<p>My sophomore seems to be more and more sure he'd like to aim towards game design/illustration. He doesn't want to do programming as much as he wants to do the creative side to game design-drawing characters, coming up with script, plot, etc. for online games. I thought he might be a musician but he seems to have a progressive hearing loss. :-(</p>
<p>Here's a program that looks like it might fit the bill. There are also several other colleges that seem good for this (UT Dallas, USC, and CMU).</p>
<p>This son has a number of special needs and will receive accommodations on College Board tests. He will probably test high in the verbal realm and average for math. </p>
<p>What prep should I look at in high school besides a portfolio?</p>
<p>I'm thinking about art classes at the local community college as well as some Flash classes there.</p>
<p>What level of math and science do you think he should have? He's doing chem this year and will start Alg. II in the new year. (We're homeschoolers)</p>
<p>I'd like to allow him to focus on his art more to see if he really wants to major in this. Would it be enough if he stopped at physics and pre-calculus in high school? He should probably have other programming besides Flash, correct?</p>
<p>Both my sons took dual-credit college art classes in digital graphics in lieu of the high school one. The best place to start is with a class that teaches Photoshop or Illustrator. He will need to know how to use these applications well to create the necessary graphics.</p>
<p>Using Flash beyond stuffing graphics into canned templates will require extensive programming/scripting knowledge. If he’s going to learn programming, he should focus on something besides Flash, which is dying off due to its inefficient processing on mobile devices. I’d recommend php for web design, Objective-C for iPhone development or Java for Android development (note that Javascript is something entirely different, used mainly for web browser special effects).</p>
<p>Programming doesn’t require specific math skills so much as a highly-structured way of thinking. Coding is like writing a paper with flawless grammar and, should you make a typo in the wrong place, your paper disappears or becomes unreadable.</p>
<p>The local CC has the following list of classes under “multimedia”:</p>
<p>Beginning Flash
Intermediate Flash
Flash Game Development
Video Game Development
Introduction to Photoshop
Vector Image Editing
Digital Imaging
3D Animation</p>
<p>It might be that my son would have to take them in order because of prereqs. I’ll look into it.</p>
<p>He really doesn’t want to do programming. He did a little Alice through an extension program and that was fine. I just think he’s more of an artist who loves creating original art and ideas for games. But of course he’ll do it if he needs to.</p>
<p>Well, get him some practice creating graphics and then PM me. My son is a freshman at Brown majoring in CS. He really understands the programming and is quite clever in designing challenging game levels, but will need a graphics and sound person to complement his skills.</p>
<p>I looked at the degree plan on the OC link you posted - nary a math or science course listed as required for the degree. I would guess he would be fine with pre-calc and physics. My S is in a game design and development major and has taken physics, discrete math, calc, and software development his first year. He studied Java in high school because that was what they offered. So, I would say look closely at the requirements at each college he is interested in.</p>
<p>Normally, I would suggest a computer game design aspirant to major in CS and take some electives in art, animation, and the like, but since you said he probably won’t be into CS, I would just suggest that he take the introductory CS sequence in college (perhaps the community college if courses are available) to have an understanding of how computers and their programs work while designing the art and gameplay for the games.</p>
<p>For math and science, I would recommend taking a college level physics course with mechanics (usually the first course in the sequence) and whatever math is necessary for it (usually precalculus for the course normally taken by biology majors and pre-meds, calculus for the course normally taken by physics and engineering majors). This can be important if he gets into games where objects are moving around, and he wants to make the movements realistic according to physics principles. Learning high school level physics should help when taking college level physics, although a strong high school level physics course (AP level) may be sufficient by itself for this purpose.</p>
<p>The thing is, ucb, I am not sure he’s capable of being successful at that level of math or physics. This is a kid who has a math disability. (In other threads, I think I alluded to the fact that on certain tests, he’s at 98%ile for reasoning and 14% for calculation or at least he was 3-4 years ago) Well, I guess we march forward and see.</p>
<p>mamabear, that’s good to know. I haven’t looked at each program indepth. I will, though.</p>
<p>Lorem,</p>
<p>I will do that, thank-you. We need to find an affordable graphics class. Hopefully, my son will pass the test here in Ca. in order to some CC classes next fall. In the meantime, this spring, we might see what we can find elsewhere.</p>
<p>Perhaps then he can just start with a regular high school level physics course and decide later whether to take a college level physics course. Even a high school level physics course will at least give him some idea of how things move around if he wants to design games with realistic motion.</p>
<p>Aren’t there “physics engine” subroutines already out there that can be incorporated into game play? I can’t imagine this sort of stuff gets re-invented by every 2-or-3-person shop that puts out a couple of 99-cent iPhone games. Maybe a handful of big-budget companies still do this for a cutting-edge $50+ console game, but there you would probably have one person solely dedicated to just doing the physics coding.</p>
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<p>I don’t see how any of these elements requires programming or physics skill. The ideas presented may need to be slightly modified due to programming complexity issues, but in the right collaborative environment, an artist-scriptwriter combined with a programmer/level-designer could achieve great success.</p>
<p>Well, I’ll keep on my path for now and if my son has time and inclination to go further during senior year (probably would be a community college physics or math class), I’ll hope to make that happen. Classes are so thoroughly impacted, though, so I’m not even sure he’s going to get any classes.</p>
<p>He might be better off going to art school and getting into gaming illustration via that route, but I really know nothing about it. My youngest brother was very interested in computer graphics at one time, but did it as a comp sci major. He spent a few years doing stuff with various games, but his current company works with publishers and websites for the most part.</p>
<p>I have found that reputable art schools admissions departments are more than happy to chat with high school students as to what sort of portfolio they need for admission and what sort of classes they need to take to create a really great portfolio. I have directed several local students to top programs such as Art Center College of Design here in Pasadena [Entertainment</a> Design | Undergraduate | Programs | Art Center College of Design | Pasadena, CA | Learn to Create. Influence Change.](<a href=“Undergraduate Degrees - ArtCenter College of Design”>Undergraduate Degrees - ArtCenter College of Design) in order to set up an appointment with an admissions director well before they are ready to submit any sort of application.</p>
<p>If he leans towards the art side he might want to take 2 D Design at the CC. Also Freehand Drawing is often required before taking any other Art classes.
