Features
Interview: Liam E. Hislop (Full Sail)
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- Starting off, please introduce yourself and describe your position at Full Sail.
My name is Liam E. Hislop, and I am the Senior Associate Course Director for Game Project. Game Project is the final class in the Game Design and Development Program, and the students are charged with making a game.
- What is Full Sail?
Full Sail is a technical college focused on the entertainment industry. Full Sail has been in existence for over 25 years.
- How many students are in your program?
There are roughly 600 active gaming students.
- How long has the Game Design program at Full Sail been running?
The Game Design & Development Program has been running for around six years now.
- How much convincing did it take to convince the higher-ups that video games are valid media? Or was it an initiative from the start?
Obviously, it wasn't an initiative when Full Sail started 25 years ago. However, over the last 10 to 15 years, Full Sail has been focused on offering Digital Art programs, such as Computer Animation, and Game Development was and is an important part of the entertainment industry.
- Your Web site touts much of your staff as people who have experience "in the industry." What companies has your staff worked for and are there any popular games that they have been connected with?
Many of our staff have been involved in the industry and connected with games. We have staff members formerly from THQ and EA, to name a couple. We even have one of the co-creators of the original Dungeons & Dragons game, Dave Arnesson.
- There are many aspects to a video game, from the 2-D and 3-D art, to the graphics libraries, to compilers. What sort of tools do your students generally use?
Our students are focused mainly on the programming side of gaming. As such, they are usually programming in C++ using Visual Studio .NET as their interface. As for APIs, our students are exposed to a wide variety of C++ and 3-D APIs, such as OpenGL and DirectX.
- How much of your program is dedicated to the Computer Science aspect of game design?
Percentage-wise, I would say around 85 to 90% is focused on the Computer Science aspect-the rest is focused on the design aspect.
- There are many different job titles during a video game's development: designer, tester, programmer, and many more. What aspects of game design are discussed in your program?
We focus on almost all aspects of game development. They even have two different project classes where they create a game and go from preproduction, to production, to finish.
- Your program promises graduation to job in only 21 months. This seems like a very short amount of time to me. How intense is the program?
First of all, we don't actually promise a job when they are finished. That is a misconception. We give them the tools to help them get a job; they are the ones who actually have to interview. Second, our program is very intense. They go 21 months straight through-with no real summer break and only two weeks for Christmas. The students are also in class 40 hours per week, simulating a normal work environment.
- For which platforms do you base your development instructions? Do you have kits for the GameCube, Gameboy, PS2, XBox, etc.?
We mainly focus on development for the PC. We go over constraints and issues surrounding consoles, but they need the foundation in programming first.
- This year saw several very innovative products introduced into the market. Games like Katamari Damacy and systems like the Nintendo DS attempted to redefine how we think about the games we play and how we play them. How important do you think innovation is to video games? Is it something you stress in your curriculum?
Innovation is very important to video games. It helps the industry grow, change, adapt new styles, and bring in new people who may not have had an interest before. We don't stress it too much in our curriculum. We encourage and help foster innovative ideas, but again, we want to focus mainly on making the ideas work in code.
- Electronic Arts has been under fire recently for several reasons. One of the problems people associate with the company has been that their employees are being mistreated. There's even a group of blogs from the wives of EA employees detailing the long work hours and the apparent lack of benefits. How you do reconcile this situation with your students who will be working in this industry in a very short amount of time? Have your students working with EA found the conditions to be less than fair? Do you have any comments on the subject?
We have discussed the issue a number of times in my class and in other classes as well. As far as a "silver-bullet" solution, I don't think there is one. Something needs to be addressed, and I always encourage our students to discuss the issue with future employers and to get involved with organizations, such as the IGDA, in helping solve the issue.
We have had some of our students work with EA. They are usually excited to be a part of a team and to be working on a game. As for the conditions, I personally haven't heard about any of them being mistreated.
- Bigger, flashier games are becoming the norm. Do you like where the industry is headed?
Overall, I do like where the industry is heading. One of the interesting and great things is that because we are still a younger industry, we are still looking at ourselves to make changes before we go down bad paths.
- Production costs are skyrocketing. Is there still room for the little guy?
There will always be room for the little guy. Production costs haven't killed independent films. This past year also marked a rise in independent game competitions to help showcase the smaller guys. IGF had an even greater number of entrants, and Slamdance's BIGC went off very well in its inaugural year.
- E3 is approaching very quickly. What has you most excited about the next console generation?
There are a lot of things that excite me about the next generation consoles, but one of the greater things is going to be an increase of games, which means an increase of jobs for our students.
- Nintendo president Satoru Iwata mentioned that he feels gaming will stagnate if it continues on its current trend. What are your feelings about this?
I saw Mr. Iwata's keynote at GDC this year, and I didn't totally agree on this point. Every time somebody thinks that the industry will stagnate, there will be a game like Katamari Damacy that will blow away the preconceptions about this. Just ask Will Wright.
- How much does the staff play video games? What are you guys currently playing?
One of the nice things about our program is that almost all the staff loves playing games. I'm not sure you can be passing on the passion if you don't have it. I'm not sure what anyone else is playing, other than a few people playing the obvious WoW, but I'm playing KOTOR II, as well as a little bit of City of Heroes to kill some time after work.
- PSP or DS?
I'm not a big fan of handheld gaming, but I would have to say neither until they get some better games.
- Mario or Zelda?
I'm a bigger Mario fan by far.
- Halo or Half-Life?
I loved Half-Life, but I played Halo much, much more.
- 2-D or 3-D?
Both. Being over a 20-year gamer, I love current 3-D games, but I still play a few rounds of Galaga when I see one. Ask my co-workers...
Now for any students that would like to:
- What is the most exciting part about going to Full Sail?
I think the most exciting part about going to Full Sail is that everyone you go to school with shares the same passion. Every student in Gaming is a gamer, and it isn't unusual to hear hallway conversations covering programming, as well as whether EQ2 or WoW is the better MMO.
- If you could pick one company to work for, which one would it be?
That's a tough one. There are a lot of really great companies out there. I think a couple of them that are doing things right with their games and their employees are BioWare and Relic.
- What made you want to get into the industry?
The people. I was in the IT sector before I crossed over into gaming, and going to an IT convention versus going to a gaming convention is a totally different experience. The people in gaming, to me, are much more enjoyable and seem genuinely happy to be working in this industry. When you play video games and call it "research," that is pretty cool.
- What aspect of game design is your favorite?
The most favorite part for me is the design and project management. Being a manager by nature, I am drawn to the organization and structure of the entire process. Plus, it is an area that will be in greater need as the games get bigger.
These are a few questions I just got from another writer that he wanted to ask:
- How has interest in the program changed as the video game industry has become more and more mainstream?
I've been with Full Sail for around five years, and the interest has grown greatly. You can see it not just from the number of students applying but also from the number of games, game companies, and schools teaching gaming.
- With a rise in the popularity of video games, has the program also increased its capacity, or is acceptance still relatively exclusive?
We have increased our capacity to accommodate the newer incoming students. We have also moved from an associate's degree to a full bachelor's degree for Game Development.
- How have the dynamics of the curriculum changed as the number of players in the industry increases?
We haven't really changed our curriculum based on the number of game companies. We focus mainly on basing our curriculum around what our industry advisors tell us what they would like to see in a student going into the industry. In that respect, I think the biggest thing has been the change to a bachelor's degree. This way, we have more time to build even stronger foundations in our students and to help make them a little more well-rounded.
Aug 24, 2005 - 8:51 am | 1 comments
Ben Jacobs
