Greetings Lowyat netizens!

First of all, this is my first post. So, be nice.

Laughs aside, I am faced with a dilemma. I sat for SPM last year (2014). So, waiting for my results this March, I spent the time, thinking about my path through tertiary education. My parents and other family members have been yanking my tail, telling me to take "medicine", or "engineering" (note the sarcastic note on the quoted words). So, I understand that these professions offer a significant amount of salary compared to other fields. But then, I factored in the fact that I AM NOT INTERESTED in these fields. If I were to become a doctor, or an engineer, would I be happy knowing that my family is happy even though I am not?

So, I searched my soul (spent these two months playing video games) and I thought, "Hey, I am good at programming! (They teached VB back at school) So, why don't I become a game developer?". So, I researched the field whether I SHOULD take the course. Also, some of you guys said that love PLAYING games does not makes someone a good game developer. But, I factored in the fact that game development is a relatively new field, and a newer one to surface in Malaysia and we need talent masses in this field in order to fulfil plans that are aligned with MyGameDev2020.

So, my first question is, should I take A-Level, STPM, foundation or diploma as pre-university course.

Some of my options include:

- A-Level at Taylor's College, KDU, or MMU.
- STPM (my least preferred option)
- Foundation Studies at KDU
- Diploma in Game Development at UPSI, or Diploma of Computer Science at UiTM.

Second question. I aim to obtain my degree in game development from KDU. But, I wonder if it is a better choice to opt for other institutions such as MMU or maybe UiTM.

Third question. Is it possible for me to obtain my degrees abroad? Maybe the States or UK (or Europe). Is there a scholarship or financial aid that I can apply for? I tried checking out the famed Jabatan Perkhidmatan Awam scholarship. Alas, I was not able to find information from their website or even be able to contact them, inquiring about this matter, through e-mail.

Bonus question. So, my parents told me to go for IPTAs instead of IPTSs. So, the only public university offering this is UiTM. Is there others that I might have missed? UPSI only offers a diploma in game development.

Thank you in advance for your help and I would like to apologise if this post ever offends/annoys/reduces your logical competency. Danke schön.

UTem has game development course.

This post has been edited by imsushi92: Jan 26 2015, 09:50 PM

lai2 KDU

http://www.kdupg.edu.my/

I always stressed on certain institutions for certain disciplines - these are what I call Industry leaders in talent development.

Animation - The One Academy
Psychology - HELP University
Medicine - IMU
LAW - BAC

And when it comes to Game Development - KDU University College is the best there is.

The reasons are plenty:

Their facilities are excellent with learning resources which are up-to-date and using the right industry tools and most importantly methodology.

Their syllabus and structure is spot-on when it comes to what the industry needs and require. They are right in creating the specialized streams instead of learning everything in one package.

but most importantly - their lecturers are all top-notch industry pioneers and people with the right skill-sets, knowledge and experience. They have some of the early pioneers in the Malaysian Game Development scene working there either part-time or full-time. I know of some of the top game designers and programmers in this country teaching there. No other university has such a huge collection of game development experts in one place. And no other institute can boast some of the movers and shakers of the game industry within Malaysia working there.

But do note - that i refer to the KDU in PJ not the Penang Campus. Apparently, their staff force for these two colleges are different. The PJ (or now in Glenmarie - new campus) are the renowned experts.

You can look at some of my previous postings on Game Development Courses in Malaysia....do a quick search.

Ok. to answer some of your question - here goes:

by the way - the MyGameDev initiative is spearheaded by KDU University College. That shows the level of network that they have to pull such an initiative through. This initiative has some of the biggest names in the Malaysian Game Development scene involved such as Codemasters, Streamline Studios and Lemonsky.

If you have already thought of doing a degree - go straight to the foundation programme. Don't bother with A'levels.

Oh. I did a quick search - their staff force (http://gamedev.kdu.edu.my/team/) but not updated as some of my friends aren't listed there yet.

