You Can Be A Video Game Designer!

#1 Yeah, "Tighten up the graphics"...ROFL

#2 Hahaha! I love that ad! "Just finished level 3 and you need to tighten up the graphics a little bit."

#3 Hurry up the boss is coming.. lol... WTH!

I want to work there.. :)

#4 Heh - None of the videogame companies I worked for were like that. But they can't afford to buy those guys a real desk, so it must be one of those crap studios. I mean, it's a Playstation 1 they are developing on... so we're probably talking bottom-of-the-barrell porting shop.

But they pay the guys in pizza, what more do you need?

#5 Lol
Drinks!

#6 Wow! Anyone that has ever worked for a professional game studio knows that what they're doing is not game testing. Game testing is playing air hockey in the backroom and taking excessive cigarette breaks while you dread going back to your desk to try to fall through a crack in the terrain another 10,000 times for $7 an hour.

And why does that kid look like Clark Kent from Smallville?

#7 And are they supposed to be testing or designing?

I guess the school didn't bother to educate the marketing guys about what game design is. (Which is, 90% of the time, sitting at your desk pushing paperwork and emails, or sitting in meetings).

#8 It's sad all theses schools that claim to teach game design don't really even know what the job is about...

#9 @Ben - It's really not fair to generalize like that...

#10 Well so far I've seen this ad and many others where the guys making them obviously didn't know what game design is about. It's fair. Now I would call the GuildHall a real school, or the art schools. But most other schools on game designs are a joke. (Note most not all)

#11 Hey who put a camera in my office??

#12 I think I lost IQ points watching that. Golly.

That was just as bad as those drooling-moron-tech-school ads: "You can work in COMPUTERS". Sheesh.

#13 I think it would have been more credible if Spongebob was in it... But maybe that's just me ;)

#14 Well, you must also consider the audience they are playing to.

They are trying to get these guys who are living in their parent's basement, a year out of high school and not sure what they want to do with their life, to shell out their bucks to gain a 'trade.' And if they can convince these guys that the 'trade' is sitting on their butts playing videogames for fun like they do anyway... hey, by the time they are all the wiser, they've already put down their cash.

I noticed they don't promise that you'll actually get a JOB after taking their courses... :)

#15 Another thing to keep in mind the marketing section of these schools are often very seperate from the instruction section...

Marketing is meant to pull people in, let them see and hear what they want to.

So when making generalizations keep in mind (just like a huge ammount of businesses out there) the marketing section and people are not the people who decide courses, instruction, material, in fact most of the people who put together adds know next to no concrete info about it, they just know general ideas and figure out what will get attention.

When you go to these schools and participate for at least a few months then I'd say you have a right to judge the school ;) otherwise you should just be commenting on the marketing people/department. Laught at the video, comment on how the marketing attempts have nothing to do with "real" game development but don't be so conceded as to think that by seeing one advertisement means you know fully what this school is.

In fact at my school (which teaches graphic design, networking, and I'm part of the first Game Design class, have gotten a degree in networking already) the marketing and administration is 100% off of what the real courses cover. Its sad, but then again its also business.

On the other hand the course is much different than the marketing. Have had an instructor who was a Lead Aritst at Acclaim, another was an artist at Westwood... another a game designer at Dynamix.

Have learned a lot from them, as well as being provided a way to get equipment and software needed that I wouldn't normally be able to get, as well as training on the software.

Looking at my school's commercials I sigh and make the same comments, though the course is nothing like the commercials and advertising bs.

EDIT: Jay hit it right "I guess the school didn't bother to educate the marketing guys about what game design is."

#16 Matthew, I have been very interested in taking one of the online courses. However, i really dont know what would be good, or how much they cost. Do you have any info or suggestions in finding a good school to teach alot of the core elements for game design.

Right now, we are a studio of 4 guys, in a garage, winging it. I would really like to learn more, and develop our skills as a whole.

Not to mention i need to learn to program, since there seems to be next to no programmers interested in joining an indie startup.

#17 LOL where was this aired? I've never seen this comercial.

#18 Looks like a spoof ad to me.

Cheers

Garion

#19 Sorry if I came accross a bit harsh, just after seeing a lot of uninformed comments in the past couple weeks I had to say it how it is. If you don't know full details about the school, course, instructors, materials, references, etc then I don't think you have a right to give a comment on the school as a whole, nevertheless a generalized comment on the "all" the schools.

On the other hand this is hillarious, rofl I've watched it 4-5 times now and it keeps giving me a good laugh and a dissapointed sigh. My school's ad's weren't quite this bad but not too far lol... even when I see admin reps giving possible students tours of the classes and when they give them info that really has no meaning. Then agian they're just doing their job.

A lot of businesses these day require a degree or a degree if you don't have the experience to substitute it, so theres a lot of reason to get a degree. Plus you get out of something what you put in ;) My school's second Game Design class was "Logic and Design", over half of the class failed out of it lol, they got a reality check pretty quick.

Lonnie I would suggest doing a lot of research on the schools you find. Find students that go there and talk with them, they'll give you the best information about it, though watch out for people who are die hard against their school, or for it, the more level opinions are probably the most honest.

Before going to my school (after graduating with a networking degree and working in that field some - still do) I did a lot of research on Game Design courses (I live in Phoenix, Arizona)... I found that a lot of them are directed heavily towards programming and others towards art. Mine was a bit of a mix inbetween them, that was the goal. For me this was the best choice I beleive since I'm doing lots of game projects outside of school (with people here, T2D stuff, TGE stuff etc) so the course exposed me to a lot of different technology, programs, instruction on those programs and a lot of different perspectives, from the industry and from other industries.

#20 @Ajari Wilson & Gary Galbraith
This was aired on G4, the video game channel. Im not sure if its on any other network but comcast.