If I comlpete and market a game, using sound, D3D, multiplayer...
am I likely to get a job? I don''t neccesarily mean a great game, just a complete bug-freeish competent game that shows I can do it.
Is it worth looking into developing on other platforms (consoles)? I don''t mind apart from having to learn new stuff but no-one knows how to do that outside the industry so they must train you?
Is this enough of a demo to get a game programming job
quote:Original post by Anonymous Poster
Also, dont sit back and send resumes..Ring them...
Really? With all of those company websites that say "no phone calls, please" ?
--Hoozit.
----------------------
Check out my game demo and resume at
www.fivestory.com/projects/game.
As usual, i will weigh in with my huge bag of 2p''s. I had NO SUCCESS at getting any kind of programming job until I had completed my degree. After that, I used AGENCIES to find work, rather than splatting hundereds of demo disks off to companies. Most of them just hit the bin with it. They get so many they would rather go through an agent than deal directly with interviewing first-time applicants.
Often, companies aren''t too interested in your demos anyway - these days, a lot of the larger games houses are looking for SOFTWARE ENGINEERS (hence you really need your degree) - actually coding the game engine is probably less than 50% of the work - tools writers are also extremely important. I would say that writing a good plugin for MAX would be just as likely to get you a job in a game company (and in 10 years time, you''ll be the lead programmer on a state-of-the-art game I guess).
Good luck anyway (and your screenshots look mighty impressive - oh, the download just completed, so I''ll be back with more comments on the demo itself!).
Ok, the demo looks nice - but I wouldn''t send it off just yet. I ran about 20 meters and then got surrounded by guys with clubs and I couldn''t move away from them. Why? Probably because I didn''t read the instructions\key mappings = and believe me, potential employers probably won''t bother reading them either. You have to make it simpler and rather obvious what to do (for example, first thing I tried was to move the character with the cursor keys - it didn''t work).
I love the roll-over effect on the text by the way!
I have worked on a game similar in style to this, at a professional game company, with so called "professional" game programmers - and your game looks MUCH better than theirs did - they released theirs last year and it got a damned good panning from the reviewers too! (hehe).
quote:Original post by d000hg
If I comlpete and market a game, using sound, D3D, multiplayer...
am I likely to get a job? I don''t neccesarily mean a great game, just a complete bug-freeish competent game that shows I can do it.
It''d help your chances, particularly for more junior posts lower down the ladder. It wouldn''t by any means guarantee you a job though.
Lots and lots of competition out there though. For example another 2 UK studios went out of business in the last week or so, lots of unemployed people with lots of commercial experience applying for a small few jobs. That''s what I mean about competition and climate at the moment.
quote:Is it worth looking into developing on other platforms (consoles)?
The more stuff you know, the more impressive your CV looks... Without "boxes on shelves" commercial experience, you won''t be expected to be a PS2 hardware guru, your programming/problem solving skills (which has nothing to do with platform) and enthusiasm are going to be more important to an employer.
Having said that, any platform specific knowledge you can get IS still worthwhile.
quote:I don''t mind apart from having to learn new stuff but no-one knows how to do that outside the industry so they must train you?
Nope, training inside the industry is *VERY* rare. So how do you get console experience inside the industry?:
1. You start in a junior role, maybe writing PC based tools, maybe game object scripting, maybe game specific file handling routines etc, all targeting already written engine code.
2. You borrow the official manuals, get the .pdf files off the intranet etc and do a lot of reading in your own spare time.
3. By being on the same project as more experienced console programmers, you get to see their code, their methods etc. You get to talk to them about how the hardware works etc.
4. If you''re lucky, you get given a devkit on your first project and get asked to write say something like memory card handling code.
5. You do as much as you can in your own time (lunchtimes, after work etc) to practice and get to know stuff.
Or you may just get lucky and end up getting a job at a console manufacturer or a 1st party developer just around the time before a new console is due to be launched - in that case you get a level footing with other people in terms of experience on that platform.
You''d be amazed how much you can learn (terminology, pitfalls etc) just by daily exposure to stuff.
--
Simon O''Connor
Creative Asylum Ltd
www.creative-asylum.com
What''s it cost for a minimum setup to develop a console game? Is it something a hobbiest could afford to do? I guess also is it worth while? I don''t mean the experience, but rather does it substantially reduce the risk that the game runs fine on your machine and crashs right out of the gate on someone else''s?
quote:Original post by HoozitWhatzitOriginal post by Anonymous Poster
Also, dont sit back and send resumes..Ring them…
Really? With all of those company websites that say "no phone calls, please" ?
–Hoozit.
Well use your judgement if you have any, but yes even those that say "no phone calls". You can either join the queue or make yourself standout. Get the name of someone there learn as much as you can about what their doing and call them up. The worse that can happen is they will ask you to send a resume, which you would have done anyway, except now you''ve hopefully made some kind of good impression.
———————-
Check out my game demo and resume at
<a href="http://www.fivestory.com/projects/game">www.fivestory.com/projects/game</a>.
>> What''s it cost for a minimum setup to develop a console game? Is it something a hobbiest could afford to do?<<
Not really. Dev Kits usually cost about $10,000...give or take. But, even if you were willing to shell out the cash for a for one, it''s not something you can just go out and buy. You have to get approved to develop for the platform just to get the chance to buy these expensive things. To do that, you need to show that you have a team of people, have past experience, and a decent game design. It''s kind of equivalent of trying to get a job in the industry, but on a company-wide scale.
However, that being said, there are things like the PS2 Linux kit. I haven''t looked into it all that much, but it may be worth investigating. It definitely wouldn''t be the same as developing straight for the console, since you have to deal with Linux and the restrictions of the machine, you would still be dealing with the many aspects of what the machine can do and how it does it.
-John
Not really. Dev Kits usually cost about $10,000...give or take. But, even if you were willing to shell out the cash for a for one, it''s not something you can just go out and buy. You have to get approved to develop for the platform just to get the chance to buy these expensive things. To do that, you need to show that you have a team of people, have past experience, and a decent game design. It''s kind of equivalent of trying to get a job in the industry, but on a company-wide scale.
However, that being said, there are things like the PS2 Linux kit. I haven''t looked into it all that much, but it may be worth investigating. It definitely wouldn''t be the same as developing straight for the console, since you have to deal with Linux and the restrictions of the machine, you would still be dealing with the many aspects of what the machine can do and how it does it.
-John
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