The last post about VFS you’ve seen here was somewhat of a success story. Grayson, from the 8th game design class, ended up working at Propaganda. This one should have a noticeably different tone, as things have worked out much differently for most of the 9th class, of which I am a part of.
My name is Nick Halme, and I now write for The Escapist, freelance for some other sites, and keep a game design blog, VancouverGameDesign.com. On the side I’ll freelance the odd game design document. Why have I ended up in such a different place?
The more one tries to compare what is done at VFS to a school, the more frustration will surface.
Not What You Would Call A School
First off I’d like to explain exactly what VFS is and what it is not. It is a place where you will meet game developers – it is not a school. The more one tries to compare what is done at VFS to a school, the more frustration will surface. VFS is first and foremost a film school, and you will be reminded of it constantly – the film library for students is massive; the “game library” is smaller than my personal collection. There is no connection between the textbooks you will be given and the courses you will take. Because the game design program brings in industry professionals part-time to act as teachers, there may even be instances where the course content is completely different than expected. Think of the teachers at VFS as mentors, and many of them are exceptional mentors – but there is a reason that to be called a teacher, one needs to get a bachelors degree in teaching.
This means that if what you’re trying to learn are the fundamentals of game design (the theory) you’d be better off skipping a class to fully read some of the textbooks. The whole course is a year long – I didn’t end up reading some of my textbooks until after VFS, when I actually had the time to do so. Reading books like Ernest Adams’ Fundamentals of Game Design (not included as a textbook) and Rules of Play will give you a better understanding of game design and what a game designer should be doing than any of the course content.
Why? Because the courses are really more like workshops, many of which focus on public speaking and pitching ideas to a crowd in the most succinct way possible. The head of the program worked as a producer at EA, and it shows. You will learn more about garnering support for your ideas than you will about how to form your ideas and how to put them into motion effectively. That’s fine and dandy for a producer and it is helpful for a designer, but it adds to the feeling that you’re being taught a little bit of everything and not enough of anything.
Game Designer Or Game Developer?
Oddly, the game design program at VFS is also a bit schizophrenic and muddles the term “game design” – what is meant by game design at VFS is what I would call “game development” which is an umbrella term for all the different disciplines involved with making a game. Game design is a small part of the course; you’ll find yourself in classes learning how to draw, doing simple 3D modeling and learning about how to shoot cinematics. All of which are interesting, but then it should be no surprise that many graduates from the game design program don’t graduate to be game designers. There are 3D artists, concept artists, project managers, producers and programmers that are hired out of the program – the minority of hires are actual game designers.
It seems more suited to previously educated students coming in to network and find a job.
A Finishing School
Furthermore VFS is not a place where you go to begin learning – I’ve heard the game design program described as a finishing school, and I would agree. It seems more suited to previously educated students coming in to network and find a job; an unsettling trend in an industry not known to foster its own members but rather collect them from other disciplines (seeking architects as level designers, producers from software, writers from film and television, artists and animators from traditional animation, etc.)
As well, being a private school you will not have the privilege of applying for internships, and will be at the mercy of presentation night, where you present your final project to a small room of developers and hope to collect some business cards. This is how VFS handles job placement.
That said, you will find it to be one of the best and worst experiences of your life – it was for me at the age of seventeen, naively approaching it as “a school for game design”. After the third month you will find yourself sleep deprived, out of shape, and low on money (they smartly advise not to try and keep a job while attending VFS). But while all this is happening you will also grow fond of the environment – working with a room full of game enthusiasts into obscene hours of the night can be quite the bonding experience. And at the end of it all, if you’re determined enough on your own, you will get experience building games. My time at VFS allowed me to put together and work on two games – as someone who now writes about games, that sort of experience and first-hand knowledge is invaluable.
With a tuition fee near thirty thousand dollars, you can’t help but feel bitter when you don’t strike gold and land a game development job. So in this way I am biased and negative, but it is all what I really experienced. Don’t be fooled by the information you’re fed. After exchanging stories my classmates and I realized we had more or less been duped into thinking we were attending something different — a professional and academic school. Each one of us was given a contact upon applying to the school, and each one of our contacts was an attractive member of the opposite sex. Nearly all of us “won” that year’s “scholarship” for five thousand dollars – hardly a bargain when the one year course is still twenty-five thousand dollars. We were told the hire rate was almost a hundred percent – this figure was taken from previous classes of ten students, while ours contained over twenty and class sizes are constantly increasing. My class has seen about five people obtain full-time work in the industry.
If you have thirty grand to burn, VFS is a positive experience. You will meet amazing, talented people and, hopefully, you will bond with your classmates and develop some great friendships. Honestly; it is a part of my life that I value. But it is in the truest sense of the term, a waste of money. The money you spend will go towards improving other departments, repainting the buildings, and preparing spiffy little pamphlets that nobody reads. There is a facade that is maintained to disguise the rather unstable and unprofessional school environment that is contained within; it is an environment from which a determined individual can glean important information, but for the price the information is much too difficult to attain. You are paying a private institute so you can school yourself while you try to pass all of the classes/workshops. There is no grading system and your grades do not matter. VFS realizes its inadequacies – complain about course content and you can get some of your money back quietly – but I cannot see it improving itself any time soon. I’m an agreeable person, but I find it suspect that I could have paid less to go to school to become a doctor or a lawyer.
So, What Should You Do?
I would recommend instead that prospective game designers go about building a personal library – both of books, games, and online resources. Listen to podcasts and read reviews; dissect games you play and establish fundamentals for yourself. Start a blog and comment on the industry and on design and you will attract attention. My small, personal blog has allowed me to have discussions with people like Richard Bartle, co-creator of the Multi-User Dungeon (MUD). Networking is easy if you school yourself and have something interesting to say. Teach yourself how to create levels and read tutorials – you will learn just as much if not more than you will at VFS.
While VFS is a nice jump start, a smart and determined person could save themselves a lot of money, time, and quality of life.
The VFS experience does not mean much in the industry – but this isn’t specific to VFS, but rather game design “schools” in general. I had lunch with a producer from Relic (DoW II, CoH, Homeworld) and he told me plainly that making games in a controlled environment does not impress. This was after my VFS “education”, and he suggested I join a mod team to gain some real experience. That’s what the game industry values; experience, confidence in your field, and know-how. These are all things you can develop by yourself, and while VFS is a nice jump start, a smart and determined person could save themselves a lot of money, time, and quality of life. While it might do an artist good to attend an art school, game design is such a young and muddled field that figuring things out for yourself is the smartest route to becoming a game designer.
http://student.vfs.com/~gd09nick/
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Charmie
Garett Kutcher
Mike Wilson
I would not recommend the game design program at VFS to most people. From our class only 6 people were hired and that’s a 30% hire rate. I was told the hire rate was over 90% by my academic advisor- who was as Nick says only a very talented sales person.
In my opinion VFS got jobs for people who would’ve got jobs without VFS had they put in enough time and effort.
For the record, I was a “success” story with a job before I was even done school. VFS worked for me but it’s statistically unlikely to work for you.
As a last note some of the most inspiring people I’ve met in my life were teachers and mentors at VFS.