I am very intersted in Game Development, with particular emphasis on game Programming. Of course I have a few questions, but first I want to give a little background information. I have an Associate's Degree in Entertainment Production. The main focus was on computer animation with 3d Studio Max, some game level design, html web pages, flash and director, graphic design and production design. Now my questions: 1) I'm not in a good position to go back for more schooling. So is it possible to teach yourself programming? And, if so, can you get into the business by being self-taught? 2) Any personal recomendations on books or other resources to learn from? 3) With the industry moving at Warp Speed, is it possible to teach yourself and not fall behind? Any response will be appreciated, Thank You!

It's possible to teach yourself anything, and there are a lot of books that teach programming. The book you get will depend on what language you're trying to learn. You can even learn a language online without buying a book - though it's good to have at least one for your language to have for reference. I wouldn't worry too much about falling behind, it shouldn't be too hard to catch up again.

I don't know how easy it is to break into the business if you're self taught. I know you can take common certification tests that carry some weight, and I've heard about people getting jobs based solely on their demonstrated programming prowess... but then too things have changed a lot in the tech industry.

Others have already said this, but just to back them up, it's definitely possible to teach yourself programming. There are a lot of good resources here, and you may want to check out the various books on the subject at your preferred book store. Once you learn the stuff, it isn't really that difficult to keep up with the industry.

As to getting into the buisness if you're self-taught, it's going to be very difficult. Once upon a time, you could get a job without a degree or experience, but now you really need one or the other. You've indicated that getting a degree isn't an option, and this makes getting experience even harder. There are two routes you could take to get around this: first, become very good friends with someone already in the industry and in a position to hire you. The more likely route is to write some of your own projects on your own time, so that you have something to take with you when you apply for jobs and show off. The second will demonstrate that you have some experience, and may convince the company to hire you even without professional experience or a degree.

You can definetly teach yourself how to program, but it will take some persistance. When you are learning to program, don't immediately start thinking about making games - you WILL be in over your head. Start with an Object Oriented Language such as Java or C#. If you learn the concepts behind programming, you will be able to apply these concepts to making games through your own logic.

Something important that other people have not touched on is that the videogame industry is not forgiving. If you want to get into it, you have to be very serious about learning to program. You're going to have to have a LOVE for games and a LOVE for programming. Game developers have deadlines put out by the publisher, and as a result you are going to spend insane hours sitting in front of a screen churning out code. Even as a college student with a love for programming and games, it scares me thinking about going into the videogame industry.

Ya know... I am probably as new as they get. and I have a question right off the bat. I have a Avatar I use in several forums. Each forum sets a different size standard (no prob) Well I resized to 50 x 50 like the sign said, and walla, no upload. can anyone CLUE me in on how THIS forum works? Being a graphic artist I feel naked without my 'personal' avatar, which I see tons of here and there. It was as if (maybe not,I got this far)the database was ignoring me, or was waiting till I pay it something?