[Seanzilla]

Anyone studying computer science or just learning to program in order to make games? Share some of your aspirations!

[cyb.tachyon]

I guess I'd fit more into the amateur enthusiast genre than just learning, but Otacon, Aaron123, and I are all developing a 3D game engine at this moment. Aaron123 and I are in the Digital Media - Character Animation program and Otacon works downtown in web dev (UCF Grad and LK Alum). We're always down to talk game dev (especially graphics programming for me).

[Daman]

already intimately familiar with programming and any useful programming languages

grabbing CS degree so I can have more on my resume and actually get hired to a salaried programming/application development/something job (wow typing this out makes me feel like my aspirations in life are set so low)

I guess my dream end-result is sort of some network administrator position somewhere

[ibfreeekout]

Daman, on 23 August 2011 - 11:00 PM, said:

already intimately familiar with programming and any useful programming languages

grabbing CS degree so I can have more on my resume and actually get hired to a salaried programming/application development/something job (wow typing this out makes me feel like my aspirations in life are set so low)

I guess my dream end-result is sort of some network administrator position somewhere

What are you doing in CS then? That's more geared toward IT last time I checked.

[Daman]

getting a degree in "it" seems like it highly limits my opportunities, I sort of think of it as the equivalent of getting a degree in "game design" or similar, just doesn't seem as valuable

[OxtheHunter]

My degree is in it... =[

[SniperX]

OxtheHunter, on 24 August 2011 - 12:26 AM, said:

My degree is in it... =[

You're doin it wrong. Especially if you plan on staying in Orlando. Let me rephrase. I've been working in IT for 5 years and have no degree. Avalon worked in it for 7 years with a degree. Until 2 months ago we were paid the exact same amount.

[Zenebatos]

SniperX, on 24 August 2011 - 07:17 AM, said:

You're doin it wrong. Especially if you plan on staying in Orlando. Let me rephrase. I've been working in IT for 5 years and have no degree. Avalon worked in it for 7 years with a degree. Until 2 months ago we were paid the exact same amount.

Yeah to be honest while the IT major has a lot of "hands-on" classes, they only really touch the surface and are not too in depth. Don't expect to go anywhere without any solid experience on top of your degree. Start looking into the experiential learning office on campus to get an internship of a co-op to boost your degree, else be doomed to be the "tech support lackey" for an office getting paid minimum wage...

If you like programming and can actually stomach it(I know most IT majors can't), go CS instead. Will look a lot better on your resume.

[Oen386]

Seanzilla, on 23 August 2011 - 06:00 PM, said:

Anyone studying computer science or just learning to program in order to make games? Share some of your aspirations!

You should be in Digital Media. They have a game design track there, and you can got to FIEA once you finish. I know a few students in Dr. LaViola's lab kind of took that path.

CS is all about programming and theory, not so much about how to design/program games.

Daman, on 23 August 2011 - 11:00 PM, said:

already intimately familiar with programming and any useful programming languages

Hey CMS. I don't know why you changed nicks.

ibfreeekout, on 23 August 2011 - 11:06 PM, said:

What are you doing in CS then? That's more geared toward IT last time I checked.

Not true, both degrees share the first 2 years of courses. Then IT moves into infrastructure and networking. While CS moves into advanced algorithms and theory. (Which I found to be very boring.)

Daman, on 23 August 2011 - 11:16 PM, said:

getting a degree in "it" seems like it highly limits my opportunities

Going with this comment and SniperX's, depending on your GPA and such, you can get a CS job with an IT degree that pays great.

As long as you can pass the interview questions you can get in. Jobs that state "CS or related" are in your area, if you picked up enough programming along the way. I was told by a Lockheed manager, I was qualified for a position with them, but I told them I didn't want to spend 8 hours a day programming some function I couldn't even discuss with my coworkers. So he offered up some additional positions to apply for, since I didn't want to program, which is what they wanted.

I was offered another CS position doing databases in Palm Bay, but I declined that so I do graduate school at UCF.

My point is, if you know it, you can get a good job. If you do IT and you don't do any programming, well then you aren't going to get a CS type position. Then again, if you don't do any programming for fun, you probably don't want to do it for a living.



Edit: I just TerranUp'ed a post.

