I'm breaking into game development and building a small portfolio of games. I'm currently working on what will be my first commercial release. I am thinking about going back to school and enrolling in either an accelerated Master's in CS program or a C++ programming certificate from U of W.
A lot of online discussions have me convinced that degrees/certifications in CS are becoming less and less relevant, and that it's the portfolio that makes you stand out. I'm just looking for some insight before making a huge financial decision.
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also sorry for thread necro, the interface made the original post date hard to see :)
Full disclosure - my experience with the gaming industry is more than a decade out of date. I'm just a hobbyist now. That said, I would advise against a traditional CS Master's program; these are strongly focused on research topics, low level computing, and heavily distributed systems. Most of the best engineers I know in the software industry don't have a Master's and game development is a set of hyper specific niches in and of itself. In general, a Master's is a huge financial and time investment that can be very hard to justify.
That said, learning C++ is likely a good investment. Basically every game engine uses C++ as their engine language and even if the content isn't specific for gaming, it will still give you formal training in many core programming concepts. In particular, these courses from UW (which might be the ones you have in mind) look like they would be a solid bang for your buck. https://www.pce.uw.edu/certificates/c-plus-plus-programming
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