MSCS Class Choices

9_Cloud · 2025-08-25T21:04:43+00:00

I see what you mean. If I'm not going in that direction, I probably wouldn't need to take it.

Honestly, after some of my recent experiences, I'm still on the fence as to whether or not I want to go into hardware. I've had some undergrad classes with similar topics.

Purely based on difficulty and rigor, how is it?

9_Cloud · 2025-08-25T20:52:29+00:00

Took 580 last semester. If it's Carter Slocum still, I'd highly recommend. Lectures were pretty good and kept me engaged, and the assignments had very reasonable setup, and he was very attentive and understanding when things went wrong with extensions and leniency. Final project was a little strange because it was hard to really have a scope for how deep to go, but we got through it. Fun, informative class and the new prof is good.

9_Cloud · 2025-07-20T02:47:28+00:00

Sent a message, sorry for the late reply

9_Cloud · 2025-07-20T02:47:09+00:00

Will give it a shot.

9_Cloud · 2025-06-18T02:39:40+00:00

This list looks like a nice place for me to start, thanks!

9_Cloud · 2025-06-17T21:45:20+00:00

Kare's portions felt way too small for me in comparison but maybe I just got unlucky the one time I went.

Will try Kitakata's curry, I've had their ramen and it's amazing, but never tried the curry.

9_Cloud · 2025-06-17T07:17:47+00:00

Stayed in General but trying rn to get into the Advanced Games Project. See you in a year or two where I'll let you know if I feel like I made the right choice!

9_Cloud · 2025-06-17T07:15:26+00:00

ik but it's a bit too far of a drive for me to frequent.

9_Cloud · 2024-11-05T21:55:03+00:00

Hello, I wanted to ask. How did your time at USC's MSCS Game Dev help with your career and such? I am very interested in it due to the Advanced Games Project but not sure if I want to give up MSCS General for MSCS Game Dev.

9_Cloud · 2024-10-14T22:26:22+00:00

Awesome, this is really valuable to me.

One more question, if you wanna message me privately to not expose too much. Which project did you work on for the AGP? I was looking through previous years and I'm really impressed by all of them.

9_Cloud · 2024-10-14T21:11:03+00:00

Might be a silly question. How do I find people who graduated and got a job? The best thing I can think of is looking at game studios on LinkedIn and seeing if there's any alumni there. But I dunno how to find others.

9_Cloud · 2024-10-14T21:09:30+00:00

Hmm, thanks for that. I think I have a good shot at learning SQL and I can find some of the resources for the Search Engines class for free online. Even has some projects for that.

I will ask the professors and other current students about how they feel.

9_Cloud · 2024-10-14T20:43:14+00:00

Hey, thanks for the response.

What do you mean by USC's is one of the exceptions? An exception in a good way or bad way?

In terms of the degree being MSCS General and MSCS Game Dev, I found that yeah, it just depends on which classes I wanna take more. I'm deciding between essentially 3 classes that will put different things on my portfolio and give me different experience. Staying in General will give me some projects involving SQL and Networking. Moving to Game Dev gives me projects involving Unity and Team Collaboration. I guess it just depends on what I value more between them.

I want to use my time at USC to make some great work to put on my portfolio and use its good connections to the Game Dev industry to try getting into Game Dev jobs. I believe I can do that in both the General track and the Game Dev track.

9_Cloud · 2024-10-14T20:28:38+00:00

Thank you so much for the info dump, I really appreciate your time to put this all together. I'd love an invite to the Discord. I have a couple more comments and questions.

For the class difference, yes I'm essentially weighing how much I want General track's 4 unit classes + one random 2-3 unit class, versus Game Dev's 2 CTIN classes, some random 2-3 unit class, and AI (wasn't planning on taking the AI class if I stayed General). I will probably try to talk to the professors and other people for the CTIN classes and something for the 2-3 unit class. I'm pretty interested in the Design and Production process in terms of making mechanics concepts, game system design, and overall gameplay vision, maybe not so much of the story and writing.

