Thursday, March 3, 2011

Time To Get SERIOUS About Graduate School

Okay, so I'm going on this trip to Orlando in a few days.  I wouldn't say I'm stoked to visit Disney World, but I do want to check out these colleges here.  Mainly Full Sail which I talked about before.

However, I'm looking through these websites and I see a GamePro list of "Best Game Design" graduate schools.  Number two on the list is the Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy.  It's an offshoot of University of Central Florida.  Click here to see the list.  Much to my chagrin, Full Sail is not on that list.

Now I'm not 100% what criteria they determine which schools are the best...cost, student-to-faculty ratio?  Would going to Full Sail instead of FIEA hurt my chances at Sega goodness?  Well, I don't know.  That's why I plan to visit both colleges.  And what a coinky-dink, both colleges are within six miles of each other.  Hahahaha.  Plus I get to be about 40 miles away from Daytona International Speedway!

What's interesting is that Full Sail only offers a Master's in "Game Design."  Click here to see it.  That's it, nothing else.  However, FIEA offers Master's in three categories--Art, Programming, and Production.  Production???  Isn't that what I talk about, sitting here on my ass, cursing out game devs and telling them what to do better?  It's like Yu Suzuki or Toshihiro Nagoshi, you're the ring leader, guide us into war, general.



This is from the FIEA Youtube.  Be creative and learn new things...okay, I know about coding, some art stuff, I think about how I want the game to be made, etc.

Now about applying to the college.  You need a few things.  You need your old college transcripts (3.922 GPA in Computer Science from Southeastern Lousiana, okay great).  You need some people who can vouch for your excellence (I got old professors I'm friends with, Thank GOD I'm good at getting along with adults).  Then you need to take the GRE, which is another damn placement test to see if you can read, write, and do math.  I just got done with the English CLEP (which I passed but I didn't need to take it) so I hate these kind of tests.

The ultimate test for being a producer will be to create an entry portfolio demonstrating my "producer" abilities.  They give me a list of stories/ideas and tell me to write up a concept of a game.  I have a week to do this.  I fill about 3-7 pages including some drawings if I feel like it.



The strange thing is that there's no standard that you have to meet, I presume.  The school only has about 50 people per class.  I don't know if it's because of a lack of interest or because they kick out 80% of the applicants or something.  I'm not used to "not getting in" to schools cause I've only applied to one college which I practically eased on in.

Either way, I don't care how many people they are getting cut, it's time to kick some ass.  I want this job and I damn well want to go to Sega and make that Daytona game and I'm raged.  No more phony nerdgasms, the use of the word "epic," or World of Warcraft/Final Fantasy clones.  Of course, in my portfolio, I know I can't say "Make it like Daytona USA," but I'll get some ideas and hopefully ask for your feedback as well.

KICK SOME ASS!!!

Go break some skulls, this isn't a little Allegro game we're talking about.  We're going into the BIG LEAGUES.  They put the rookie in to lead the team down the field surrounded by thousands of fans screaming at 120 decibels.  This IS CRAZY.

The good thing about working there is that you get a big desk to work on stuff which I will inexplicably decorate with toy cars and Legos and stuff.

Okay, maybe I'm hyping this up WAY too much, but once I go down to Orlando and interview these two schools, I'll learn more.  Maybe FIEA isn't the place to be.  Full Sail will always be a backup option.

Just pray to God this works out in my favor.  If this fails, then well just wait for new opportunities.  If they read my blog and decide that I'm insane and unfit for the job, then SCREW 'EM.

No comments:

Post a Comment