How screwed am I?

- 2 large periods of illness during the 1st year of my Games Design course means I was removed from course by default 2 months ago, but i didnt know this (i was actually attending lessons during that time)

- I have 400 pages to draw by Thursday

- i may either be thrown off degree or have to repeat, but then leave anyway.

- I owe about 3 grand to the uni in unpaid rent, because...

- My 1st Loan installment was actually STOLEN by a bank, long story, but i cant get it back

- Last installment not recieved cos Paperwork went through to Loan company that i was removed. Need to pay deposit and rent in August.

- 2 years ago I lived in Guildford and didnt pay council tax cos #1 i couldnt afford it and #2 my mate who owned the house said he'd pay it cos he was loaded (he didnt though).
I just got a letter saying BAILIFFS ARE COMING TO MY HOUSE TO TAKE MY STUFF, very very soon. But they dont know where i live, so they will turn up at my parents house.

I'm so stressed that i'm constantly drinking, and i am suffering bouts of extreme anger and I think i'm going to kill someone.

VENT VENT etc

Kids. Kill yourselves now. Being an adult sucks.

if(getThingFlags(source) & 0x8){
  do her}
elseif(getThingFlags(source) & 0x4){
  do other babe}
else{
  do a dude}

If it makes you feel better, I have not paid rent in 3 months or the last 2 payments for my school! And I'm broke! And don't have a job! And am probably going to fail a couple classes as well (Though due to me not doing the work, not illness)


STOP DRINKING though that will just make things much much worse.

Eh could be worse

You didn't notice that the SLC stoppedd paying your loan?

That's the only way I realised that the same thing happened to me.

I always wondered how effective these Game Design degrees when it comes to getting into the game design industry. I mean, I heard some pretty bad stories how students spent time and money to obtain a degree in Game Design and found out how its not great out of school.

Not that I'm interested in Game Design, I'm curious.

It's a fairly unstable industry anyway, with small developers popping up like weeds or dropping like flies all the time.

The industry is unstable and highly saturated. Everyone and their brother is, "I LEIK HALO I WANNA MAKE GAEMS :downs:" Game design degrees are too focused for undergraduate degrees, so, at least with the industry in its current state, it's hard to get a job because if you aren't doing game design, you're worthless.

A friend of mine (Steven's little brother, actually) got a job designing games for "Pick Up and Play" in Laguna Hills. He started there as a lowly intern, but proved to be a valuable asset - so much so that they offered to hire him full time at the graduate rate, despite not having graduated yet. Now, it's not a huge or famous company (they mostly get contracts to develop demos for new engines and show them off at tradeshows), but he does what he enjoys.

All that to say, one can get a job if they look in the right places. His degree is in "Computer Science", so he mostly does engine programming.

Not a good idea to be really sick when you're at school.

The first and last point you were kind of asking for..


everything else sucks. Vibes to you dude.

Uh, how was he asking for the first one? No one asks to be sick.

yeah unless he rubbed/or whatever himself with whatever got him sick on purpose, then its not his fault.

Yeah, It's also not a good idea to die.

On the bright side, you live in a country that actually believes somewhat in human dignity and it's much harder to end up with nowhere to live.

Unless you can't move, always try to make it to class, or that happens. We've all been there. Flu, the runs, pneumonia, whatever. It sucks but its what you got to do or you get the boot.

Err, no.

Here that would only happen if you fail to make it to labs etc. Missing classes, nobody gives a flying one.

It various around here.

If you have lectures with like 100 people they don't care. But most of the smaller classes attendance will be factored into your grade. One college I went to if you missed more than 3 classes, you would fail. Needless to say, I was kicked out.

That's my problem with grades. I rarely go to class or do homework, but do good on the exams. It usually rounds to be a C.

On my degree the only compulsory thing was labs. The 9-5 lectures were purely optional.

Also, /hugz for Ruthy. At least you still have your good looks and all your hair

Shut the **** up Ruthy. I'm getting killed by a mortgage, can't afford to do about ten grand in repairs to the house that mortgage is on, and I've been flat on my back for three days.

It hurts to ****. So shut the **** up, you got it easy.

At my college technically you'd be kicked out of a course after three missed classes but most teachers didn't take attendance.

Answer to thread question: Pretty

Also, four HUNDRED page?? My your hand is going to be busier than even your loneliest nights.

Yes, I'm an *******.

I'd say that the majority of game design courses are useful, however some seem better than others.

In the end, a lot of getting into the game industry is based on your technical ability when you leave your course. I can see people of various different levels on my course, and I know they won't all be offered the same level of employment.

Almost all the employers in the games industry base their decisions on showreels and supporting work, you almost never get a job from just having a CV/degree. It's about the quality of work presented, not necessarily the quality of courses attended. Employers don't look for fancy, well timed showreels with great music. Whilst it may look impressive it can often cut off important parts of your work. Just keep presentation simple and you can't go far wrong.

As for the industry being unstable, that's very much a matter of opinion. Small companies have always struggled to break through, it happens across most industries. A lot of small companies over stretch or spend time badly. A lot of the problem lies in the actual game. It seems like all too many game developers are blind to the games they make. I often wonder how some features make it through the concept yet alone publishing.

I intend to start a games company in 2010 and I'm very confident it will run smoothly. I have a couple of game ideas/business plans that have the potential to expand and accomodate recent issues. However as always, the hard part will be finding initial investments. It's still a bustling industry, I'm not too worried about it yet!

edit: Forgot to mention

Yeah the baliff threats suck. My council recently tried to screw me over on that one too just because I handed a form in late. I had no idea I even had to hand it in. A lot of their threats are automatic, so it's worth chasing them up in phonecalls to see if you can organise a payment plan or something. In my case, turned out they were just processing my form and the system sent out threats automatically before it was confirmed it was no longer an issue.

I feel more sorry for Ruthven.

Nobody cares. At least Ruthven is likable.

Amen.

Hey it's cool to try and make people's problems seem insignificant! Wait, no.

If you take the problems up the *** and do nothing to change? You're ****ed.

If you work your *** off, *****, negotiate, and whatever else you could do, in attempt to improve the situation? Not so much, methinks. If you do get screwed, at least you'd know that you tried.

Yeah, but I know this guy in North Korea who has problems way worse than that.

Are you bragging about your laziness?

Maybe JM wouldn't have to do ten grand in repairs if he didn't try growing an indoor lawn.

I don't know about you, but I feel more comfortable with failure if I didn't try.

You see, if I tried, then wow, I gave it my best shot and still failed! If I didn't try then, well, what did I expect? It's not really failure if you don't try.

you jerk

I might not get into the college I want to get into