After graduating from High School in Calgary, I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life. I had always been a hardcore PC gamer and modder, so eventually I decided I would make this into a career. I made some custom levels and learned the software programs well enough to start looking for a job, but it just wasn’t enough. I didn’t know how to market myself or create a portfolio that would get me noticed, and I felt that school would provide me with a shiny new diploma and a way into the industry.
Game Development is not even a blip on the radar in Calgary, so I had tried to learn on my own.
Research and Expectations
Prior to attending PAVI, I didn’t even know schools like this existed. Game Development is not even a blip on the radar in Calgary, so I had tried to learn on my own. After I finally decided to take some formal education I started looking for any school that focused on Level Design. None of them did, so I went with PAVI because it was relatively cheap compared to other schools and I could have a diploma in only 12 months.
I expected to do the one-year program, grab the diploma, and then find a Level Design job. I really regret not doing more research at this point, or talking to any students of the program.
How PAVI Operates
As the school name hints at, this is a school for audio, and I hear that they really do have a good audio program. Unfortunately, I was there for the Game Design & 3D Animation course, a very new venture for PAVI, and probably one made solely to make some additional money to support the audio side of things.
The Game Design & 3D Animation program that I took seems fairly typical of most schools. You’ve got a classroom, a computer, a teacher, and a different class each day lasting 4 hours.
When I first started attending PAVI, classes were located in a very large room with enough space to comfortably hold around 40 students. We had 4. After the first semester, we were moved to a different building nearby and into a tiny classroom. Still, the class size had only grown to about 7 people and the space was adequate. In the final semester that I was there, there were 9 students and the small space was beginning to become an issue. In my final days I noticed they were squeezing in even more desks and chairs to make room for more students.
For one video making class, we were only given Windows Movie Maker to use, which was woefully inadequate and constantly crashed.
Textbooks had to be purchased, but most were never even opened. Some of the teachers were surprised we even had them available to use! Software was an issue throughout the year, and I suspect some of it was not entirely legal. For one video making class, we were only given Windows Movie Maker to use, which was woefully inadequate and constantly crashed. When the school would not purchase a better program, we were forced to pirate After Effects or Sony Vegas in order to get the work done.
The teachers at PAVI were hit and miss. Some were quite good, but most were not. Often different classes would be taught by the same teachers, presumably because they could not find anyone else to fill the role. Some teachers were not familiar with the programs being used, and for one semester we even had a Mac user try to fumble through PC controls.
Classes mostly consisted of lectures, project work, and quizzes. Lectures and projects were often taken directly from readily available online sources, and the quizzes were often open book or incredibly easy. None of the students had any real trouble with the classes or workload. With a little effort, anyone could achieve an 80% grade. Putting in a little more work on top of that and you can achieve 90%+ marks without any trouble. The classes are not meant to be hard, and that is a huge problem if you want to actually learn something!
The Good
Most of the good things that happened during the year were not exactly a result of the PAVI course. Some of the teachers truly wanted you to succeed and put in the extra effort. Most of my classmates were willing to put in the time and work to help each other succeed. One of the best parts was the city of Vancouver itself. I was also exposed to new programs that I would not have picked up and learned on my own.
The Bad
Very early on, PAVI began to disappoint me. The classes were all geared toward entry level students who had never used the programs before. This would have been fine if we were all fresh out of high school, but about half of us (in any given semester) were not. I tried to make the most of it by helping other students and pretending to be a teacher’s aide. I enjoyed doing this, but it wasn’t what I was paying for.
Now that [a job] was staring me in the face, I couldn’t take it because of PAVI!
Another big blow came just a month or two after I arrived. Tripwire Interactive, a company in the US, wanted to hire me on as a level designer. I approached PAVI with this news and asked to discuss the possibility of a refund. After a two minute meeting, they flatly rejected the idea. In the end, I found out that I could not get a work visa at the time, but neither PAVI nor I knew this. They simply wanted to lock me in for the money. I had attended this school in order to get a job in the industry, and now that one was staring me in the face, I couldn’t take it because of PAVI! This was a huge setback for me, but I was determined to make the most out of the year.
Throughout the year, we were also promised several tours of Vancouver game studios, but we only ever got around to one of them. This was set up primarily by one of the teachers we who was a former employee there.
After PAVI
Upon graduating, I moved back to Calgary to finish up my portfolio and look for a job in Level Design or Environment Art. I knew this part would be hard, but I had no idea how truly painful it would be. Everyone had told me that with my prior experience and a diploma I would be able to find work quickly. I soon found that the high marks and honors diploma did not seem to matter to employers. They were most interested in your portfolio and what professional experience you had. This was also in the middle of the recession.
After a year and a half of searching, Tripwire Interactive approached me for a second time with another job offer. This time I was able to accept and will be starting work with them in the immediate future! I secured this job without the skills I learned at PAVI. To obtain a work visa I did require a letter from the school, which they provided for me more than a year after I had attended. I suppose it all worked out in the end, but I was very lucky.
For me, PAVI felt like a diploma mill and was mostly a regrettable experience.
The Verdict
For me, PAVI felt like a diploma mill and was mostly a regrettable experience. This is a school for audio, not game development. If you are fresh out of high school and have no prior experience with game development, PAVI could be a good first step to take, but you should look closely at other schools first. Please do not make the same mistakes that I did and do your research before you put down the cash.
PAVI did not prepare me to get a job in the industry, which was what I had signed up for. The course was not designed for people with a clear goal in mind and some prior experience.
The best piece of advice I can give is to find a site like this one and read all the relevant reviews. After you’ve done that, find some former students and email them for their insight. Forget the school websites or ads they put out, go straight to the students. Good luck!
If you would like to contact me, I can be reached at DrGuppy.Kevin [at] gmail.com.
http://drguppy.freehostia.com/
(12 votes, average: 3.17 out of 5)
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You contradict yourself dude. In one line you say this school cost you the job offer and in another say they helped you with a letter to get the job. So .. the school really did help with the job then obviously!
However, it sounds like your not all there to actually pay to go to any school when you researched and every school you looked at didnt have anything to offer? So you went to the cheapest? lol .. seriously .. who does that?
Good luck tho .. your review makes no sense to me all.