<p>My son’s an avid gamer of two games online, LOTR and League of Legends. He’s absolutely enthralled with the characters and designs of League of Legends.</p>
<p>None of us have fancy phones (no $$), so he does not have experience with mobile apps.</p>
<p>Someone sent me info on a summer program from Digital Media Academy. They’re very expensive but my friend says they offer really good financial aid. So, I’ll have my son find the class he wants to take and we’ll apply for aid at the beginning of February.</p>
<p>I think my son will enjoy physics more than he’s enjoying chemistry, particularly if it’s algebra-based and not calc-based. I don’t mind him taking that but I really want to get him guidance/training/experience with formal art and game design while in high school. He’s totally self-taught in art (his choice up to this point) but I have heard really good things about the art teachers at the local CC. Let us hope he can get in.</p>
<p>madbean,</p>
<p>Congratulations to your sons! They sound amazing!</p>
<p>Not all game jobs are glamorous-I-wrote-two-levels-in-Halo-4 type. The brother of a friend graduated from a top game design school and started his career as a game tester where he had to sing karaoke for several hours a day testing… </p>
<p>Judging from the skills of kids entering such good schools, solid understanding of the requisite applications (Maya, Rhino, Adobe Anything, 3DMax) are a must.</p>
<p>How disappointed is your son in giving up a musical career and is it a given that he would need to? Is he concerned about losing more hearing due to exposure to loud sounds or of not being able to hear what other band members are playing/not enjoying it because sounds are missing or distorted? I’m asking because there certainly are musicians with hearing loss, so it would seem like one wouldn’t necessarily need to rule it out. I suppose it depends a lot on the type of music and instrument also.</p>
<p>The animation program at Cal Arts looks great. I see they offer f. aid, as well. My son’s never gone away by himself since getting diabetes, but we can at least talk about this.</p>
<p>I just found an inexpensive art class through an extension program that looks terrific. It may conflict with my son’s first speech tournament, though, so I’m hoping they’ll offer another session if this one doesn’t work out. ($95 for 7 weeks of 3 hour classes; who can beat that??)</p>
<p>LBowie, my son is a cellist. He plays in a symphony and does fine, though he often cannot hear his own cello if he’s sitting in a certain arrangement. I think we need to see what the specialist says. It may be that tubes would help or hearing aids would help. My son loves alternative cello music (if you’ve never seen 2 Cellos’ rendition of Smooth Criminal, check it out on Youtube. Same for Mark Summers Julie-O), though he’s been a classical player for almost 10 years.</p>
<p>archiemom, thanks for the link. I sent that to my son.</p>