This post has been edited by Oen386: 24 August 2011 - 02:01 PM

[OxtheHunter]

Zenebatos, on 24 August 2011 - 01:51 PM, said:

Yeah to be honest while the IT major has a lot of "hands-on" classes, they only really touch the surface and are not too in depth. Don't expect to go anywhere without any solid experience on top of your degree. Start looking into the experiential learning office on campus to get an internship of a co-op to boost your degree, else be doomed to be the "tech support lackey" for an office getting paid minimum wage...

If you like programming and can actually stomach it(I know most IT majors can't), go CS instead. Will look a lot better on your resume.

Well i wanted to go into CS, but the math requirements were way over my league, maybe im just in the wrong area lol. Im going into college with IT but really i could have put undecided as well, just getting a feel as it is right now. Any suggestions for a math incompetent computer lover?(oxymoron i know)

[ibfreeekout]

OxtheHunter, on 24 August 2011 - 03:15 PM, said:

Well i wanted to go into CS, but the math requirements were way over my league, maybe im just in the wrong area lol. Im going into college with IT but really i could have put undecided as well, just getting a feel as it is right now. Any suggestions for a math incompetent computer lover?(oxymoron i know)

You still need the math in IT as well, no getting around that.

[ohmecks]

ibfreeekout, on 24 August 2011 - 06:28 PM, said:

You still need the math in IT as well, no getting around that.

IT only requires college algebra and trig while CS requires statistics and calculus II. I'd say going with IT is getting around the more difficult math.

[cyb.tachyon]

Oen386, on 24 August 2011 - 03:00 PM, said:

You should be in Digital Media. They have a game design track there, and you can got to FIEA once you finish. I know a few students in Dr. LaViola's lab kind of took that path.

CS is all about programming and theory, not so much about how to design/program games.

The Digital Media - Game Design program is a bit of a joke when it comes to programming (or the volume of useful work). We recently got a bunch of Game Design students downtown at FIEA for an animation class and they're already bitching loudly about the amount of work involved on day two. (Hint: That first semester class has the easiest and least amount of work out of the Visual Language Track classes; these guys must just all be panzies). You're better off using CS classes to learn theory and good practices and spending the rest of your time outside class learning game specific programming.

Granted, you could do the reverse and spend your time outside of Digital Media - Game Design learning theory and good programming practices, but usually that's a bit harder to do on your own.

[ibfreeekout]

ohmecks, on 24 August 2011 - 07:17 PM, said:

IT only requires college algebra and trig while CS requires statistics and calculus II. I'd say going with IT is getting around the more difficult math.

Hmm, this is news to me then XD. I basically skipped it all anyway with my IB scores from high school.

[Oen386]

cyb.tachyon, on 24 August 2011 - 07:20 PM, said:

You're better off using CS classes to learn theory and good practices and spending the rest of your time outside class learning game specific programming.

The "theories" in CS are not useful in this case. CS3... which was combined into CS2, was nothing but memorizing equations that only work in very rare engineering situations. In short, everyone in the class said unless they were doing rocket simulation calculations, they would probably never use them again.

A lot of CS use to be basic programming, such as Assembly, and writing your own graphics engine. Stuff that most people don't think about when it comes to "Game Design".

[Zenebatos]

ibfreeekout, on 24 August 2011 - 07:32 PM, said:

Hmm, this is news to me then XD. I basically skipped it all anyway with my IB scores from high school.

Skipped straight into calc 2 with AP Calc AB. Like a boss.

[ibfreeekout]

Zenebatos, on 25 August 2011 - 01:20 AM, said:

Skipped straight into calc 2 with AP Calc AB. Like a boss.

Skipped over Calc 2 because of my IB scores. Like a boss.

[SniperX]

ohmecks, on 24 August 2011 - 07:17 PM, said:

IT only requires college algebra and trig while CS requires statistics and calculus II. I'd say going with IT is getting around the more difficult math.

Since when was statistics considered a difficult math? I mean sure I can understand people not liking calc II... but statistics? Any retard can pull a B in statistics.

[Zenebatos]

ibfreeekout, on 25 August 2011 - 07:20 AM, said:

Skipped over Calc 2 because of my IB scores. Like a boss.

why aren't you CS then? XD

Seriously, you'd only like need stats 1 and stats 2.... and calc 3.... but that's not too bad...

[ibfreeekout]

Zenebatos, on 25 August 2011 - 10:48 AM, said:

why aren't you CS then? XD

Seriously, you'd only like need stats 1 and stats 2.... and calc 3.... but that's not too bad...

Because I hate programming.