posted
I've always wanted to be a video game developer, but I was never able to get into the industry. Most of that was due to my own lack of motivation. I'd get the "make video games" bug every now and then, but I wouldn't do anything with it.
But now I want to try to make a real go of it. I kind of have a basic understanding of how things work, and I've even made a rudimentary Tetris-clone using .NET libraries. Now I want to try to take what I learned and apply it to Objective C, by making an iOS Tetris-clone.
Why post it here? The best way to get something down is to be accountable to it. Even if no one cares, now that I've posted it here, it's tangible or real, in my mind at least.
We'll see how that goes.
Posts: 339 | Registered: Apr 2008
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posted
Good job writing a game rather than just going on about how much you want to write games. That's the top pet peeve of my game-studio-owner friend.
Posts: 3275 | Registered: May 2007
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quote:Originally posted by manji: I've always wanted to be a video game developer, but I was never able to get into the industry.
Better to be your own industry
My job's fun only because I get to mercilessly abuse programmers and simultaneously protect them from the overwrought, delusional zeal of the game designers.
Posts: 15421 | Registered: Aug 2005
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I started video game development as a hobby, tinkering on my own and creating game platforms just because I could. My limitation, the reason why I was never able to get anything "published", is because I can't draw for squat.
One day I joined a team creating an add-on for Quake II called "Painrift". Shortly thereafter I formed my own team and created an add-on for Half-Life called "The Opera". Again: I did it because it was fun.
Upon release of "The Opera", I was contact for employment possibilities from Valve Software, Raven Software, id Software, Digital Extremes, Westwood Studios and others. Note: I did not apply to them... They came to me and offered me jobs because of the notoriety I acquired doing this little game I wrote.
My college experience was arguably irrelevant. They didn't ask which degree I had, or even IF I had one in the first place (for the record, I don't). The foot in the door was the game I wrote that they saw.
Accomplishment in the gaming industry is a big thing. They want experience writing games, not so much your collegiate experience. Heck, almost all the game programmers I know don't have computer-related degrees... Yahn Bernier at Valve (project lead of HL2, L4D and L4D2) has a LAW degree, for example.
With the advent of game-oriented curriculum like Full Sail University, as well as several colleges now embracing the gaming industry, all the above might be different in recent years. The game I describe above, "The Opera" was released eight years ago...
You want to get in the game industry? Two ways to do it:
1) Write games like there's no tomorrow. If you don't go work for a gaming shop eventually, you will become your own gaming shop soon enough.
2) Intern at a game design shop. This becomes more of a geographical problem: if you're not in Los Angeles, New York City or Dallas, it might not be as simple as it sounds.
Posts: 3486 | Registered: Sep 2002
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posted
If you're working on your own projects and don't want to develop an engine from the ground up, I recommend Unity. It's a great 3D engine, and its free.
Posts: 4136 | Registered: Aug 2008
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posted
It seems to me that this is true of things beyond video game development as well.
For example, while I've been until recently very busy with the school projects for my film program... now I have a bit more time.
So what am I gonna do? Make a fun short zombie film and post it on the internet! I'm currently in the middle of writing the (short) script, and I know where to get most of the equipment I need. I think this is going to be fun.
I think I'll post it here as well as on youtube when I'm done. Should be really fun.
Posts: 1577 | Registered: Sep 2005
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Blayne Bradley
unregistered
posted
Check out Extra Creditz on the Escapist, at somepoint they'll have a full topic devoted to getting into the industry but it can be summarized in three points
1) First Choose which specialty that you want to do (programming, designing, art, music, etc).
2) Find a school that specializes or well known for having graduates who go into said industry.
3) NETWORK, its a lot easier to get in if you know people who can let you get your foot into the door while its still fairly small (from a networking standpoint) and before it becomes unionized and companies still maintain their high turnover of entry level developers.
I'm more or less working at all three, (Concordia University has a compsci program specific for game developers), I know a FEW people who know people but i still need to get qualified first, once I'm qualified it should be relatively simple for me to find an entry level position at Ubisoft or somewhere else based in Montreal, I just need to finish learning the crap first.
I'm also at the same time branching out and figuring out different things I may want to do like learning how draw/use modeling software etc.
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But you still need to DO something. No networking in the world helps if you don't do things.(I don't mean you specifically, but the generalized you, you know?)
Posts: 1577 | Registered: Sep 2005
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posted
A solid portfolio is the "do something" part and will take a lot of effort *in addition* to your education. Assuming you do actually assemble the portfolio then yeah, you can probably get an entry level position somewhere.
Posts: 3275 | Registered: May 2007
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quote:Originally posted by Blayne Bradley: once I'm qualified it should be relatively simple for me to find an entry level position at Ubisoft or somewhere else based in Montreal
Qualified at what? What positions at Ubisoft could you gun for?
Posts: 15421 | Registered: Aug 2005
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posted
The point about public commitments is a good one. As it happens I'm working on a game myself, a very simple little hex-based strategy game. I've got all the gameplay completed and am working on the graphics now. I finally figured out how to get textures instead of plain colours on my hexes; turns out QImage.format() doesn't return a value OpenGL will accept as an internal image format, even though it appears in a lot of examples. Strange.
Posts: 10645 | Registered: Jul 2004
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Blayne Bradley
unregistered
posted
quote:Originally posted by Samprimary:
quote:Originally posted by Blayne Bradley: once I'm qualified it should be relatively simple for me to find an entry level position at Ubisoft or somewhere else based in Montreal
Qualified at what? What positions at Ubisoft could you gun for?
Depends on what I end up liking by the time I get my bachelors, right now I have nothing in mind and a long way to go but I DO know that they have a branch in Montreal and are continuously hiring.
quote: The point about public commitments is a good one. As it happens I'm working on a game myself, a very simple little hex-based strategy game. I've got all the gameplay completed and am working on the graphics now. I finally figured out how to get textures instead of plain colours on my hexes; turns out QImage.format() doesn't return a value OpenGL will accept as an internal image format, even though it appears in a lot of examples. Strange.
Want me to check the OpenGL Superbible? I got the 4th edition.
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