/digipen/ - DigiPenitentiary

cry more BAGD

The rubric for pretty much all your classes from this point on will start you of at -800% or whatever. GAT250, 251, 315, and 316, at least.

You're thinking of it the wrong way. Required and Basics are…required! Those are the minimum requirements in order to pass the class. Everyone you fail to include, your grade drops by 5%.

The bigger issue is that doing everything that is asked of you results in a 75%. Almost everything beyond that is left open to interpretation…or way beyond the believably that anyone would spend their time on it for a GAT class. I mean really…who localizes their 5 week GAT game into several different languages?

But, basically, doing what is asked of you is considered the bear minimum. If you don't want to do better than that, maybe you came to the wrong school?

Also, GAM classes…almost forgot to mention that.

>>2798

>The bigger issue is that doing everything that is asked of you results in a 75%. Almost everything beyond that is left open to interpretation…or way beyond the believably that anyone would spend their time on it for a GAT class. I mean really…who localizes their 5 week GAT game into several different languages?

You're right that this is an issue, but you've missed the larger issue. The rubric has all these "innovative" categories (or did they change this since I left?). As in, if you want to elevate your game beyond a 75%, you have to literally include some mechanic or something that has never been done in video games before.

… and even if you do, you get, what, like a +1%?

For literally revolutionizing what video games can be, you get a +1%?

Why does the rubric even have shit like that on it? Why does the GAM rubric have shit like that on it? DigiPen is a school. You are learning how to make games. The games you make should be well-made given the experience and knowledge that you have at the time, but you shouldn't even fucking expect "innovative gameplay" or "innovative graphics" or fucking whatever.

It feels like the people who write the rubrics at DigiPen frequently forget that they're rubrics for a college class and not, like, criteria to judge commercial video games by.

Like last year, when we suddenly were required to have an editor at the end of the semester? Or when your game suddenly had to be able to play itself in some form?

>>2798

Is it normal to spend 60+ hours on a single project and still fail by 10%

>>2801

Depends…did you do all the basics and requireds? I haven't seen the new GAT240 rubrics, but if they are like the other GAT rubrics, then the only way you failed is if you didn't include critical audio/visual feedback, made the wrong project (eg they asked for an RPG and you made a shooter), or you left the DigiPen Copyright off of something.

Not saying you did that, but that's the way most of these go. Without knowing what you lost points on, I couldn't possibly be more specific.

>>2800

>For literally revolutionizing what video games can be, you get a +1%?

Don't be so dramatic…It was a 2% on DCR's.

And all you had to do was make a game so amazing "that it is mesmerizing and very difficult to stop playing."

>>2803

Not the case, those are easy points. They pretty much said make a full fledged rpg in zero in a few weeks complete with sound and art.

Former BSGD here: GAT240/250 was the last straw for me when I decided to drop out; starting at a negative 700% for monthly projects on top of the monthly GAT211/212 board games to shit out every month, PLUS CS classes' homework PLUS GAM projects? No fucking thanks. I took a reduced course load from what was 'recommended' (I honestly believe to try and get people to retake the classes) and was still struggling to get shit done on time.. What should happen with that fucking class and anything which uses that awful excel sheet rubric is a formula that starts at 0% and goes something like:

percentage of required CR's * 50% + percentage of basic CR's * 20% + any bonus CR's

That way, if you get all your required and basic CR's done, you can get a passing grade. If you can make progress on the advanced ones or have trouble with a couple of the required or basic ones, you aren't fucked over.

A hearty fuck you to >>2795, since 240 is the first class that is actually fucking useful for designers and by extension any team with a designer, since it's about prototyping concepts and having shit to show a team, even if 240 did fall a bit flat because it's too restrictive for grading purposes and 250 is taught by a manchild(MORRISON) who teaches from the lectures he finds on the frontpage of /r/gamedev and the Rhino's blog.

>>2804

lmao

>>2807

>Former BSGD here: GAT240/250 was the last straw for me when I decided to drop out

Dude, are you me? :o

Totally agree with everything you said, ESPECIALLY

>starting at a negative 700% for monthly projects on top of the monthly GAT211/212 board games to shit out every month, PLUS CS classes' homework PLUS GAM projects? No fucking thanks.

The majority of DigiPen students don't realize just how fucked up BSGD is.

>>2808

That's because the majority of DigiPen(students and faculty) don't fucking acknowledge the "other" design degree; Ellinger even explicitly says they're worse designers if asked.

>>2809

But BSGDs get hired……statistically

>>2810

Yes, all 4 who graduate each year.

>>2797

>>2807

cry more BSGDs

>>2807

Wow. You're a dick and a moron. Anyone with a brain passed that class just fine. I'm glad you dropped out, because I wouldn't want to spend a second longer in the same building as you.

Newsflash to everyone: You can pass this program easily if you actually put in the work. Don't procrastinate. That's it. That's fucking it. Do the work when it is assigned, not the night before, and you're golden.

If you're not doing that, then I don't want to hear your bitching and moaning.

>>2824

Right back atcha, pal! Truth be told I don't give a flying fuck what your opinion of me is. I'm in a happier place not having to subject myself to those classes, and offered my experience for those who were heading into Gat 240/250 in case someone found it useful.

