Hi everyone, first thankyou all for building a strong community dedicated to game development. Let me build the basics here, first I'm going to become a game developer period. I'm 29 years old and my entire life has been engulfed by the love of games. While a late bloomer no doubt, for the first time I actually have the time to dedicate in chasing this passion. Formost I'd like to integrate myself with the community as a whole. Networking skills and a great friend base can and will make the difference. I'm off to a great start already by being here I believe, but I'm curious if there is a irc server that is preferred by this community. Also any recommendations on a good free irc client would be nice, I'm currently using mIrc but the trial has almost expired and trimming my costs while my wife provides for the family is essential. Second, I'd like to integrate my learning of C# with real life applications, I'm rather new to the whole thing but I'm determined to make this happen. If there is anyone out there working on a current open source or private game development cycle that I could assist with please feel free to email me. While my knowledge is no doubt limited I'm willing to donate my time to anything you might need assistance with. The best way to learn in my opinion is to jump in waist deep and make it happen. With the proper tools and the desire anything is possible. Of the communities I have seen over the past few weeks, gamedev seems to be by far the most committed to assisting people achieve their dreams. Again I just want to thank everyone that makes this community happen and I look foward to being an active part in it. Ronald King a4mula@hotmail.com

Hey mate,

Welcome to Gamedev.

I think you have the absolute best approach in mind for entering the industry. You want to do what i have just started doing, getting involved. You don't get anywhere by doing nothing. The most important thing is to believe that you can do it, then go and do it.

Rather than picking one particular graphics API to use, i would suggest writing some demos with all of the major ones, then choosing from there. As an educated guess i would say that demos are important. If you can, try and pair up with someone equally enthusiastic about what you want to do and start exchanging ideas and working together on some projects. This is what i have started doing recently, it's great.

Good luck and take care,

Dave