Computing games development Lyit??

I am currently in this course almost finished my 1st year. It's a good course with great facilities the only problem is it focuses a lot on programming. Also, first semester is simple with lots of courses you don't even need, then 2nd semester throws you into a lot of hard work very suddenly. I'm enjoying it, although I really wanted to do more character concept art / story development and things like that which this course doesn't offer.

thefoofighter wrote: »

Its Games development in computing, not games development in digital media or concept art. Thats what the Digital media course is for. Your in first year lad, by far the easiest year in the course. Can i point out something to the person interested in this course. It has the highest drop out rate in the College. My course started off with 42 or so people, We are down to 4. we had 12 in 3rd year.

People seem to completely miss interpret this in the games industry and the courses they offer.

Game design course = story,concepts and game mechanics (no programming no art)

Games development Course = loads of programming, some 3d and more programming

Digital media in games = loads of 3d, 2d art and concept drawing

The course at Lyit is geared towards programming, you need a good understanding of maths. Dont expect that you spend alot of time playing games on the course because you dont and its an easy mistake to make.

Im glad you enjoyed first year in the course "Hope93" because its all downhill after second year, trust me on that. I had the same opinion as you did back in First year. Should have listened to a then 4th year who told us to just leave when we had the chance.

The only person actually qualified to teach games programming (and who set up the course) unfortunately passed away last year (R.I.P) and he was a genius, a gentleman and the only reason i started the course in the first place.

The replacement has no industry experience, cant string a coherent sentence together and his notes are ineligible.

I'm sorry and i don't mean to seem rash but this course quite literally is a joke!

Why else would i bother spending my time here.

Kind regards
Foo

I really should of done the Games Design course elsewhere then... *sigh*
I should just point out 2 things, while there is some bad lecturers I agree, I have some incredible lecturers as well(John O Raw, John Connaghan and Paul Corey) and also that drop out rate is non existent in our course this year. We had I think 35 when the year started, we still have 30 people in the course.

Next, a question: Does the course cover story development, character development or any kind of story writing at all? I know for a fact I don't want to program after I graduate. I either want to be a story/character writer and develop early concept art(I started drawing to have that as an additional skill) or work for a website/magazine writing articles etc. The thing is I can't afford to go to another college and no other course can offer what I want it seems in the LYIT.

Some additional info would be greatly appreciated!

hey Hope, Your dead right about the Lecturers you mentioned they are great but the problem is you only have them for the first 2 years pretty much and then it come the "game specific" Lecturers Only 1 guy know whats hes doing and he teaches us 3D modeling, The "Games" lecturer was who i ranted about above.

I'm sorry to have to tell you that their is no Games cencept development at all, The closest i had to that was a lecture by John Conaghan on the High concept document and even at that thats a development document and not really related to the story writing.

What you mentioned above really isnt covered in the course, Its primarily a programming course with a focus on Games development. Now ive heard through the grapevine that the course is being restructured and what that entails is beyond me but it may be in your favour, because honestly 3rd and 4th year cant get any worse than they are now. Im glad you dont have a big drop out, It think they started teaching you guys more modern techniques after my year like GameMaker and Green leaf java or something.

Looks nicer than what i started with.

Im sorry the course isn't what you were looking for. The course you described to me seems more like a BA in Arts and literature. The way game development works when a team comes together you get many people with certain skillsets that may never have worked on a game before to apply their skills in a slightly different way.Artists,writers and designers come under that category. Programmers are just well programmers, the scum of the earth who you will probably hate working with because their heads are up their asses.

Sigh
Anyway, i hope you find what you need. If you want to talk to someone try Simon McCabe and explain what you did above. He may be able to enlighten you if hes not trying to keep you on the course for numbers reasons.

Kind regards
Foo

Have myself down for this.. Only got 240 but it was 200 points last year I think.. I am hoping now that I don't get in and go on to GMIT and do Software Development instead...

Hello, out of curiosity, is the Unity Engine taught as part of the curriculum for this course?

Also, are there modules on 2D art?

To Hope93: You mentioned story development and the like. While it seems outside the boundaries of your course, there's nothing stopping you learning the art of story-telling your own time. Come up with a short story idea, write it down, then start improving it. There are loads of friendly writers communities which you could join to get advice on your stories.