I'm looking into this college in Florida called Full Sail. You've probably seen their ads in several major gaming magazines and on the internet. They offer a degree program in game design which looks extremely appealing to me, but there are several factors that make me a little hesitant:

- The program lasts only 14 months, but is billed as a full associates' degree (equivalent).

- The total tuition is just over $32k.

- They advertise online and in major magazines, giving me an image of a business rather than a college.

My question is, does anyone know anything about this place? I'm got plenty of literature from them, but I'm looking for (preferably) someone who attended Full Sail, or perhaps an employer who can offer me some thoughts on how a Full Sail degree might affect a potential employee's future employment.

Thanks in advance!

That is all.

Very worth it. I'm currently about half way throught the program. It is 14 months long, but non-stop, very fast paced.

Staff is awesome. Very knowledgable and very professional. Program is well worth it with guest lectures and great degree towards game programming, not just Computer Science.

Josh, if you'll email me at dkgamez1@hotmail.com, I can tell you a bit about the school.

I am a little more of the way through the program. I also have to say it's worth it. But, make sure that the curriculum is what you want to do. There is a lot of programming in this course and most of the courses a bent around rendering. When you are done you will have all the basics, from sound to design, 2d and 3d, immediate and retained. As weather it will get you a job is yet to be seen. Have to ask an employer for that one.

I recently ran into a similar discussion and those who posted had mixed comments on the school. It seems, though you may learn quite a bit, that the degree in itself has been considered sub-par by most (as per the posts that is).

A degree in Game Development? This was their point as it could be meaningless to a company, but I didn't hear any solid evidence of such.

Most also pointed at the fact that you would be learning set standards, as opposed to being free to develop your own standards for developing a game. Also, the fact that other courses like Psycology and Physics may or may not be part of the program, but are considered major factors in game design.

Above all, I'm just stating other factors to consider which were brought up at another forum.

The point seemed to be, if you think it will get you where you need to be, and you can afford to take the risk, go for it, otherwise goto your community schooling and learn what you want to learn.

My two cents:)

Be wary...i attended a school Here in California (Expression Center for New Media) that was co-founded and started by an ex-fullsail director...didn't hear too many good things
after attending SIGGRAPH last year and seeing what fullsail had to show as its BEST i wasnt very impressed...though i received good training from my school i wish i would have found out about Gnomon School of Visual FX before hand. i would have gone to Gnomon in a heart beat if i had only known =(

I really can't give first hand knowledge on this. But I go to a design school in Tampa. Many of the students where I go talk about Fullsail alot. The problem with it is the intensity of the curriculum. Your life becomes school and what area you focus on. One intructor at my school is from Full Sail to put it simply....the guy knows his stuff. If I had the time and the money, I would go for Full Sail or Digipen.....both rank really high in schools for video game professions.

I am a grad of Full Sail's gaming program and I can tell you that it is very much worth it! I graduated back in 2000 as one of the first classes from Game Design. I have many friends that went to good schools for ComSci or ComEng and they are interested in game development, but lack the knowalge that you get at Full Sail. I am 23 and I have a book deal with Charles River Media for a book about DirectX 9 Graphics programming. Show me a graduate of another school with that credit less then 3 years after they graduate. Good advise is that this is a highly specialized program for game programming and design that is very intense.

Hi Josh,

I recently graduated from Full Sail's 3D Animation program (Dec 2002). The degree is a real Associate degree, it's just that the program condenses your credit hours into a 12 month time table. I already have a BFA in Illustration but, attended Full Sail to learn 3D comp animation (particularly to get into video games). The education I recieved was very well rounded - I learned a little bit of animation, rigging, modeling, special fx to just name a few topics. Even though it was well rounded I learned a lot of information which probably would take most a good couple years to learn on their own.

The schooling is very intense as it runs 24hours around the clock 7 days a week. I couldn't work a part time job due to the intense and ever changing hours of classes.

Like every school, it has it's ups and downs, good teachers and bad - for me, I was really passionate about learning modeling, texturing and stuff for games and really focused my efforts on that and learned a great deal.

A couple of tips for you:
- 1, make sure you are absolutely passionate about wanting to do this - it is very expensive and very intense.
- 2, don't forget about living expenses as well as your tuition cost (my total education cost about $45,000 for the year there). Like I said earlier, I couldn't work and go to school at the same time so I took out several bank loans to pay for my living exspenses (most of my friends there did the same).
- 3, if you don't have a four year degree already I HIGHLY recommend that you look into a regular college education (most colleges offer lots of classes on programing and CG stuff now-a-days). I think this is the most important decision personally - I know for myself personally, that it took me 4 years to really figure out what I wanted to really do, a chance to me a great group of friends and goof around a lot and grow up a little, and the fact that a four year degree is more important for a well rounded education (you can spend a lot of time focusing on which ever industry you want will attending). Also consider the fact that a 4 year degree will most likely cost you around the same as what an associates degree at full sail will.

Well, I hope this helps you a little in your research and hope I didn't discourage you too much in your decision. One last thing, Full Sail was a blast while I was there! I met a lot of great people, made a lot great friends (and connections!) and had a great time (even when I was at lab at 3am). Anyways, thanks for hearing my rant and good luck.

Hey all. My first post here. Um, Ive been looking for schools myself, the Dave school looks good, I like their website more than the Full Sail site, "that seems like an important indication to me". Does anyone know anything about the Dave school? I know they teach some Maya and thats the program Ive been trying to learn for years. I'll probably just go to C.C.S. "Detroits big art school"

I have just Graduated from there and yes it is worth it. Dont go there and expect a cake walk, you will have to work, a lot. In the end though you will know a lot of programming, a little bit of animation, and lot of other useful things like character/game creation.

You will make several games while you are there, and get a real feel for how it is done. In the end though they will teach you enough to know what you are doing.