My S has a BFA in Graphic Design. His program included a range of Art classes from painting, photography, Art History in addition to his Graphic Design courses.
While computer game design is a different field I think it has some overlap.
Also look into purchasing any expensive software while he is a student. My S had software provided by the school and after graduating and starting some contract work found out how expensive it is to purchase your own licensed copy. The student version is much cheaper.</p>
<p>However, someone with even a high school level understanding of physics is more likely to be able to use them properly (or have an idea of what can be done “realistically”) than someone with no understanding of physics at all.</p>
<p>It is similar to the idea that having a reasonable knowledge of humanities and social studies subjects is desirable. A game designer might not want to unintentionally offend a portion of his/her potential customers, for example.</p>
<p>I noticed you included CMU but iirc their game design curricula is really post-grad, not undergrad. Undergrad is very heavily CS oriented and needs good math skills. This may have changed since DS was there?</p>
<p>I wasn’t sure about CMU. It just came up on the College Board search.</p>
<p>The thing about art schools is that they are expensive and don’t usually offer financial aid. We qualify for a lot of need-based aid (at least my oldest did at highly selective schools) and if, by some small miracle, my son can test well enough to be NMSF or NMF (with his accommodations in place), Okl. Christian Univ. has an excellent scholarship for such students.</p>
<p>My son also enjoys humanities such as political philosophy and economics (at least at a high school level) so I do think a regular college might be a better fit in some ways. (I would imagine he wouldn’t mind just focusing on art/design/script writing, etc., though)</p>
<p>I concur with musicamusica about checking out what reputable ART SCHOOLs are saying. “gaming design” is one of those majors you see get tossed out by for profit “colleges” along with “court reporting” or “medical billing” and their commercials come out during afternoon television or on the Cartoon Network or MTV.</p>
<p>The main requirement in computer gaming design is ability in art. Real schools will evaluate you and tell you your actual potential. Many in the industry have no degrees whatsoever – but attained their status by working the business (not saying this is a preferred route for your son – but he should know that any illustration/graphics/visual arts type degree is not a great pathway to employment).</p>
<p>My oldest daughter shows great potential but I’m def going to steer her towards a non-art 4 yr college. My brother is a very successful illustrator and PT faculty at his esteemed alma mater. </p>
<p>He tells his students: “when you go out with your portfolio to try to secure that freelance job? I’ll be in the lobby waiting with mine, too”</p>
<p>That’s some of the reality of some arts careers.</p>
<p>The obvious question… Is the kid an avid gamer? if not, he may not have been exposed to what today’s consoles and phys/graphics engines are capable of doing… </p>
<p>Also, remember that (coming from someone with a good 40+ year game playing career) there is a big shift towards phone and mobile games that are low budget, low unit cost, high sales (think Angry Birds). This has the potential to turn the industry on its head - if it has not done it already - so consider mobile gaming in the discussion.</p>
<p>I think turbo has some good points. I have 2 sons who majored in Interactive Media (Game Design) at USC and from what I hear, console gaming is really becoming a dinosaur. For mobile, your son will want to know how to prototype his games in Unity. But since his top priority is to design (write/create/conceptualize story/game mechanics) and do art for games, his art portfolio is probably more important.</p>
<p>Btw, neither of my sons took physics in HS, for what it’s worth. They had done very well in creative writing, acting, music, and especially studio art. They had also taken classes at UCLA and Art Center of Design in character design, 3-D Studio Max (like Maya), illustration, and more. One played a lot of video games, the other not so much.</p>
<p>One graduated in May and has an amazing job as a game designer (not programmer). He uses his programming chops to prototype and build games all the time, because it really helps to be able to hand someone your iPhone and let them play your latest game to show you can design a fun, addictive game. The other son is still at school.</p>
<p>I wish your artistic son good luck. I see the world of entertainment leaning more and more toward interactive type programming.</p>