Game design studies online - are they any good?

Librarian

So here's the deal:

I am 32, got a bachelor's degree(or diploma, to be correct, but that has been replaced by the equivalent bachelor since then here in Germany) in library science and work full time as a librarian(What I want to say with that is: I finished university and got a job, I do not intend to make a career in the gaming industry out of the blue or something).

I am looking for some creative and intellectual stimulus after work and I would really love to get into the basics of game design, having been an avid gamer almost my whole life, starting with Pac Man in 1980.
I have no illusions about becoming the next Sid Meyer or making it big, this is just something I want to learn for myself for now and I still have a "real" job that I intend to keep.

So, since I could probably afford it and might be able to squeeze it into my schedule, I was thinking about online studies, which of course would cost me some money, but would have the added benefit of a real degree.

Thing is, there are so many institutions out there offering game design classes now, I have no idea what a good one would be.

Does anyone here have any experience with online studies? Especially online studies related to video game design?
It would have to be pure online studies available for international students, since I am not a US resident and don't intend to leave Germany.
And it has to be doable while working full-time.



TL DR: Whats a good online game design course that has not been set up by greedy scammers?

Szechuanosaurus

I don't know much about it directly, but Full Sail is an accredited institution and as they advertise on the PA homepage, I beleive you can assume that Gabe and Tycho have checked them out and basically endorse them (that's certainly their policy for games advertisements anyway, they don't allow adverts for games they think suck).

I believe some forumers here are enrolled with FS at the moment and from what I've read they say good things about it. Not sure how the online degrees will work with you being in Germany though, not sure if there are 'live' webcast tutorials or that sort of thing.

Hlubocky

I'm not sure what exactly you want to do with your newfound knowledge of game design. If you want to learn enough about it to put out your own design documents for shits, that is cool and would be a good hobby. Any thoughts of actually making the game need to go out the window though, unless you learn to do the art and write the code yourself. In general, you won't be able to find a group of people to work on your project unless you are some godlike motivational speaker or pay them real moneys.

Librarian

Hlubocky wrote: »

I'm not sure what exactly you want to do with your newfound knowledge of game design. If you want to learn enough about it to put out your own design documents for shits, that is cool and would be a good hobby. Any thoughts of actually making the game need to go out the window though, unless you learn to do the art and write the code yourself. In general, you won't be able to find a group of people to work on your project unless you are some godlike motivational speaker or pay them real moneys.

I know, let's just say I would be perfectly content & happy if I learned some basics of Flash or Java or whatever on the way and could design flashgames that maybe a few people on the internet would enjoy.
I know that I can not make a "real" bigtime game on my own, but creating something along the lines of Kingdom of Loathing or Dwarf Fortress(I know both games are complex, I am talking about graphic design/programming) would be cool with me.

Szechuanosaurus

You can realistically learn to competently design, art and code games for Flash or Java without doing a course.

Certainly more competently than the majority of the detritus on Newgrounds, say.

CyberJackal

Yeah, you might want to take a shot at learning on your own before you go spending a bunch of money. There certainly doesn't seem to be any limit to the amount of tutorials and other material available online.

Librarian

Ok, so if we assume that I know zero Java or Flash and that my last days of intensive programming were on my C64 in Commodore Basic when I was 12, what would be a good book or site to get started?
I really need to start at the beginning here.

Szechuanosaurus

I started with the Friends of Ed books.

They've got some really good tomes on general ActionScripting and ActionScripting specifically for making games. This was back in 2001 so the exact titles probably aren't relevant any more but I'd imagine they've updated their collection with contemporary books on the subject. I think I worked from a couple - one the Actionscript bible or whatever they call it and another specifically focused on game design in Flash - and managed to code a simple game in about a week. The first half of the week was trying to shoehorn code from their examples into the game I wanted to make and then the second half of the week was realising that I understood the principles and would be better off writing my own code from scratch based on what I'd learned from the books. This was all without ready access to the internet to look stuff up as well.

I think O'Reilly also has some books specifically focused on AS and Flash games, as well as titles on Java and game design. I believe I have an O'Reilly book at home that deals with physics for game design, which contains general theories that can be applied to any development environment.

Librarian

Thanks.

While I am tempted to try to go this way, experiences in the past lead me to believe, that I might end up buying some books on actionscript, flash games and game design and will then follow up on it for a couple of days, until something else catches my fancy.

I will still look these books up, but doing online studies and having to pay for it might actually be a good thing for me, because it will put some pressure on me, not to waste that money.
Actually, that might still happen, but I think that learning a new skill together with some other people(I assume these institutes have ways for students to communicate with each other)interested in the same topics might help me to see this through.

I just think that learning this with a group of likeminded people and having someone to ask about stuff might help, also having to do projects or other stuff with a deadline.

flatlinegraphics

Szechuanosaurus wrote: »

You can realistically learn to competently design, art and code games for Flash or Java without doing a course.

Certainly more competently than the majority of the detritus on Newgrounds, say.

yeah, best bet as a casual game designer is flash, possibly python. there are tons of resources on the web. plus, as a librarian, i'm sure you can get general programming books. possibly flash ones as well. at least, my library has them.

at least with flash and python, you can have images on screen immediately, rather than the hours and hours that some other languages may take.

some quick frameworks:
http://www.pygame.org/news.html
http://flixel.org/

JNighthawk

I graduated from Full Sail's Game Development program with a bachelor's and have been working for Volition, Inc. for a few years now. I highly recommend it to someone who is smart enough to know that just doing classwork isn't enough to get a job and self-motivated enough to do work outside of school.

Unfortunately, though, I don't know anything about the Game Design master's.

One key thing: understand that "game design" is a bad term. There are many different types of work that go into making a game - design, art, programming, production, and project management, to name the basics. My degree covers some basic design knowledge (writing a design doc, critique, presenting ideas, etc.), but is mainly focused on programming.

His Corkiness

JNighthawk wrote: »

I graduated from Full Sail's Game Development program with a bachelor's and have been working for Volition, Inc. for a few years now.

You'd better be subtly suggesting a Freespace 2 spiritual sequel at every meeting. :P

TychoCelchuuu

We just had this thread.

Twice?