsea Larson-Andrews <chelsea at design3.com>
Subject: Re: [game_edu] Escapist Article
To: IGDA Game Education Listserv <game_edu at igda.org>
Message-ID: <b4f723eaeca1c5f00f342a8d6a181ba9 at design3.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
That is wonderful Griffin.
I agree that Community Colleges offer
some of the best video game dev courses out there. My company, design3.com
[12] - a game development training portal, provides training and resources
to almost 50 education institutions implementing game development programs.
We work with a variety of institutions, some of the most successful programs
being at CC's.
Great article, thanks
Suzanne!
My best, Chelsea
Chelsea Larson-Andrews
design3 [13] CMO |
619.277.4988
Follow: @design_3 [14]
Fan: facebook.com/design3 [15]
On
Thu, 23 Jun 2011 12:15:11 -0500, Griffin Gardner wrote:
> Just my 2
cents... I took the Video Game Design course at ACC in 2007, learned SO much
and immediately got hired by Critical Mass Interactive after I got my
certificate. That experience, plus my membership in IGDA, gave me the basic
knowledge, networking opportunities and confidence to reinvent my life (I am
a woman in my 40s, BTW...) I applaude the community college efforts and
successes.
>
> -Griffin Gardner
>
> On Thu, Jun 23, 2011
at 10:35 AM, Deanna Whaley wrote:
>
>> Suzanne - I just wanted to thank
you for mentioning Community Colleges in the article. We always seem to be
forgotten when someone writes an article or speaks at an event. It is
usually the proprietary schools or universities that are mentioned...which
is wonderful if you have the time and the money to attend those schools -
more time in school = the more you learn. We do have an advisory committee
of local industry professionals. They are the ones that come together each
year to advise us what to teach, what are the latest skill trends, etc. All
of our adjunct who teach our game design/art/programming tracks are from the
industry. We have an extremely successful program here in Austin and all of
our courses fill up within the first 2 weeks of registration. We have 35+
graduates just this Summer and quite a few of them are already working in
the industry.
It's very difficult to teach the students everything they need to know in
just 2 years so we are very skill specific. The obstacle we face is
articulation with 4 year institutes. Hopefully we will be able to do that in
the future, but most of our students are wanting to graduate and start
working and gaining experience as soon as possible.
>>
>> I just
wanted you to know that we appreciate you recognizing community colleges as
a viable place for game industry training. Thank you.
>>
>> On Thu,
Jun 23, 2011 at 10:12 AM, Suzanne Freyjadis wrote:
>>
>>> Hi Amazing
Game Edu SIG Members!
>>>
>>> There is an article in the Escapist on
transitioning into the industry as a lateral career move and how education
can help.
>>>
>>> I talk about the usefulness of Community
Colleges for lateral transitions in the article. Let me know what you think.
>>>
>>>
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_311/8963-How-Hard
-Can-It-Be
[1]
>>>
>>> Best,
>>>
>>> Suzanne
>>>
>>> SUZANNE FREYJADIS
>>>
>>> IGDA Edu SIG Co-Chair
>>>
>>> Game Education Evangelist
>>>
>>>
Freyjadis at austin.rr.com [2]
>>>
>>> M: 512-619-4151
>>>
>>> Twitter:
GameEducation
>>>
>>> Skype: suzanne.freyjadis
>>>
>>>
_______________________________________________
>>> game_edu mailing
list
>>> game_edu at igda.org [3]
>>>
http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu [4]
>>
>> --
>>
>> Deanna Whaley
>> Austin Community College
>> Game Development
Institute
>> Visual Communication Dept.
>> 512.223.4830
>>
dwhaley at austincc.edu [6]
>> austincc.edu/viscom [7]
>>
>>
_______________________________________________
>> game_edu mailing
list
>> game_edu at igda.org [8]
>>
http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu [9]
>
> --
>
Griffin Gardner
> SUPERCYBERS LLC
>
http://www.linkedin.com/in/griffingardner [11]
>
> THOUGHT FOR THE
DAY:
> Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and you will
help them become what they are capable of becoming. -- Johann Wolfgang
Von Goethe
--
Links:
------
[1]
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_311/8963-How-Hard
-Can-It-Be
[2]
mailto:Freyjadis at austin.rr.com
[3] mailto:game_edu at igda.org
[4]
http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu
[5]
mailto:freyjadis at austin.rr.com
[6] mailto:dwhaley at austincc.edu
[7]
http://austincc.edu/viscom
[8] mailto:game_edu at igda.org
[9]
http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu
[10]
mailto:dwhaley at austincc.edu
[11]
http://www.linkedin.com/in/griffingardner
[12]
http://www.design3.com
[13] http://www.design3.com
[14]
http://twitter.com/#!/design_3
[15] http://www.facebook.com/design3
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