Gabriel Cantres gave DPerry.com a stream of updates and impressions from his stint at the Full Sail School of Game Development and Design. This is the last in a seven part series.
After fourteen long months I am happy to say that I have graduated from Full Sail. During the last 2 months of school the class was hard at work on Gaming Project, where we put our skills to the test and make our final game. We also had a short course called Business Communications during the first month of the project, which would help us with our upcoming job search. Although the last months were frustrating and exhausting, they were also amongst the most fun and satisfying throughout the year.
For Business Communications the class met 2 hours a day, 2 days a week. In this course we worked on writing resumes, cover letters, researching companies through trade books or the Internet, and general things to watch out for when searching for employment. An interesting assignment we did was the mock interview. A lab instructor would interview you for a job while it was being recorded. Then you received the tape so that you could study your posture and body language. BC was a very simple course, but it turned out to be really helpful.
After Asset Production, where we decided on a concept for our game, scheduled the game's production, and created the necessary documentation, we began Gaming Project. This is where we are split into groups and create a small game of our choice in 2 months. We met 3 times a week at school from 9am to 5pm. Lectures were very short for this course and focused mainly on team dynamic, job searching, concept pitching, getting ahead in your company, etc. When the lectures were over we worked on our games for the rest of the time.
We had 3 major milestones during the project, Alpha, Beta, and Final. Each team in the class presented their game in milestone days to practice and polish their presentations for Final. We were graded on the percentage of work we had completed for each milestone and on our presentation.
By Alpha we had to show what our game was like at the moment, more specifically how our technology was coming along. We were required to have models loading and moving on the screen, sound and input working, and some early gameplay. A week after Alpha our Beta build was due. At this time we had to have most of our assets functioning within our game, improved gameplay, AI, collision, interface, and some game rules. After each of these milestones, the course director would meet with each group, give the group their grading for that milestone, and tell them what they did right and what they had to improve in the presentation.
The Final milestone was a week after Beta. In Final we had to have our completed game in a presentable state. During the final presentation each group has the chance to explain their game, show how they did it, and then play the game for their friends, family, and instructors. The Final Presentation marked the end of the Game Design program at Full Sail, after this we just handed in anything we were missing for our game bibles such as code documents, flowcharts, design documents, concept art, etc.
My group and I decided to make a 3D game based on Super Dodgeball for the NES. The concept was simple enough to make in 2 months and some of the harder design issues were taken care of by the creators of Super Dodgeball. We decided we were going to use our own engine to display 3D graphics, handle user input, and manage the geometry in the game, amongst many other things. One of our teammates went to work on the engine during Asset Production, while the rest of the group focused on the other areas of the game.
Our game required 24 character models and a variety of animations for them, as well as levels. The group, seeing as how we were all programmers, decided to look for outside help with this area of the game. We searched for someone willing to work with us until we found a group of amateur developers from the Half-Life community interested in the project. When most of the engine's components were completed we had to get the models made by the artists to load. We went from having the engine crash, engine working but no models loading, parts of models loading (you would see one head, one arm, and one leg of a character), models loading with 3 feet gaps between their limbs, models finally loading with properly aligned textures. The next step was to get the models animating correctly in the engine.
After a week of struggling with the animation system we decided to switch to an open-source animation library. It was working correctly within 2 days!
At this point most of the engine was functional and we were able to start building an actual game with it. The rest of the game's development was fairly straightforward. We got characters performing their different actions according to the player's input, a 3D user interface, and some special effects early on. As the days went by we programmed the sounds as well as the character animations to play correctly, fully functional menus, and teams loading. With the teams loading and behaving correctly we could finally play the game against each other using the same keyboard. This way we were capable of easily reproduce bugs so that it is easier to fix them.
As our Final milestone crept closer we started working longer hours until eventually we worked all day everyday with just a few hours of sleep. During the final days we added in the "rag doll" physics code created by one of our programmers, as well as the single player AI. After adding these components into the game we focused on fixing as many bugs as possible, and making the game more presentable before the due date. Although we had to drop some features and the game was missing a few things such as some levels, we were all very proud of our game. We also got an A in the course.
Attending Full Sail was a very exciting experience for me. I knew little about programming coming into school, but now I have learned how to program in C++ as well as how to program the different elements of a game like AI, input, sound, movement, etc. In addition to this I have gained experience working as a team to take a game from concept to reality. Now I have a great foundation to build upon as I work on more projects and gain more experience. I hope this series of articles have been helpful to anyone wanting to learn more about game development, or anyone searching for game related schools.
Posted by: shadow at June 1, 2006 9:20 PM
i cant tell you how many people i know who have had their lives changed by fulsail, in a horrible way.
if anyone tells you that the music industry is grabing people out of florida to fill their jobs, it is a big lie, thats not how the industry works at all.
save your self, try a hands on program, something recongnized by other colleges.
