Need Some Career Advice, can use everyone's input

[z_man93]

I'm thinking of getting out of the insurance/financial industry, to much B.S. too many people out for themselves and I'm too young to have a career that I hate.

So, I'm trying to think of something that I might actually enjoy doing as a career. So I wondering what everyone thought about being a game programer? More specifically, what type of education would be needed to be successful in this field? And is there a market for video game programers, or could I take the skills and use them elsewhere in other software programing applications?

I've looked at some job postings for related positions and see that C/C++ seems to be the main requirement, but most positions also prefer experience in other areas as well. So I'm wondering, there is a DeVRY campus near me, and they have a program that gives some programing education but it seems that it covers many other areas such as network architecture and database development as well as the programing. So if this is a 2 or 3 year program would I be better in another school that may have more focus on what I am specifically interested in?

I'm not exactly sure where to start looking when it comes to educating myself, any suggestions, information, or opinions are greatly appreciated.

[Lordosis]

Well, there's really no set steps you can take to become a games programmer. I went to UCLA and studied computer science. About 5% of what I learned there is useful to me today, so it wasn't the best investment of my time or money.

Games programming is very hard, harder than "regular" programming. This is due to a few factors:
(a) You are usually on or near the cutting edge, doing things that haven't been done before.
(b) Your code has to be efficient because much of it will be running 30 times per second.
(c) You are working on advanced concepts, like 3d graphics and artificial intelligence.
(d) It's hard.

I don't think you'll be able to get a job programming games unless you have prior experience (i.e., a finished game under your belt). I think the best thing you can do is teach yourself how to program in C/C++ and just have at it. After you have the basics down, try to write a simple game. If it ends up that you like it and you are good at it, you can expand the simple game or write another one. Either way, you'll have something you can show a potential employer besides just a resume.

Just about any beginners C/C++ book will get you started if you've never programmed before. Deitel & Deitel's "C++ How to Program" comes to mind. Once you get the basics down, you can look at places like www.gamedev.net for game programming specific information. You'll also want to get a good DirectX or OpenGL book, since learning one of those is like leraning a whole new language, especially DirectX.

Rolfe didn't know any C/C++ and he was programming real OpenGL programs within a month or two. He had prior programming experience in Basic, so that helped him a lot.

No matter what route you decide do go down, realize that you'll learn way more programming your own game than anyone else could hope to teach you.

[UBIK]

ive been trying to get into game programming for a year now, and its damn hard!

ofcourse its been easy with a little help from Rolfe, Rich, and Lamont! thanks guys! my first game should be done by christmass i hope! (probably earlier, but i dunno)

[z_man93]

OK, great thats the info I was looking for. Thats what I was worried about, I didn't want to spend years and thousands of dollars at a vocational school if I would only really apply a small percentage of what I learned. So if I understand you right, self educate myself in the ways of C++, openGL, DirectX, and use resources like the site you mentioned. I am assuming that I'd probably want to try to get a job doing any kind of software programing, so that I have something on my resume and experience. Meanwhile work on developing my own game so that I can begin a portfolio of completed games. And then see where this takes me...

[Rolfe]

One last small piece of advice that I've learned from experience: Half of the people that post on gamedev.net type sites have no idea what they're talking about. You have to learn for yourself to sort through the BS to get to the useful information. This is important because you don't want to read some half-wit's post thinking he's an expert on the subject. Most of the guys that actually post full articles usually know what they're talking about. But even with the articles, you still have to learn to sort through what's useful to you and what's not.

Even though the articles are usually pretty legite, there are still a lot of people with a lot of different programming styles. You might read an article and think it's the best article you've ever read on 3D programming and I might think it's completely useless. So when you read an article that you're just not following, don't get discouraged. If it's an article on a subject that you're having trouble finding information on, set it aside so that if you absolutely can't find anything else, you can at least come back to it later and take the time to decifer what the heck the author is trying to say.

If you have the time and energy, try making something simple, like a small dragon warrior clone or something. Then maybe move up to some full 3D. Don't aim too high for your first project. If you do, I can almost guarantee that it will never get finished and you'll have a project that you've put time into that never gets finished as your first experience with game programming. Whatever you do, DON'T try making an MMORPG to start out!

[Kintoun]

Starting out as a day trader didn't look like a bad idea either ^_~

[Lordosis]

Kintoun: You're up to $50/month now, sport. I hope it was worth it.

z_man, that sounds like a pretty good plan. It might be difficult to find a non game-programming job without experience or college, though. Most non game businesses want to see a fancy history on your resume, rather than caring about what you really know.

Honestly, it would probably take you at least a year, maybe a few years, to get to the point where you could realistically get an honest to goodness game programming job. It's just something that takes time. You can learn to program in a couple months, but there is still much more to learn after that. I just very recently started feeling truely confident in my ability to program something as complex as Arcanity, and that's after 6 years of programming in C/C++. I still learn new things every day, and I've learned more from my own mistakes than from anywhere else.

[z_man93]

Yeah, I'm still thinking of focusing on a computer science degree. Rather than spending a fortune on a fancy vocational school that won't really help. I'm thinking of finishing my associates at community college and maybe finish my Bachelor at a university in the area. I live near Chicago so I'm sure I could find a decent school. And I'm not planning on being in the industy 6 months from now, I'm making other short term plans but game programing is becoming my long term goal. Thanks for all the input.