Hello,

I was wondering if based off of your experience, Are specialized CS degrees (such as Digipen's BSCS in RealTime Interacive Simulation and other "Game Programming" degrees) actively frowned upon and will hurt an applicants chances for breaking into the games industry, or are they held with equivalent value as traditional CS degrees.


I am not asking which is better, I am asking will a specialized degree actively hurt an applicants chances of breaking into the Games industry (Ignoring all other industries).

Thank You

Are specialized CS degrees ... actively frowned upon and will hurt an applicants chances for breaking into the games industry, or are they held with equivalent value as traditional CS degrees.
...will a specialized degree actively hurt an applicants chances of breaking into the Games industry

I would not say they are equivalent with a traditional CS degree. They probably won't "hurt" your chances, especially if accompanied by an excellent portfolio. But a traditional CS degree is preferred by some.

I prefer a traditional degree.

I know that trade degrees in games programming focus more in games, but most importantly I don't know what you missed.

The two degrees I'm familiar with are very light on theory and the science-related stuff. I spent two hours describing grammars and how to use them to one person; they are something covered by a traditional CS program in the second or third year.

Here's my personal perspective:

• Regardless of your educational background, there are certain things I expect you to know for various programming roles
  
• A CS degree will teach you a subset of those things
  
• A game development degree will teach you a different (but somewhat overlapping) subset of those things
  
• If you want to be well prepared, you need to do game programming outside your degree coursework either way
  
  CS degrees include much more broadly applicable skills and generally offer a better education for your money, because you get exposure to things besides just games - and that is very important.
  
  I don't particularly care about the degrees of applicants myself - I care about what you know and what you can do. The degree is a portion of reaching that level of preparedness, but it isn't everything. Choose accordingly.