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Hey folks! I've taken multiple classes run by Ryan Kingslien and crew, and I would have to say this is one of the most generous schools in terms of resources and time. The teachers are constantly working on their craft and always trying to improve the courses. If you need help, teachers are always willing to sit down and help you out. They are very giving with their time, and they really care if students succeed. They also make sure that you take care of yourself, along with doing good work. The courses this school offer are also some of the most affordable. I found that I was a more experienced person looking to push myself further in certain aspects, and I was allowed to fit projects to what I needed from them. The classes gave me a reason to push myself to do the hard work to show progress every week, but they are forgiving enough to understand that their students have work and life responsibilities. Overall, I would say these classes are great for people who are self motived to do the work for their career. You really get the value from the classes if you can put in the effort consistently. Be wary that you are in charge of yourself and your schedule. The teachers are there to help you along, but staying on top of your own things such as coming to class on time, making sure to update regularly, and pushing yourself each week will give you the results that you want more than anything. You'll be taught by some of the best people out there, and one of the most helpful things is to make sure to understand each teachers teaching style and the best way to maximize the time you spend with them. I would say the cons is that in order to do well, you really need to put as many hours as you can. Recommended time to invest in homework is really 30 hours + just because you have to go through useful resources, teacher critiques, and then actually do the work of learning, so its not really a 20 hours a week endeavor. But in the realm of the game industry, that is just a very real amount of time you'll have to spend in order to be better. One of the benefits of course is the fact that you can extend out the time if you need more time to learn things before moving on to another class. They have the classes, happen regularly, so you can jump in at a later date, if you find that life is just a little tough at the moment which is nice. Overall, I would recommend these courses to everybody, but especially the people who need guidance and a deadline.

I had several specific goals in mind before I started at Vertex. I wanted to receive feedback that was constructive and critical. I wanted to improve my current modelling, texturing and Unreal Engine skills to something closer to the industry standard. And I wanted to add portfolio pieces that clearly showed improvement. During my time at Vertex instructors helped me to create a large game level in UE4 complete with animation, VFX, custom modelled and textured assets and several basic blueprints. After weeks and months of feedback we refined my presentation of the level greatly and I learned several new skills and improved others, as I had hoped would happen. There is no doubt that if I had done this level "solo" it would not have come out as nice as it did. I may not have even attempted it in the first place. At that point, I was happy with the work I did, felt like I improved over the period of taking the course and would have been content to add the experience to my Artstation and skillset and move on. Half way through the second course at Vertex, I was contacted and offered a position by a studio that, while I was growing up, I had always considered to be a dream job, working on a dream IP. Like so many of us, I have spent many hours crafting and refining resumes and applications, only to never hear back; this is the first time I have ever been cold called and offered not just a good job, but one I was thrilled to do and that I would have previously considered out of reach. I understand this outcome can't be guaranteed for every student that might take a course at Vertex, but in my case, the results far exceeded my expectations.