Hello DoF Fans & Staff

[Michael Mullens]

I'm Michael,
Have been gaming since I got a NES when I was 8. I found Dawn of Fantasy around November and have been trolling information and became a fan on facebook but never got really active on the forums. Well now i'm here active and looking forward to the upcoming beta tests.. I'm a Game Design student for Fullsail University (Awesome school) and hope after graduation I'm working on ambitious projects like this one for a career.

[Edit]

Should definately be interesting playing a RTS in MMO mode. A very innovative idea and i'm anxiously looking forward to how it all works out.

[Henry Martin]

Welcome to the forums.

I'm in a game design program too at Brown College. How is it at fullsail? I noticed you game design is split. I believe a lot of people at my program wish ours was split into the art side and programming side.

[Aametherar]

Welcome! Sounds pretty awesome. I assume you've already seen everything creeping around the forums, we're so close to beta now and starting to see more people appear, should be good!

[Michael Mullens]

Originally Posted by u_have_krabs

Welcome to the forums.

I'm in a game design program too at Brown College. How is it at fullsail? I noticed you game design is split. I believe a lot of people at my program wish ours was split into the art side and programming side.

Well Fullsail breaks it down into Game Art, Game Development and Game Design.

Game Design covers social implications and interactions, usability, game economics, play balancing, aesthetics and immersion, design tools, level design, prototyping, and testing.

from my perspective to be a designer you have to know enough about each area of the design process to mold them together for a finished product.

[Henry Martin]

Originally Posted by ComaXO

Well Fullsail breaks it down into Game Art, Game Development and Game Design.

Game Design covers social implications and interactions, usability, game economics, play balancing, aesthetics and immersion, design tools, level design, prototyping, and testing.

from my perspective to be a designer you have to know enough about each area of the design process to mold them together for a finished product.

Well we're told that are program was design for indie development(I have 7 months left of my program). We're taught game art, development, design. But, everything is entry level, so if we want more we have to ask question or search. Most student find what that like and naturally improve in that area(a lot don't improve, I have seen it myself).

I'm just interested in how other schools go about teaching there student. As our school hasn't flushed out all of the programs problems.

[Aametherar]

Originally Posted by u_have_krabs

Well we're told that are program was design for indie development(I have 7 months left of my program). We're taught game art, development, design. But, everything is entry level, so if we want more we have to ask question or search. Most student find what that like and naturally improve in that area(a lot don't improve, I have seen it myself).

I'm just interested in how other schools go about teaching there student. As our school hasn't flushed out all of the programs problems.

That seems a bit odd, to me it should be the opposite, it's easy to learn basics online and through books, school to me is for learning up to date in depth techniques in certain areas (in my opinion), or like you said basics all around and in depth in 1 area. But I guess like you said, a lot is still up to the person in question on if it's something they really want to do or not. No one really succeeds without wanting and working for it.

[Yami-Yagari]

Originally Posted by ComaXO

Well Fullsail breaks it down into Game Art, Game Development and Game Design.

Game Design covers social implications and interactions, usability, game economics, play balancing, aesthetics and immersion, design tools, level design, prototyping, and testing.

from my perspective to be a designer you have to know enough about each area of the design process to mold them together for a finished product.

Yeah, Fullsail is a nice school/college, been getting a lot of mail about it lately. just to bad i don't live in the US

[blackfang]

Originally Posted by Yami-Yagari

Yeah, Fullsail is a nice school/college, been getting a lot of mail about it lately. just to bad i don't live in the US

you can always move there I might have to move out of my country for the next school i am going to I mean seriously i almost fail at my native language and get top grades in english

[Henry Martin]

Originally Posted by Aametherar

That seems a bit odd, to me it should be the opposite, it's easy to learn basics online and through books, school to me is for learning up to date in depth techniques in certain areas (in my opinion), or like you said basics all around and in depth in 1 area. But I guess like you said, a lot is still up to the person in question on if it's something they really want to do or not. No one really succeeds without wanting and working for it.

For one we're never taught to do high poly meshes(where given the tool, but only because of a package deal). A lot of the teachers don't teach theory(some do). We're just taught the tool. This is were I meant by students who'll improve by using that program and teach themselves how to make high poly stuff.

Level design is another area that is bad at our school. Level design has a lot of theory and planing behind it, but we're taught a little bit about planning and no theory at all(I myself want to be a level designer so I got the books I can and ask a lot of question on the internet and read a lot of tutorials). This is also went I meant by the school hasn't fix all its problems.

Most of this is not the teachers fault. The company that owns our school aren't the most compromising. A lot of the teach complain about the curriculum, but don't get much response.

For those none improving students, WOW is a big factor, not knowing the work game making requires and being very arrogant, not taking criticism to help improve your own skills. Some even from constant practice just don't improve(don't know why).

[Alex Walz]

Hey Coma, it was nice meeting you the other day.

Level design is another area that is bad at our school. Level design has a lot of theory and planing behind it, but we're taught a little bit about planning and no theory at all(I myself want to be a level designer so I got the books I can and ask a lot of question on the internet and read a lot of tutorials). This is also went I meant by the school hasn't fix all its problems.

Each studio and each engine encourages its own approach to level design, but if you'd like to try it out with Dawn of Fantasy, I'm sure Doug, one of our senior mappers, and I would be happy to help you out with anything. Currently, I'm working on drawing up concepts for some of the new towns and he's been taking them from paper to game along with his own ideas for how the towns should look.

Plus, if we like your town, we'll consider implementing it in the next patch as an NPC town.