When I applied to Red River College’s Game Development – Programming Advanced Diploma, I assumed the program, while competitive, would at least be fair. I also assumed the selection process would be clear.
Neither turned out to be true.
🎯 The Reality
Let’s make one thing obvious: there’s nothing “entry-level” about this program.
Despite how it’s marketed — with vague admissions language like “good programming fundamentals” and “interest in game development” — this is a post-secondary filtered selection system.
The actual requirements, whether stated outright or not, demand:
Second-year university-level Java knowledge
Unity game engine experience
Real-time game logic and architecture
2D/3D animation systems
Authentication and backend security
Math for games and applied system logic
Project documentation, version control, and production pipelines
That’s not “introductory.” That’s upper-tier, co-op-track, professional software development level. And they expect you to show up already capable — with proof.
📋 What I Submitted
And I did show up — with real work. All self-taught. All independently produced. Here's what I included:
A second-year Java program: an object-oriented terminal game with input handling, procedural logic, and polish.
A full Firebase-integrated website: custom content routing, Firestore database logic, modular JS, authentication, botnet protection, honeypot systems, and custom CMS.
Two original JavaScript browser games: modular rendering engines, animation frames, collision logic, loop control.
A Unity horror game (Unfathomable): animated menu screens, puzzle logic, GDD documentation, scene routing.
A Unity Timeline animation project: lip-sync with Cinemachine blends, animation rigs, layered transitions.
A work-in-progress Firebase-enabled mobile Unity game: with daily quests, modular upgrades, and scalable backend hooks.
All of this was created without institutional access. No instructors. No code buddies. No classroom guardrails.
📋 Full submission: https://formant.ca/rrc-submission
🔎 The Selection Twist
After submitting my portfolio, I was told I ranked 10th out of all applicants — just one seat away from acceptance.
But I didn’t get in.
Why? Because the final seat was already reserved — not for someone who outperformed me, but for an international student whose admission was prioritized for administrative reasons related to visas and paperwork.
This wasn’t mentioned anywhere during the application process.
There’s no footnote in the program brochure. No heads-up in the admissions FAQ. No disclosure in the selection criteria. It wasn’t until after the decision was final that I was informed this seat was never actually available to compete for.
And that changes everything.
Because if the public thinks there are 10 seats — but only 9 are actually open — then applicants are being misled. You can’t call it a merit-based ranking system if some of the winners are chosen ahead of time for unrelated reasons.
This isn’t about international students — it’s about undisclosed priorities.
It’s about transparency. It’s about trust.
It’s about knowing the rules before you enter the game — not after it ends.
🧠 The Bigger Problem
What this really exposed is a deeper issue:
This program isn’t built to teach you how to be a developer — it’s built to filter out people who aren’t already functioning like one.
Despite being marketed as a place to “build skills,” the bar is quietly set far higher than that. You’re expected to show up with portfolio-level work that rivals what you'd see in second-year university programs or junior industry roles — without ever being explicitly told so.
And if you come from a self-taught background, or you’re Indigenous, neurodivergent, or outside the typical academic loop? You don’t just have to be good — you have to be exceptional. Because you’re not just meeting the bar. You’re guessing where it even is.
Then, even if you do meet it — like I did — you can still be edged out by invisible factors no one warns you about: reserved seats, administrative preferences, or priorities that were never part of the public-facing process.
This isn’t just about competitiveness. It’s about clarity.
It’s about undisclosed criteria being used to evaluate people who were told they’d be judged on merit alone.
And when you ask for answers?
You’re told the process is final.
🔧 What I’m Doing Next
I’m documenting the entire process — the projects, the portfolio, the emails, the video breakdowns — all of it.
Not because I want back in. That's whatever, we'll do a different program at RRC and show them you don't need a specialized diploma to make games.
I’m doing it so other people won’t waste their time walking blindly into a system that claims to be inclusive while quietly keeping the gate locked.
Tyler Johnston-Kent / Formant
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