WITS to introduce degree in game design

http://www.cs.uct.ac.za/teaching/programmes-and-courses

UCT has had this for years for all those saying they just missed it. I have had a couple of mates go through the course. They are almost all now out of the country though. While that probably means that there is a lack of opportunities at home, it means that your degree will travel well. Hopefully the Wits programme is just as strong as the UCT one.
 
SephirothDVR said:
Great to see someone pop in to answer a few questions. Bit late for an old timer like me, but the biggest question on my mind is, is there really a market for graduating students in SA?
It's probarly the worst feeling, having a degree and yet struggling to find work.
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There is and the last 2 years has seen some major growth in local gamedev with at least 3 new companies.
Check out http://www.sagamedev.com if you are interrested in local game development. We have section for jobs, events, news, forums, etc. There is currently a job listing for a lead programmer wanted at a new startup based in George.
 
@Ghost29
Absolutely!
The UCT course is excellent and I would highly recommend it. It fits into their Computer Science department. The course is very focused on game development and programming. I also hope to make the Wits course as strong as that one. :)
What makes the Wits degrees slightly different though is the collaboration between the Arts and Engineering. Students will take the game design courses together, while doing their separate specialist degrees. The game design courses that students take jointly will focus on designing game play, conceiving and designing rules and structures that comprise a game, while specialising in either the technical or creative areas in the rest of the degrees. There is also a strong focus on collaboration: getting the artists and the developers working as a team.

@anon815, @SephirothDVR and @Namdrater
You're right, the opportunities in SA are not as plentiful as elsewhere. But they are growing. People need to be prepared to but in the hard yards to make it work here, to come out at the top of the pile to be employed in one of the few existing companies, or to have the courage (and skill) to go it alone. No degree guarantees you of a job, not even the big guns like accounting, law, architecture, its how you use it. Hand in hand with that goes the fact that you don't need a degree to make it, you need the commitment. But a degree helps :D
 
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Well ... it's certainly awesome to see the person responsible for launching the course herself pop in to address the concerns of the posters. Now if only UNISA lecturers would be half as responsive ... :p

Anyways - I like the fact that WITS is offering two seperate branches - a lot of people seem to get the image of game development being nothing but a bunch of coding, which is probably the furthest from the truth - art, writing, coding - everything plays a role.

For the sake of the people who do eventually enroll, I hope the course will address the collaboration that will take place between the art side and the development side as well :)
 
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