If you were calling me a dick regarding my low opinion of Morrison, please keep in mind that I paid for the privilege of watching a bagd play papers please in a lecture, had a lab session where he made us search Kongregate for mental challenge games and play them while he left for the first half and played frog fractions the second(with little to no analytical insight offered), got to listen to 3 lectures on intensity curves in one day(because of GAM lecture, GAT whichever(one of the board game classes I think), and 250, and Morrison used this video's visuals for the first lecture he did himself in my Gat250 class:

https://m.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/1t0jlc/vlambeers_jan_willem_nijman_the_art_of_screenshake/

Except he vamped to make it take up the whole class. So please don't mistake my rudeness for hyperbole when I say that it was the worst class I'd taken at this school. He's not a bad person(few people at DigiPen are), but I stand by everything I say about his ability to teach.

>>2827

(Also, as a quick amendment, I did not want analytical insight on frog fractions, I meant any sort of guided analytical criteria for the mental challenge games on kongregate, or even any recommendations on which ones demonstrate pitfalls for mental challenge games)

>>2827

Dude seriously, that exact class was the one that did it for me too. None of my BSGD friends who were in the class could understand why I was so angry. I felt like a crazy person. How could nobody else see that these classes were nowhere near worth the money we were paying? Were we all just going to sit in this class and ignore this bullshit that they somehow tout as a world-class game design education?

Of course, all the indoctrinated will simply tell you "no man, you shouldn't have dropped out, the really good classes come junior year".

>>2829

Even if true, that's a huge problem if the first half of the program is tedious or insulting. And you asked it before, but.. Are you me? Nobody in my group thought anything was wrong with Morrison's class either and acted like I was complaining about lectures they'd never been to.

>>2833

Either you and I were the only two sane BSGDs in our year, somehow never crossing paths (I'm not exactly social), and we both made the correct decision instead of continuing to pretend like everything's just fine, like the rest of our cohort… or we're about to have a Fight Club moment :P

>>2841

>>2827

See, this is what I'm talking about – it's fine to recognize being let down by a professor, it's fine to feel like the program is tedious or insulting, but here's the thing. None of that factors into how I'm feeling about you two. It is *because* you left the program, *because* you decided to throw in the towel instead of pushing through it. Do you think the best path in life will ever be the easiest? I've had to go through so much shit over the last 8 years to get to where I am, but I know I'm a better person for having gone through with it to this point. Nothing worth doing is easy except for sex and sleep, so don't think that you've made the correct decision by leaving. . I've been in your shoes. It's why I'm at Digipen instead of a different school. Because I didn't have the balls to follow through, and I've regretted it ever since. No, you haven't ruined your lives, no, you haven't messed up… But I'm personally disappointed, not that it matters, because I know that you could have done better

But who the hell am I, ultimately? I hope you guys/gals/fishpeople have found happiness wherever you are now. Srsly.

>>2845

Because we decided to throw in the towel? I respect that you feel that you're superior because you're slogging through DigiPen, but it seems to me that you're staying as a way to punish yourself for not staying at wherever your previous school is. (I knew someone while I was at DigiPen who lost a loved one and then left their first college, so if it's you, I think you're aware of who I am and we can talk with our cards on the table elsewhere)

DigiPen was pushing me to the point of hating everything I held dear before attending. No school should ever be capable of doing that. I'm personally disappointed that you'd ever consider trying to judge someone for taking a different path than yourself. You have my respect for sticking with it, but your condescension is not welcome.

>I know that you could have done better

Maybe for you 'doing better' does mean finishing a degree, but for myself, 'doing better' means for starters putting my mental well-being and physical health first. By shifting around on the spectrum from a game dev student to a hobbyist game dev and a student in a different major, I can make games I care about unfettered by GAT assignments which had become more detriment than benefit to learning design, and also get a more well-rounded education. Sure, I'm not likely to be creating the next super-successful indie game or whatever, but truth be told, I'm alright with that.

>>2847

Admittedly, I'm sorry for the condescension. That was a bit harsh of me. I know DigiPen is tough - and if it pushes you into self-hatred and the hatred of what you're learning, it's not worth staying at. Obviously, I wish you were still around, but you do seem happier where you are now.

That said, if you end up acting like this clown >>2722 then I have no sympathy for you! I mean damn at least you tried, that guy can't even get passable weed.

>>2855

>digipen

>tough

Pick one. For some reason everyone is ignorant of time management and due to that you start having due dates being piled up which in turn stresses you out. Which also in turn if you're stupid, you sacrifice sleep to do everything. Of course I can't say the same for BFAs and it does include small caveats of some courses that demand more than 5 hours of your life for an assignment. But again, if you do it early with a few hours here and a few hours there nothing becomes complicated. Oh what if you don't understand something? Go to your professor's office hours! It ends up being a one on one session since nobody utilizes it. You can't do that if you wait til the last minute to do the assignment.

Now keep in mind, I am not saying some courses are not worth your money or time. I'm just simply saying the work isn't consuming your life if you manage your time well.