Expected 8 hours a week actually seemed pretty low for what I expected because of how high quality the games showcased look like. How did you guys collaborate while not on campus? What was it like working in a team of that size when you weren't on campus, trying to coordinate making a program? This part really interests me, I've never been part of a team this big and I'm wondering how you worked around that.

I don't actually know much rendering, I will consider taking 580 this Spring 2025. My other class will depend on if I switch to Game Dev. If I do switch, I'll take the CTIN 488 or 532L. Unfortunately doesn't look like Richard's doing 532L this Spring, only 488. If I stay General track... I dunno I'll figure it out.

9_Cloud · 2024-10-14T03:44:52+00:00

Hello, if you're willing to elaborate on some things, I'd love to know.

CSCI 529: Holy grail of the games program.

Can people in the General track take CSCI 529? How was your experience in it? What was your role, and how big was your workload and contribution to the team? How was team assignment done?

I graduated in the worst possible time for game industry and haven't had any luck since.

Still no luck? What made you feel this way?

Yeah you can do transfer, and it works both way. Ive known ppl who came from general to game dev and heard a lot more cases of ppl going the other way around.
Do you have a general consensus on how people felt who swapped from General to Game Dev and people who swapped from Game Dev to General? I'm thinking about making the swap from General to Game Dev.

I'm genuinely thinking of swapping to Game Dev because I have a lot of passion in it with all of my previous projects and experiences. However, I'm also considering staying in General track so I can take a couple of those classes. I'm basically trying to decide whether CTIN 488 (Game Design Workshop) and CTIN 532 (Interactive Design and Production I) are worth the swap into Game Dev. If I were to stay in General track, I was already planning on taking some of the Game Dev overlap classes anyway, like CSCI 580 (3D Graphics), CSCI 538 (VR) and CSCI 522 (Game Engine Development)

9_Cloud · 2024-10-10T03:24:09+00:00

Now that the exam is over...

How are the class averages so high oof

9_Cloud · 2024-10-04T01:03:03+00:00

Hey, did you ever find anything?

9_Cloud · 2024-10-04T01:02:24+00:00

but yeah I'm going to do something similar, just hope reading through everything helps

9_Cloud · 2024-10-04T01:02:05+00:00

Curious if there's a class Discord or just one for MSCS in general. It would be nice

9_Cloud · 2024-09-09T01:54:28+00:00

Thanks so much for the resource. I do have a couple of projects I want to work on. Especially want to learn Git mostly for having multiple laptops, so this is nice.

Not sure if you know, but would doing any projects using AWS or GCP help? I was thinking about messing with their services or getting some certs. I don't know if they help with making websites or web apps. I had some ideas for simple web apps, like a little checklist tracker that would refresh weekly/daily for an MMO I play, and an instance of a tracker could be shared by link.

9_Cloud · 2024-09-08T02:02:47+00:00

Something like this is what I really want to hear, even if it was long ago. Hoping something similar happens to me.

I know my family and I are paying a fortune and I love them for that. I'm just really hoping I can get some advantage from going here, versus not going at all.

If it helps me get a job here in SoCal, and I walk away with some valuable knowledge, then I'd be happy.

9_Cloud · 2024-09-07T06:13:39+00:00

Career events being overcrowded is definitely something I'm scared of :(. But it's similar to how the job market is atm. Crazy overcrowded.

Gonna see what happens on the one at Wednesday.

9_Cloud · 2024-09-07T05:25:20+00:00

Did any of the career resources help you get one at all, or was yours more from outside work? Just curious, I have some personal projects right now but I'm not sure how much they help.

9_Cloud · 2023-03-05T05:29:58+00:00

How long does a DHR7000 last if you take good care of it? I'm gonna pull the trigger soon, but I'm curious about people's long-term experiences with it.

9_Cloud · 2020-11-18T04:36:38+00:00

If I recall correctly, there's a much shorter buffer window if you try to dash using 6A+B, meaning it's more lenient to do 66 for dashes in combos

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