[gameprogrammer] Re: Grumble gripe... my class was canceled.
- From: Bob Pendleton <bob@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: gameprogrammer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 01 Sep 2006 16:16:17 -0500
On Fri, 2006-09-01 at 10:39 -0500, Lilith Calbridge wrote:
> A pity that. If I weren't a couple of hundred miles north of you on
> IH35 I'd probably sign up for the course. I'm not an absolute novice at
> programming but I think there are aspect of it relating to gaming that I
> won't grasp until I make a lot off starts and a lot of mistakes. At the
> very least, some perspective would help.
That is exactly what I see in my class. People come in already knowing
90% of what it takes to write a game. They just need to see it put
together. OTOH, I do get a percentage of people with a total
misconception of what game programming is. Most of those quit...
>
> I work on staff for the community college system up here in Dallas and
> even with seven campuses I can't find the kind of CS courses I want
> without having to go up to UNT. Always the easy route using VB and
> eschewing the classes that get you into the real guts of programming
> Windows, Mac OS and Linux/Unix.
Yeah, that is because of the work force orientation of community
colleges.
> I'd probably have to pay several
> hundred dollars to take a course at SMU to get what I want/need.
Yep. Though I can tell you the classes at ACC are pretty expensive.
>
> A suggestion, perhaps. I believe the University of North Texas has a
> course of study in video game production. You might try to get in touch
> with someone up there and see how they promote it and how well they're
> doing with it.
Done that.
> I can see how some people might consider video games as
> a passing fad, limited career path or a childish endeavor.
We deal with that one by pointing how many billions the game industry
took in last year (bigger than Hollywood) with a rate of growth that is
hard to believe.
Limited career path is a hard one to deal with. Limited in what way? The
game industry is highly entrepreneurial. You can go from programmer to
studio owner or producer or what ever. It is much less limited than the
career path of an engineer at AT&T or Boeing. OTOH, the risk level is
much more visible compared to a normal job.
I'm rather proud of the fact that entertainment is considered a childish
endeavor! Seriously though, game programming is one of the most
technically challenging fields out their. My wife really used to be a
rocket scientist, and game development is just as technical. Of course,
our processes suck because a game that crashes upsets you customers, it
doesn't kill them.
> One young
> woman I met a couple of months ago use to program for XBox. She got out
> of the field because it was too demanding, with too many deadlines and
> not enough time for a personal life. Probably makes the case for indie
> production.
Sadly the game the major players in the game industry do their best to
burn out their employees. Indie is the best way to go.
>
> A friend of mine who teaches EE went down before the beginning of a
> semester a number of years back and handed out flyers promoting their
> program at a local electronics flea market. If there are any such
> events in the Austin area you might consider doing some promotion
> there.
We have the game developer conference and the indie game developers
conference and several other sorts of things. We advertise with them all
the time.
Bob Pendleton
>
> Lilith
>
> >>> On 9/1/2006 at 9:38 AM, in message
> <1157121514.5125.29.camel@localhost>, Bob
> Pendleton <bob@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> > As many of you know I teach a class on game programming at Austin
> > Community College. There are even a few of you out their who have
> taken
> > it. For the first time I can remember it was canceled because not
> one
> > student signed up for the class. I have had classes canceled because
> > their weren't enough students, but I have never had zero students
> sign
> > up for a class. The next day I read a student game postmortem linked
> off
> > of slashdot that said that one of the problems they had was that
> they
> > couldn't get enough programmers to join the project. It seems there
> were
> > very few programmers in that school and the programmers were all
> busy
> > doing their own projects.
> >
> > I checked at ACC and I see that all the art, design, and production
> > classes are full, or nearly full, and that the programming classes
> are
> > all empty, or nearly empty.
> >
> > I asked Bob McGoldrick (my boss at ACC) about this and he says that
> yes,
> > most of the students are in the design track. He has trouble getting
> > students for the programming track and they don't stay around very
> long,
> > they take one or a few programming classes and then they leave the
> > program.
> >
> > Now it could be that my class sucks and the word of mouth about it
> has
> > made people refuse to sign up for it. OTOH, my evaluations by the
> > students who take my classes mark me as one of the most highly rated
> > teacher in the program. Way above the ACC average.
> >
> > So we have a pattern where there are lots of students learning game
> > design and production and very few who can write the code, or even
> the
> > scripts, needed for a modern game engine. Sounds like this is
> creating a
> > great opportunity for game programmers. It also support the pattern
> I
> > have seen in the past; there are lots of programmers who can do art
> and
> > 3D modeling but very few artists who can do programming.
> >
> > Oh well, I have two nights a week free that I wasn't expecting to
> have
> > free.
> >
> > Any comments?
> >
> > Bob Pendleton
> >
> > P.S.
> >
> > Yeah, this is a person grumble about the state of the world. I
> really
> > love teaching my classes at ACC and it disappoints me when they get
> > canceled. Anyone in the Austin area interested in a game development
> > study group?
>
>
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