Online Game Design course from Groupon

my spidey senses go crazy when i see something with 93% discount (R11 778saving) - i pity the poor sod who actually paid 11k and then saw this. Their 11k price is a thumbsuck. I wont be surprised if this course is just a bunch of torrented ebooks repackaged for you.
 
I'd be exceedingly cautious. Two reasons...firstly SA Groupon is not exactly know for being a paragon of forthrightness, and secondly game design is difficult....really difficult.

If someone were to promise me game design in a full time year I'd be skeptical. If they promise me "game development, design and animation" for 900 bucks...well its hard not to laugh.

Thats not to say that it won't offer value...900 bucks isn't a lot of money for broadening one's horizons, but don't think you'll be developing any commercially viable games anytime soon with a 900 zar course.

Also...there is quite a bit of stuff online on this. e.g. Google some blender tutorials...you can pick up some wicked skills there for zero bucks if you're dedicated. And a bit of dedication on this front will kick the sht out of any "animation" you might learn with a course like that. Still...might be worthwhile anyway depending on how your finances are looking.
 
Can't comment on this course, but a friend took an Android development course through groupon and it was some online course in india. They couldn't get the connections sorted 90% of the time, first there was no sound, then a bad picture etc etc.
It probably wont be a bad course, but there are many better ways to do it, depending on what you want to do of course. Download Unity3d, go onto youtube and get a few tutorials. Here's one where they take you through creating a tower defence game, then just do it. There are so many resources available it takes some digging, but you can teach yourself whatever you want to learn.
 
From the website:
•Create advanced games without the need to learn code
•Learn the tools used by major game studios
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Hmm.. These "you too can make games" courses totally rub me the wrong way. They're so predatory in nature - essentially appealing to people's love for playing games, telling them that there's an awesome career ahead of them, and glossing over how brutal and soul destroying the reality of the industry is. I know quite a few people who have been successful in the industry, but they are the minority, and are all exceptionally good (programmers, artists, designers), and none of them ever did any game specific design/dev courses - most people just end up grinding for low pay for 3-10 years, or shipping (or not shipping) one crappy indie game after the next (I love good indie games, but there is a really high volume of crap ones) and then give up, and do something else.

@OP: If you have a flare for game dev or design, I suggest looking at online tutorials, videos, etc. There is tons of free things online that others above have mentioned. Try making small games: as many as you can, using as many different mechanics as you can. I don't think that any of these courses (especially this budget one) is likely to be the catalyst you need. If you want to work on the programming side, learn to code (tons of online stuff, best to do a degree in CS if you can), and do some maths. On the art side, there are a lot of 3D digital art/animation courses (and even degrees) around - I don't know which course is the best is in this field. If you just want to do design, you probably have to wait in line :), most designers start out as either game artists or game programmers - it takes a lot of street cred to get a full-time design gig (even in the indie scene).
 
I started writing an isometric game engine, but got bored. You really need to want to do it. Unlike me i lose interest extremely fast.
 
As ave mentioned, rather follow along with some of the Unity 3D tutorials.
You will then be able to mock up similar style games, although to get it working you do need some programming ability.
Doing courses on artwork and 3D modelling up front is a bit much. Rather see what skills you require and learn/apply them as you go along. You can use free 3D models and art work to start with.

http://www.virtualgamelab.com/unity-resources.html

I may start using Unity in future when I've made time. With Unity you accept some limitations on the free version, but overall it seems like a good trade-off if you have little time.
 
You can get all the Unreal engine source code now for $19/mo.
 
K T said:
Hi myBB'ers,

Anybody have any dealings with, or know of, the School of Interactive Design or have any comments about this offer from Groupon?

Online Game Design Course For R849 from School of Interactive Design (93% Off)

TIA
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I'd advise you to not waste any time on game design. Adding to cguy's comment, it is in my opinion *the most* competitive field in Computer Science. Getting just a simple internship position at some game development companies in the UK and US is in my experience the most competitive thing out there. I've heard and spoken with a couple of people who got internships at Rockstar North/Blizzard, and they have been in design or writing. They are so oversubscribed for programming that the LinkedIn pages of recruiters for companies like Rockstar North (just one specific branch) are in the top 1% of all profiles viewed on LinkedIn. Just think about that.

So don't get scammed by game design courses!
 
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The course modules description:

Course Modules
Game Development: Introduction to Gamesalad | Creating on-screen controls | Creating a space shooter | Introduction to Unity | Unity level set up | Creating terrain in Unity

Design: Introduction to Photoshop | Photoshop tips and tricks | Creating a Safari icon | Content aware and puppet warp | Creating a composite image | Photoshop pop up effect | Introduction to Illustrator | Creating a flag in Illustrator

Computer Animation: Introduction to Maya | Polygon modelling techniques | Introduction to animation in Maya | Concept car modelling techniques | Creating skin shaders in Mental Ray | ZBrush concept character sculpt

----
Part 1 is pretty useless, you can figure that out for yourself or learn from youtube in about 15 minutes.
Part 2 seems very vague and high-level, even more useless
Part 3 might be interesting, but its definitely not R849 interesting. You can learn e.g. basic ZBrush techniques from their ZClassroom; and youtube has a ton of tutorials for it and Maya.


But on the other hand they say on the bottom the software to do the course is available for free; so if you can score a student version of all the listed items then it's a pretty good deal.
 
^^vampire^^ said:
LOL it's probably for GameMaker or something of that sort.
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I see its Gamesalad and unity along with Photoshop, illustrator, maya and one or two others. You should probably see if you can find/request a sample video of their course first, and find out how long each module lasts, so you can get a better idea how much detail they go into, but there are some amazing free tuts on youtube that cover the same ground. The difference is that these guys seem to offer free support, but on the other hand there are some great forums that can answer any questions you may have, so it's really up to your preferences. Personally I would teach myself.

Either way you are not going to get away without learning programming, especially if they are using unity. Never used gamesalad, so cant comment on that, but that seems to limit publishing on different platforms unless you buy the pro version for $300
 
animal531 said:
But on the other hand they say on the bottom the software to do the course is available for free; so if you can score a student version of all the listed items then it's a pretty good deal.
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According to their FAQ:

We teach two different game engines. One is called Unity3D and the other is called GameSalad. Each of these engines can be downloaded for free.
In the Computer Animation section we teach the award winning 3D program MAYA. Maya is available for students 100% free of charge. We take the time to explain where you can download the student version of Maya in the first video of the Computer Animation section of the site.

In the Graphic Design section of the site we teach Photoshop and Illustrator. Both of these programs have trial versions. However Adobe products like Photoshop can now be rented from Adobe for only $19 a month! Again, the first video in the Graphic Design section will explain how to download Photoshop or Illustrator.
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So they just provide the links that are available to everyone anyway.

OP should also take a look at blender. I've used it quite a lot and it is a magnificent program especially considering it's free and open source.
 
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