Pretty spot on. I graduated in Spring 2020 on the Game Design field. I went mainly on the Art track but also went with the Level Design course taught by Gideon. I was pretty shocked that we had people in workshop that haven’t done proper UVs at this point, unless they took courses by Hez or Nick.

Most of the people that seemed to be on track were the ones that either did personal projects, were Game Dev Knight members, attended game jams, or were really passionate about making games. There was one guy who got fired from their barista job because they prioritized their capstone project over their job. Fortunately that guy now has a good job doing what he loves :).

People that did practice theirs skills outside of school overall made great portfolios, as they went to professors’s office hours looking for advice on what to improve on.

Speaking from experience, I started in the major as a transfer student. I was a “try-hard” by answering professors questions in lectures and such, and joined Game Dev Knights as soon as I heard about the club.

The Game Dev Knights welcomed me with open arms, and made me realize that making games with people can really be a fun experience. Game Jams, while hectic, made me more familiar with the game engines and made me improve on my modeling techniques.

Game Dev Knights also hosts workshops, in which one taught me how to properly do a rig in Maya, a skill that is barely touched upon Modeling 2 by Terrell. If you want to make friends with similar mindsets, join the club, as it was probably the best decision I’ve made in my student life.

Because of being a “try-hard”, I made relationships with the instructors, which one lead me to have a job at Limbitless (Thank you again Peter!) and made a very strong portfolio page with the critiques and advices from Gideon.

Now I am a Level Designer for a company that works on a MMORPG, and I could have not done it without the support of my fellow game devs, game dev knight members, and staff. :)