[Game Development Students’ Comments on the Study Field – SFC’s First Meeting]
Hello,
My first proposal was to reduce the number of programming languages taught throughout the entire game development program (including MRU's part). This could be beneficial because students would be able to focus on mastering 2-3 programming languages instead of gaining only shallow knowledge of 5 different ones.
The core principles of programming and IT technologies remain the same regardless of the language. If students need to learn additional languages in the future, they can do so on their own, as it is relatively easy.
On the other hand, mastering complex IT fields such as multithreading or computer graphics requires a deep understanding of at least one programming language. Without this foundation, grasping such topics becomes significantly more difficult. But in our studying right now, it is relatively hard to gain proficiency in any of the languages that we learn, because we have a lot of them and literally every subject has their own one.
Also mastering one/two languages will improve student's chances to find a job after graduation, because nowadays companies are more interested in professionals that know solid grasp about their main studying field.
Examples of such programming languages can be:
Python, C++ and C#.
Python is by far the most used programming languages nowadays regardless of the IT's field.
It is used in Web development, Machine learning, Scientific fields, cybersecurity and many more. It is also can be beneficial language to learn for non-programmers, such as 3D artists, because their modeling tools often have scripting features that use python, which can be used to reduce amount of work for them.
C++ is widely used in game development because of its speed and low-level control over the hardware. It is almost the lingua franca in modern low-level game development, because almost all of the game engines are written in C++. Unreal Engine uses it as both Core game engine and Gameplay programming language.
C# is mostly used as a scripting language in such game engines as Unity and Godot. It has an easy learning curve and allows for good performance and easy to write gameplay logic. It is also widely used in Web-development and corporative fields.
My second point is to have a choice of specialization ( Game development, 3D Artists, Design ) in the beginning of the second year of MRU's part of the studies, instead of after finishing it. Students spend a lot of time learning things that are incompatible with studying field that they want to pursue in that year. I do think that almost all of the students do know what they want to study after their first year of university ( Based on my experience talking with my friends and other classmates ), so having this division earlier would be beneficial for them, because they would spend time learning subjects regarding their study field, which means they would be better prepared when they come to Korea, which leads to better learning/teaching experience both for students and professors.
That's pretty much it. Hope you will take my proposals into consideration.
Sincerely,
Piarerva Matsvei