need advice
Author
Hi, I am just posting here and reading to get an idea of what it takes to be a games programmer. I loved the Age of empires series and civ 2, basically any strategy games , so my dream would be to work on titles like that.
Problem is I did a degree in Computer Science and really hated the last year, so didnt get my 2-1 :( Am now just doing ASP work in C#, working on dynamic web pages. I see most of the big games companies are looking for senior/experienced people so im not gonna have much chance.
What I came up with was a plan to make a webpage, where I have my own mods/games that I work on in spare time. So having a lot of Java/C# skills is usefull, but really think i should get into C++.
So im really asking for advice on what platform to start building demos on and also help on getting a job in the industry.
Thanks all.
If you already know C#, I wouldn't see any real need to switch over to C++. Many games and apps are being (and have been) developed in it, and the differences between it and C++ are a matter of less overall built-in functionality in C++, for the most part.
As to what platform to build on -- that's easy, Windows .NET. That's what Microsoft's moving toward, and for now, Microsoft == God for the overwhelming majority of the software dev scene. (Like it or lump it.) That's what potential employers will be looking for, among other things.
I'd recommend downloading one of the free betas of Visual Studio, or better yet buying an educational edition, and going from there. There are of course free alternatives that I and many people prefer, but they can be a tad more tricky to set up, have a few different quirks, and again, like it or not, MSVS is the standard right now.
As for getting a job in the industry -- I'm still attending college so I can't help you there.
Just my two cents worth.
- Twilight Dragon
As to what platform to build on -- that's easy, Windows .NET. That's what Microsoft's moving toward, and for now, Microsoft == God for the overwhelming majority of the software dev scene. (Like it or lump it.) That's what potential employers will be looking for, among other things.
I'd recommend downloading one of the free betas of Visual Studio, or better yet buying an educational edition, and going from there. There are of course free alternatives that I and many people prefer, but they can be a tad more tricky to set up, have a few different quirks, and again, like it or not, MSVS is the standard right now.
As for getting a job in the industry -- I'm still attending college so I can't help you there.
Just my two cents worth.
- Twilight Dragon
yeah, if you want to work on those types of games, especially as a job, you need to learn C++. Don't despair though, C++ is awesome and so it is definitely worthwhile, it is by far my favorite language. Since you already have programming experience in a fairly well featured language I recommend starting the way that I did: go straight to the source and by "The C++ Programming Language by Bjarne Stroustrup" Read it from start to finish and you will have an excellent grasp of the language as well as how to use it properly. I treasure my copy dearly.
mteccles, your plan doesn't seem that bad. It's always useful to have a portfolio of stuff to show to a possible employer.
As for job seeking, it doesn't hurt to look around, especially if you've already got a computer science degree. There might be some smaller companies out there that might be willing to hire a recent graduate. The big companies might also be interested too, even if they aren't specifically advertising for jobs. I think usually with the bigger companies they like to hire recent graduates to work on their development tools, as a testing and training ground to see if they have what it takes to work on the production code.
As for job seeking, it doesn't hurt to look around, especially if you've already got a computer science degree. There might be some smaller companies out there that might be willing to hire a recent graduate. The big companies might also be interested too, even if they aren't specifically advertising for jobs. I think usually with the bigger companies they like to hire recent graduates to work on their development tools, as a testing and training ground to see if they have what it takes to work on the production code.
Here's where I started:
http://www-cs-students.stanford.edu/~amitp/gameprog.html
Although I already had quite a bit of programming experience before hand.
http://www-cs-students.stanford.edu/~amitp/gameprog.html
Although I already had quite a bit of programming experience before hand.
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