stupid_programmer

As BloodyEpi already mentioned, while you are removing the graphics for your children from your scene you probably aren't removing the references to all those objects in your collision manager.  Objects in ActionScript persist until all references to that object have been removed.  If you run your game through the profiler you will probably notice your memory usage keeps going up every level change instead of staying around the same.

OP, since you seem to be under the impression that college is just job training and just want to be a computer science robot then you should probably just drop out of whatever college you are in now and go to ITT/DeVry.

 

Here's a protip though:  Employers don't want robots.  They want people who can do their job as well as be able to interact with people from all walks of life.  These are people that you have to deal with 8+ hours a day 5 days a week.  It shouldn't be up to everybody else at the workplace to have to work around somebody else social problems.  The job is hard enough as it is.  With me being a tech lead I have to deal with my programmers as well as trying to corral the designers and artists in to something sane we can actually make.  I also have the joy of dealing with my bosses who are worried about the bottom line.  It is vitally important that I be able to communicate with them in a way they understand.  The designers get lost in XMLs and the higher ups aren't tech heads in the least, if all I knew were computers then it would be near impossible.  As it is now it's like trying to herd cats.

 

As for the actual humanities thing, I got to agree with swiftcoder.  If you are in the US and go to a traditional university then you know that taking a bunch of random classes outside of your major to make you more "well rounded" is all part of the game.  You know what you are getting in to.

I urge the moderator to close this thread and give the conclusive post if possible. I have got the answer, I will use C# for games, but C++ will remain strong in the Engine and Backend development, for long time in the future. That's clear.

The problem is there is no conclusive answer. My company is firmly placed in mid-core casual browser games and you will never see C++ anywhere. Our 'engines' (if you can even call it that) are ActionScript and 'backends' are a mix of Java/Python/PHP. We've toyed with some real time stuff and a Java server was more then capable of handling the load even with all that so horrible garbage collection going on. It's only now that we are finally branching out in to mobile that the idea of using C++ is even considered.

So people will invest so much into their game avatars and and other settings that a AAA game could potentially be funded by DLC purchases?

Because I would never do this either, like the OP, I asked my wife if she would do it. "'Ey wife, would you ever play a game for free and buy accessories for your character and such, even if they just look pretty?"

"Nah."

"Why not?"

"Because," she said, "eventually you'd get tired of the game and then you've bought all this stuff for nothing."

I asked, "Well what if it's cheap? Like $0.89 an item or less?"

"Well maybe."

"What if it gives you no statistical advantage, it just looks pretty?"

"Nah."


At least, that's what she told me.

My companies entire business model is F2P. I've lost count of the number of people posting on our forums that say they never buy stuff like this and one of our games is the first time they've ever bought something like this. And you also have to realize that the minority support the majority in these kinds of games. Less then 5% of players actually ever buy anything and way less then that ever buy large sums or repeat buys.

I will agree that for the way that a lot of game types currently work, F2P isn't probably the best model. But you would be surprised at the number of people that will buy a hat that does nothing but look cool in game.

In what area are you located?
60h/week is common here and we're not Sillicon Valley. I've been in three different studios (publisher and vendor) and can attest that its more of the same in that regard.
Crunches that last for 6-12 months are not really crunches, they're signs of very bad planning, but they are common here regardless.

I'm not Hodgman, but I work in the Bay Area and I've never worked more then 50 hours.  Its generally more in the 40-45 hour range.  The one 50 hour week was from a botched launch night.  There is no way I'd put up with 60 hours being "common".  I like games, but having a life is much more important to me.  Then again, I'm not 22 anymore and a bit jaded to the industry as a whole now.  I also don't work for a AAA game studio but a smaller still independent studio.  I also started in business apps where the office was pretty much cleared out by 5:15 everyday so I never got conditioned to think that more then 40 hours was business as usual.