Listing Local Game Dev Schools in SA (Online and Physical), are there more?

RuanSmit

Hello everyone!

The question is, are there more online schools/physical schools which teach game dev? I listed the following but it feels VERY uncompleted and im sure there are some jewels I might be missing. If you know of any please let me know, I would love to add them!

We rank well when you search "Game Developer Schools in South Africa" so I want to use that position responsibly and see how many I can get up there. I also need to create another page for "Game Design Schools in South Africa"?

So far we have:
Open Window
Friends of Design
Learn3D

*It's a free listing
*Other "Categories" I might be missing? For example the "Game Design" bit
*Flip hope this is in the right section ><

RuanSmit

Okay found some other threads so just grouping them here for later:
http://makegamessa.com/discussion/4885/best-place-in-sa-to-study-game-design
http://makegamessa.com/discussion/4441/places-to-study-game-dev

Also saw this from Elyaradine:
• Wits Digital Arts
• Friends of Design
• UCT
• The Open Window
• Learn 3D
• City Varsity
• CFAD

Different branches ive found from reading the thread (on a highly summarised point of view)
• Game Design - Art side
• Game Development - Engineering side

[Edit - Thank you once again Elyaradine ^^]
Traditionally, "game design" describes the act of designing the rules of a game. Typically, it's what the game's goals are, the game's mechanics, and balancing numbers so that the game feels both enjoyable and fair. "Design" in this context refers to having a goal (e.g. entertain a player, make them laugh, make them cry, or, if you're an asshole, make them spend a lot of money before they realise it), and then making conscious decisions to try to achieve those goals. It doesn't necessarily have anything to do with art (although art can be one of the tools you use to try to achieve those goals).

"Game development" is the making of a game. "Game developers" are all of the people involved in that, including game designers. However, when people talk about "dev team" or "developers", they often are referring to software developers.

Just keeping this open if anyone wants to add :)

Elyaradine

Vega School have been running game-related courses in the past couple of years. They have branches in CT, Jhb and Durban. The CT branch in particular has been quite proactive in trying to get CT developers involved, like offering their space for the monthly meet-ups back before lockdown, and encouraging their students to take part in game jams.

RuanSmit

Awesome :) Thank you for that ^^

Elyaradine

RuanSmit said:

Different branches ive found from reading the thread (on a highly summarised point of view)
• Game Design - Art side
• Game Development - Engineering side

What you've got there isn't quite right. Traditionally, "game design" describes the act of designing the rules of a game. Typically, it's what the game's goals are, the game's mechanics, and balancing numbers so that the game feels both enjoyable and fair. "Design" in this context refers to having a goal (e.g. entertain a player, make them laugh, make them cry, or, if you're an asshole, make them spend a lot of money before they realise it), and then making conscious decisions to try to achieve those goals. It doesn't necessarily have anything to do with art (although art can be one of the tools you use to try to achieve those goals).

"Game development" is the making of a game. "Game developers" are all of the people involved in that, including game designers. However, when people talk about "dev team" or "developers", they often are referring to software developers.

I personally don't think it's very useful to make that distinction when it comes to grouping schools because of how muddy the terminology is. I think it's enough to say that certain schools offer "game courses" or "game development courses", and leave it at that. I mainly feel this way because schools themselves incorrectly name their courses -- there are schools that teach students to design card game mechanics and other schools that teach students animation, and both schools call the course "game design" (even though one of them is wrong). It's probably better to list schools that teach things that are game-related, and let the people go to the school's website to learn about what kind of course it actually is.

--
@RuanSmit: Are you from Pixelsmith? Are you researching for that?

RuanSmit

Good insight, thank you for that :) I have to agree, as a person not coming from a developer background. The overall knowledge for me since day 1 was that a game developer encompasses all the fields (DEV/Design/Networking). From the schools im still finding I can see you're right though, some call it Game Development and other game design.

Time to continue googling!
""game development" course OR school inurl:co.za

@Elyaradine Sorry I missed your question :) Yes I am

RuanSmit

I want to sense check with the rest of you before I list these schools but this is what I found and want to add on the listing on our site and want to give approved ones from the community

Other schools found in South Africa:
https://emendy.co.za/index.php/courses/game-app-development (Classes)
https://www.schoolofit.co.za/game-development-courses-south-africa/ (Online)
https://www.nobleprog.co.za/game-development-training (Classes or Online)
https://www.brighterfuture.co.za/game-design/ (Classes)

Wasnt sure about this one:
https://e-classroom.co.za/technology-development

Also found a few for kids and teens but left them out for now

Elyaradine

I've never heard of those. I'd personally leave them off.

Also, I think CFAD has since closed. Their website seems to have been taken down, and I seem to remember seeing them in the news at some point involved in some kind of legal spat.