Posted by: loki at May 30, 2006 10:37 AM
Mr. Hillsman,
I've worked in commercial television in the Orlando area for 25 years. In that time, I've seen Full Sail's come from a small fledgling business, that almost went bankrupt because of greedy ownership, to a prosperous moneymaker, taking over a shopping center to satisfy its growth. I've also come in contact with many of its television and business media graduates, all looking for employment at $7 and $8 dollar and hour jobs in television. For the life of me, I can't understand why anyone would pay that kind of tuition for little or no opportunity. For the money you shell out, you should be attending and ivey league university. In the case your son, he would be better served by going 7 miles down the road to the University of Central Florida. They have a fine digital media program that it associated with EA Sports. Full Sail takes advantage of the students love of music and sells it school based on that. I recently talked with a n older gentleman looking for a career change. He wanted to become a sound engineer and stated that he is considering going to Full Sail. I told him that if he's interested in going to school for that, he should find a university close to him and get a degree in electrical or digital engineering. That's the degree most professionals in the business have. He was shocked. If you want to pay ivey league tuition for a minimum wage job, go to Full Sail. You'll get a real world education.
Good Luck
Posted by: Dale at April 4, 2006 9:40 AM
My son and I, just returned from the Orlando yesterday. I must say that the school went all out to sale themselves to you as prospects. I was however deeply disappointed at the director of Game Design. My son passon for this kind of knowledge is very strong and when he presented his questions toward the Director. He (Rob) came off very strong and defensive. Some of the questions my son ask him were alone the lines of; What kind of advanced techniques would "Fullsail" teach? Are those techniques competetive to others schools? Will the student(s) learn ways to protect their final project and ideas? His answers seem hastle to say the least. His answer for the last question was one that I ask him. And "Rob's" answer me was; "If you think someone will steal your idea, then don't bring it to the table." I just thought that was a little to forward of an answer for a seventeen year old and his Dad to hear. Espeacally since our questions sincere. Other then that, the behind the scene tour was pretty cool! I must admit though, in all fairness to "Rob." As my son and I made our way around from station to station. My son talked to another person from the game design booth, Bill is his name. I went over and spoke to Rob 1-1. And he suggested to me that if my son really wanted this course that we might consider buying "C++" for dummies. Cause this book would give him a clear understanding of what to expect. So, now we're looking at other possiblites. I'd love to hear from other parents that have visited "Fullsail."
Posted by: Mr. Hillsman at January 17, 2006 1:50 PM
After paying over $80k in tuition, not to mention student loans, both of my sons who attended Full Sail got NOTHING from the school. Cramming you into classes 24 hours a day, expecting anyone to learn that much stuff in such a short period of time, especially with teachers that couldn't possibly care less whether you pass or fail is PATHETIC. Anyone thinking of attending or sending their kids to Full Sail should look into a REAL university.
Posted by: Beverly at June 16, 2005 5:57 PM
Be very wary of that which looks too good to be true. From looking at the Full Sail web site alone, and the fact they don't pony up about tuition on the site is a big red flag.
If you are rich and have the money to blow, feel free. If you are struggling, get a real degree or start out with working at any level in the industry.
These folks stink like shysters.
Posted by: epador at April 7, 2005 10:05 PM
I read through all of your previous articles along with this one as well and it seems very interesting, but I wish there were articles on a past/current student in the digital media program attending fullsail. I myself am currently a Senior attending Sarasota high school located in Florida. I have been looking to attend fullsail for approximately 2 years now, I took the tour for digital media, and instantly fell in love with the school, it was love at first sight. I myself along with a few of my friends plan on attending fullsail this upcoming Fall. It's kind of cool because i plan on going for Digital Media, my friend Max is going for Film, and my friend Derek for Computer Animation.
The problem that I come across is that I have no way of coming up with $41,000 in 6 months, so im hoping that I'll get some kind of grants and such before school is over so I will have something to get me started for my payment at full sail. I know there is currently financial aid available and such, I'm trying to make money not an issue at the moment, because i know it will pay off in the long run..because graphic design and web development have been my life long passion for years, and which i tend to pursue a career with in the future.
I just wanted to Thank you for taking your time to post these articles, I hope to find more like them on the web for the Digital Media program, cause i've heard good and bad things about the school, and wanted to make sure that I'm making the right decision, make sure that they'll be teaching me stuff that I don't know, because i already have somewhat of a background with graphic design and web development, I just hope i'm making the right decision, because this could make or break me..
Thanks Again,
Bobby
Posted by: Bobby at March 18, 2005 6:51 AM
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My suggestion. Go to Digipen. Monolith and Valve love Digipen. Its not as hard to get in as you think. Just do well in your math classes and take physics. They dont care if you have a C in algebra or failed a math class. As long as you improved they will accept your admissions. They wont take you in automatically, but they wont discard you. Unlike Full Sail, this school is by a lot of big companies. Also these companies do grab at DP grads. I mean it, they love DP grads. My suggestion, find some way to go to DP. You need a 4.0 to go to DP... You just need to have a solid foundation in math, you dont need to be the best. Get to atleast pre-calculus and take physics. Also,take one programming class to get you a tiny bit prepared.