A little but significant help.

[SebastianR0]

Hello to everbody,

About me : I'm Sebastian and I'm 20 years old, I've been making some nice but drastic changes in my life (hopefully for good) and I decided to quit what I was studying (Systems engineer) for several reasons (academic and personal) in order to focus on something that I really enjoy which is Gaming. I've been a serious gamer for 3 years and not long ago I realized that I was not happy with the career is was into and right now I'm trying to look for a degree in Game art or Game design abroad, here in Colombia there isn't a gaming industry (or at least not a visible one) and there are no degrees specialized in this area.

I've been looking into some U.S unversities/institutes/colleges degrees but I'm confused about which path should I take. I want study something related to art, drawings, modelling, 3d and this kind of things but it gets complicated for me when I see all the different jobs the gaming industry has: 3d modeller, 2d modeller , character designer , enviroment designer etc etc etc. There's a huge chance I might be wrong but this is why I'm looking for help and I feel this is the right place. I'd like to know which universities/colleges do you recommend ( I have done my research and Ive found several such as: DigiPen, Academy of Art University , The art institutes and some more ) and I'd like to have a chat with someone who's already inside the industry in order to clear my doubts if its possible, that would be something I'd really appreciate.

I'll leave my skype in case somebody wants to help me out.
Skype: sebastian_plague

Thank you very much,


Sebastian.

[AndyJB]

Well it all depends on what you really want to do, like you said there are a lot of jobs in just the visual side of games, not to mention the rest of the jobs roles! But have a look at this, it's a UK based website about the games industry but I'm sure it applies all over the world:
Computer Games - Skillset
Job roles in games: Job Roles in Computer Games - Skillset

As I'm from the UK I can't talk for any universities in the states as, quite simply, I don't know any, but when I was looking around the UK for university degrees purely for games, the University of Derby was by far the best I saw for what I wanted to do (modelling assets & environments) but that's not to say that there are no animation, traditional art, character modelling and 2D classes because there are! The course has changed and improved hell of a lot since I visited. All lecturers are ex industry / freelance so they really do know there stuff and the course has a few strong connections with a few game studios in the UK. Anyway, I'll stop with the sales pitch But like I said it all depends on what you want to do..

My advice is to really find out what you want to do whether it be 3D environments, characters, concept art or whatever and then base your search on what you want to do because in the end, if that's what you want to do then you really want find the course that does that specific role better than any other institute.