Game job and software programming
Author
I know I must work on game demos if I want to work in the games industry, but actually I 'm coding a software 3D engine like quake. Is it a good things professionaly ?
!o)
[edited by - Chuck3d on November 14, 2003 7:00:03 AM]
I guess it depends how far along your demo is. Most people you show it to will understand its a big project and understand the effort put into it but in the early stages you won''t have much to show except maybe a few triangles or a simple model being rendered.
I''m working on my own engine at the moment (using DirectX) and i''m wishing i had started another game instead, since i had to start looking for a new job recently and i was only a couple of months into the engine. The ammount of code involved is huge and some of it very complex but it still doesn''t look impressive and i think initial visual impact can count for quite a bit.
If you don''t need a demo soon then go for it, but spending a week or 2 on a simple demo first might give you a nice fall back plan.
I''m working on my own engine at the moment (using DirectX) and i''m wishing i had started another game instead, since i had to start looking for a new job recently and i was only a couple of months into the engine. The ammount of code involved is huge and some of it very complex but it still doesn''t look impressive and i think initial visual impact can count for quite a bit.
If you don''t need a demo soon then go for it, but spending a week or 2 on a simple demo first might give you a nice fall back plan.
Author
ok, visual effect count a lot. But are the games companies interresting by knowledge in Algorithmic ? I think it is more important thant knowledge in graphics libraries.
Other points of view ?
Other points of view ?
Sad as it is, you might not have the time to explain all the hard work you put into your engine.
These people like people that can present finished products!
It''s not just your demo the''re looking at, it''s your time management skills e.g. having a finished demo is more valuable than having a completely incomplete demo and a good engine.
All they may have time to look at is your demo, so only make a fabulously complex engine if your demo requires it.
(or you just want to show off and have the time)
These people like people that can present finished products!
It''s not just your demo the''re looking at, it''s your time management skills e.g. having a finished demo is more valuable than having a completely incomplete demo and a good engine.
All they may have time to look at is your demo, so only make a fabulously complex engine if your demo requires it.
(or you just want to show off and have the time)
Author
It's not so sad in fact, I wish finish my work in the time I have =)
thank you of light me
!o)
[edited by - Chuck3d on November 14, 2003 1:29:32 PM]
thank you of light me
!o)
[edited by - Chuck3d on November 14, 2003 1:29:32 PM]
From my experience people want your demo to either look cool, do something neat, be addictive or demonstrate that a lot of time and effort has gone into it. The more polished something is the better, though for large projects this doesn''t have to mean complete, just that having crash bugs, big memory leaks or no checking for hardware caps (not a problem for you) won''t be looked on too kindly.
The problem with a spinning cube etc is that the interviewers know that you could easily, and probably have, borrowed code or inspiration from GameDev and google. Even worse some of them may have written a similar engine and think/know that they could do the same thing if they had a day free, albeit probably using a stack of helper libraries and code bases they''ve built up over the years.
So until you can expand the engine to be more complete it might not count for much. As soon as you can render a small level with textured objects, light maps and dynamic lighting you''ll be on to a winner.
The problem with a spinning cube etc is that the interviewers know that you could easily, and probably have, borrowed code or inspiration from GameDev and google. Even worse some of them may have written a similar engine and think/know that they could do the same thing if they had a day free, albeit probably using a stack of helper libraries and code bases they''ve built up over the years.
So until you can expand the engine to be more complete it might not count for much. As soon as you can render a small level with textured objects, light maps and dynamic lighting you''ll be on to a winner.
Author
I''m student and I go in the active life soon
, im a little nervous. You think that its not lost time to work on a quake like game to have a job (if it is good work naturaly)? I''m french and i want to know too if the USA company employed foreigner ?
, im a little nervous. You think that its not lost time to work on a quake like game to have a job (if it is good work naturaly)? I''m french and i want to know too if the USA company employed foreigner ?
Well, foreigners, maybe, but French, I don''t know
Seriously, It is as much the technical excellence as the quality of the code that are important for beginners. If both are top class, hell yeah.
A good software renderer a-la quake means you know maths, matrices, vectors, maybe quaternions, cameras, lighting and shadows (lightmaps possibly?), dithering and filtering, rastering and clipping, some partitioning principles (BSP or other trees), skinning and animation, collision detection maybe, and if you can throw in a few path finding monsters, then you are on a winner, unless it looks like it''s been coded by a cross between a pig and a chimp. You got to know your C++. Note that the biggest market in the video games industry is the PS2, so knowing the underlying principles of a renderer like the back of your hand is an advantage, like say, over a kiddie who''s just being copying OpenGL tutorials.
But doing a demo like that would probably take the best of a full year, non stop. No weekends, no holidays, which means, you are already prepared for the horror of a life in the game industry So, bonus for them.
Seriously, It is as much the technical excellence as the quality of the code that are important for beginners. If both are top class, hell yeah.
A good software renderer a-la quake means you know maths, matrices, vectors, maybe quaternions, cameras, lighting and shadows (lightmaps possibly?), dithering and filtering, rastering and clipping, some partitioning principles (BSP or other trees), skinning and animation, collision detection maybe, and if you can throw in a few path finding monsters, then you are on a winner, unless it looks like it''s been coded by a cross between a pig and a chimp. You got to know your C++. Note that the biggest market in the video games industry is the PS2, so knowing the underlying principles of a renderer like the back of your hand is an advantage, like say, over a kiddie who''s just being copying OpenGL tutorials.
But doing a demo like that would probably take the best of a full year, non stop. No weekends, no holidays, which means, you are already prepared for the horror of a life in the game industry
So, bonus for them. quote:Original post by Chuck3d
ok, visual effect count a lot. But are the games companies interresting by knowledge in Algorithmic ?
ironically, the demand for knowledge in Algorithmic has declined recently. probably because nobody in the industry knows what the fuck Algorithmic is.
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