Full Sail Program
International Game Developers Association
Full Sail Program
Contributed by: Rob Catto
Full Sail Real World Education, a college outside of Orlando, FL, has been an innovative educational leader for those pursuing a career in the entertainment industry. In 1998, the Associate of Science degree in Game Design and Development was developed to fill the need for academically trained employees. In 2004, the program was converted to a Bachelor of Science degree in Game Development.
Students experience a “real world†education, with a professional class structure of 8 hours per day, and a 24-hour round the clock schedule which earned Full Sail the “Most Innovative Program†Award by the Florida Association of Postsecondary Schools and Colleges.
The Game Development degree is a Software Engineering program with a game development focus. The curriculum is fashioned using the Software Engineering framework provided by the Association for Computing Machinery. Students are scheduled for two courses a week lasting either four or eight weeks. Students attend classes five days a week attending a four hour lecture followed by a four hour lab.
Course curriculum can be broken down by the following major sections and credit hours.
- General Education – 24 credit hours
- Professional Practice – 08 credit hours
- Computing Essentials – 24 credit hours
- Software Engineering – 42 credit hours
- Game Design – 10 credit hours
- Project Development – 26 credit hours
The Project Development courses immerse students in a game development project with heavy emphasis on core teamwork as well as project planning and documentation. Students are also introduced to a Software Quality Assurance cycle with an emphasis on peer review and proper defect reporting mechanisms. Student assignments include creation and maintenance of technical design documentation, implementation of game technology, and design and implementation of a quality assurance cycle, designed to provide a strong foundation for delivering milestones in subsequent courses.
Full Sail’s Game Development degree program has twelve starts each year with the fall months having the highest population.
More information about the Game Development degree program and the other Full Sail degree programs can be found at: http://www.Fullsail.edu.