Nope. MMU and UITM cannot compare with the quality of what you learn at KDU. That is a fact. But if you have no choice in IPTAs, i would suggest UPSI as they have the only few PhDs in Games in Malaysia. Or perhaps UTM but that is for computer science majoring in Game.

The best university overseas for Game Development are as follows:
- Full Sail Academy
- University of Abertay Dundee
- University of Teesside

My previous posting on this - https://forum.lowyat.net/index.php?showtopic=3461255&hl=

Thank you very much for the reply jo_toye. It helped made my mind up. And I have read some of your posts before regarding this matter.

And thank you again for the university list. I checked the three institutions provided and the fees are a bit overwhelming.
Full Sail: approx. MYR50,000 per semester
U. of Abertay Dundee: approx. MYR60,000 per year
U. of Teesside: approx. MYR60,000 per year
KDU: approx. MYR60,000 (I'm not sure if this is the full tuition fee or per semester or yearly fee)

Is there any scholarship available for decreasing the financial burden? I was hoping for the JPA scholarship but I can't find info on it. I think The STAR Education Fund is also a viable option. Any further help is appreciated.

This post has been edited by TheHell97: Jan 27 2015, 08:46 PM

I am not sure what the tuition fees in KDU is but I would think that it would be the price of the entire degree. It cannot be yearly fees - that's waaay to high for any degree course of this nature.

Yes - I just checked the Star Education Scholarship 2015 and KDU's Game Development Degree is listed there. You could try MARA Scholarship but i am not sure you would be eligible.

Thank you for the clarification. How about scholarship for overseas? And I apologise if this inquiries are bothersome.

No problem.

Overseas - hmm...not too sure about that option. Try visiting the university website - there are usually options available. If you can write to them - they are usually quite helpful.

I read on Abertay U. that it offers 10% discount for full payment for the following year whereas Teesside U. offers 5%. Full Sail, not so sure. I'll be sure to do so.

Is it wise to take on a diploma course in game development at UPSI then enter the degree course at KDU or better to just take foundation at KDU?

I would advise to do a foundation and then a degree. It's always a better route as there is 3-full years to focus on your specialization instead of 2+2 (which is in actual fact - just two years of getting the fundamentals down)

Why don't you go to KDU and seek their advice as well?

If you really aim to go for game development, KDU is the best to go. I have a few friends studied game development there and they think the facilities and environment is not bad.

IPTA is a waste of time if you want game development.

TBH game development don't really have much opportunities in Malaysia. Most of my friends who went for game development went overseas, or became software developer instead.

I agree with with your first point about IPTAs.

However - in regards to the fact that game development don't really have much opportunities in Malaysia, i am wondering if you have facts to back up your statement or is this all just heresay? Where did your friends do their studies in Game Development?

Anyway, let me change your perception of the game development industry here in Malaysia.

Do you know that portions of FIFA2014 on PS4, Call of Duty Ghosts, Sega all-stars racing, Afro Samurai (PS3) were done in Malaysia?

Do you know that up to 80% of all the graphics seen on games such as DIRT3, GRID2, DIRT Showdown, Operation Flashpoint 2 was done by Malaysians in Malaysia?

Do you know that Malaysia has been handling content for companies such as Electronic Arts, Activision,THQ and 3DO to name a few since the 1990s for devices and consoles such as PS, GBC and Nintendo64 (not to mention PS2, 3 & 4 and XBOX360)

Do you know that Malaysian Game Development companies now are looking for talents such as Game Artist and Programmers and have a HARD time finding good ones?

What Malaysian companies? Let me enlighten you:

Codemasters Studios, one of UK oldest game studios has set-up operations in Malaysia. Codemasters Studios KL handles the artwork for some of their biggest titles including Dirt2, Operation Flashpoint and F1 2011.

Streamline Studios, an independent Dutch outsourcing and game developing studio has also set-up a studio right in the heart of Kuala Lumpur. Streamline Studios has been providing high quality content for all platforms and genre’s within the video games industry. Streamline’s work has been featured in several platinum selling hits including, Gears of War, Unreal Tournament and Ghost Recon.

of course, there are several local companies as well. Do you know that the art work for games such as Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing (2010) by SEGA, Afro Samurai (2009) by Namco Bandai Games America was done by a local Malaysian company called Lemonsky Animation? Which just recently signed an MOU with Namco Bandai Singapore for joint IP development.

We also have companies such as Polyassets United, a japanese company that does SEGA, Nintendo and Disney content. Fly Studio which was bought over by Digital Frontier Japan is also a biggie here in Malaysia (Think Metal Gear Rising)

Further south, in Singapore; Ubisoft, arguably the top three leading international game developer, publisher and distributor is based there. The company has a worldwide presence with 25 studios in 17 countries and subsidiaries in 26 countries. As of now, it is the third largest independent game publisher in Europe, and the third largest in the United States.The company's largest development studio is Ubisoft Montreal, which currently employs more than 2,000 people. Their singaporean studios employs around 20% Malaysians.

These are only the few of the currently established companies. There are a few bigger ones in the pipeline coming down to Malaysia.

Those are MY facts.

Here are some reports just to name a few:

https://www.techinasia.com/appxplore-profil...usition-report/

http://www.nst.com.my/node/61984

http://www.thestar.com.my/Tech/Tech-News/2...ng-in-the-game/

http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/...grow-under-gtp/

Here is a list of Game Companies in Malaysia by IGDA (Malaysia)

http://www.mgdc.com.my/forum/index.php?showtopic=181

All your points are valid.

Despite the spiked growth in game development market these years, there are so many game development graduates graduating every year. With such growth in Malaysian market, it is not going fast enough. That's why my friends went overseas.

And yes they are KDU students graduated at 2013. That is how I heard good reviews from KDU students.

I did not say there are no opportunities. I am saying that you need to go out of Malaysia to get better opportunities. In reality, we face a lot of difficulties approaching game development companies because they already have good developers, good researchers in there. They are not looking for new developers at THAT moment.

I am a programmer who currently work in the artificial intelligence research environment, specifically computer vision. I definitely know opportunities are there, and we are often researching on game related topics such as motion detection and augmented reality. I myself know Unity as well. I back out from venturing into game development because it is really difficult to find a game development job here, so I went on artificial intelligence. Not joking.

I have no intention to say that game development in Malaysia reach to the point of hopeless. If my words make you thought of that, I am very sorry. Perhaps it is just for us.

Ah. ok. My apologies - I read you wrong.

Anyway - here is the thing. We have lots of graduates coming out but the reality is the industry requires talents and not just mere graduates. And that is the problem we are facing here in Malaysia. Lots of institutions are creating lacklustre graduates which doesn't meet industry requirements especially in the Game Development industry. The only few institutions that meet the mark in Game Development (Art, Tech and Design) are KDU University College, Multimedia University (MMU) and TARUC to name a few.

The reality is that most others use a general IT (not even CS, mind you) degree and slap on a few modules in games and call it a Game Course.

Now, the reason why I took so long to answer is I wanted to find out exactly what was the whole big picture with your friends as well as the general industry take on graduates.

First - the problem with why some game graduates leave for overseas is that they are easily bored and that they want to work in major studios (doing major projects) - In one local company itself (which I spoke to some of the people including the founder) - he states that these young talents are not satisfied with projects that they are working on preferring to work on triple-A game titles or for next gen games. But c'mon - fresh talents have to prove themselves first before they can go into that. Of course there are very few companies in Malaysia doing so - it's a mobile market for now (except maybe Big Ant Studios - not sure if there are doing their PS4 coding in Malaysia). For Game Art -it's the same thing. A lot of jobs but people want to do what they like rather than get blooded in the industry and make a name for themselves in the industry first.

That's not necessarily a bad thing - it just means that the turn-over rate for staff is pretty high. Young artist and programmers generally stay only for about a year before jumping jobs.

...game development companies because they already have good developers, good researchers in there. They are not looking for new developers at THAT moment.

Not true. It's all about being selective about what you want to do. I heard even Codemasters Studios KL are looking for developers but many people don't want to apply or work there cause it's focusing on mobile content only.
It's all about perspective.

The strange thing is that the young graduates are telling one thing but the industry people are telling me another.

Seriously - so many studios are looking for people but can't seem to find. Something is wrong somewhere.

Thank you, kumiko_91 and joe_toye for the insights. I assume both of you are a game development degree holder.

And boy, am I glad to hear that the local game development market is still hot. My parents LOL'd (literally) when I told them that I wanted to be a game programmer, telling me to pursue engineering. It is not that I don't appreciate their efforts but I just want to follow my dreams.

So, their main concern was that "susah nak cari kerja nanti,". And that got me concerned too. So, knowing that I have a chance for employment locally means a lot (having a chance doesn't equates to confirming a place as a game developer).

And you are right. I do wish to work on triple-A games, especially with Rockstars, but I wish to enter THAT market with enough experience and expertise.

Do wish me luck in convincing my parents! Danke schön!

kumiko_91 is not. She is an A.I. Expert.

No, I am not. During my days, there were no such thing as Game Development Degrees. I did Computing - which was the closest thing possible then.

However - I have some affiliations and are connected to some of the local Game Development-based associations, guilds or initiatives.

Actually, I do know that during some education fairs, there are talks about careers and opportunities in the area of Game Development. Last year, at the StarEdu Fair, a speaker from MyGameDev spoke on Malaysian opportunities and the year before that one of the recruitment/talent development person from Codemasters Studios Malaysia spoke on it as well. And there are usually talks organized also by IGDA on these.

Bring your parents to talks like these and hear from the Industry on talent requirements. If i hear about it, i'll post here.

I am talking about year 2013. Not right now. Right now game development is very hot, especially with the success of various online games recently.

I am a Diploma in ICT (specialize in Software Engineering), Degree in Software Engineering and Masters in Computer Science (specialize in Artificial Intelligence) holder. I am nowhere close to being a game development holder.

I did not discourage anyone to go for game development. I always encourage people to go for things they are interested, have passion in. My parents used to disagree on my decision to take up IT. I had to pay my own fees in diploma and degree. They don't give a damn about it because they wanted me to take accounting but it is not my interest at all. I was a very rebellious girl. And still am. I did not manage to convince my parents, I had to suck it up.

Am I being selective? NO. I don't even have the option to be selective. I need money for a living. I don't even have pocket money like you people have. I had to work and study at the same time. Tell me wrong about what I said about my difficulty faced looking for opportunities, but that is really what I faced.

I probably have more advantage than the rest because I work as part time night shift IT support and did freelance projects when I was studying. I have a portfolio of more than 50 projects done when I graduate from Degree. I develop from web solution to mobile app. I even learnt photoshop and illustrator myself, designed more than 5 business identities. Tell me about being selective, I am not even qualified to be selective. All I did was to suck up what is being slapped on my face.

They did not even give me a chance to interview, and instead saying they had enough developers. So I went on a AI research lab, they are very happy to have me, and I never returned.

Pardon my assumption. Thanks joe_toye. I'll definitely try to go to the talks and if you hear any that will go on, please, do share
And thank you @kumiko_91. I might not face the same predicament as you have, but to each their own struggle. Sure, my parents might pay the tuition fee, but, there is a high chance of me paying them back. It is my parent's way of teaching I guess. Anything I WANT, I need to pay for it, either cash, or by loan. I'll be sure to keep your story in mind.

You are a very motivated and driven person. I admire you and I think a lot of young people could learn a lot from your independence.

Let me know if you ever want to go into the area of Game Development - and I will try to hook you up with some companies.