quote:Original post by Daishi
Why? For the sense of completion. Knowing, that the game in the box in front of you on the shelf was made by you. You have made something that is played and seen by thousands of people. It may not be the most fun sometimes, there is acutal work involved ;-), but the payoff is probably the best thing ever.

And just for the sake of programming something that requires more skill than knowing how to word process and copy/paste some controls on a window ;-)

Try writing a flight simulator. That way, you know that the complex machinery that train both commercial and military pilots is driven by your software, indirectly making you responsible for the general safety of air travel.

Try writing air traffic control software. Your application will handle millions of flights through tight airspace per week and aid an ATC in ensuring no mid-air collisions.

Try writing medical applications that save lives. Try writing industrial process control applications. Try writing systems software (there''s tons of opportunities in Open Source/Free Software, and you might even get paid for it). Completion? Nah. The truth is that games are cool and sexy and game developers are revered by the fans of their creations. In terms of actual relevance games still rank very low on the software hierarchy list (in the future, when there''ll be more emphasis on entertainment, they''ll rise - but the producers and artists will still get most of the glory as games will become increasingly artistic and less technical).

Most people want to be games programmers because that was their first exposure to programming, and they could create cool-looking toys. "Wow! What if I could do this for a living?"

I''m not attempting to dissuade anyone, just broaden the discourse. The opportunites are by far outweighed by the seekers - don''t set yourself up for a life of regret if you don''t make the cut.

Game programming is simply another form of art to me. The old ''feel'' of video games seems to have been lost since the 3D accelerator-boom over the past years.

Just today I finished playing through Castlevania for SNES. The graphics were good, but not incredible, the actual programming of the game was good, but the controls weren''t that great, but ok once you get the hang of it, it was hard and frustrating at times, but the feeling put into it made it a masterpiece. The worlds were all very memorable, especially that treasure-filled place. You can just tell that the developers were doing it for the love of the art rather than the money. And of course, the excitement of the the SNES''s power^_^

It seems to me that that old passion has almost vanished with the rush of people making games, and it becoming more of a ''respectable carreer'' than a rare few people who did it even when they were considered to be worthless nerds who couldn''t do anything else.

There are still great games being made. Xenogears, Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Super Smash Bros, those are some of my favorites, but there aren''t many others made since the death of SNES that have that amount of feeling put into them.

I think it''s about time for a revival of 2D. With the power of today''s computers, and the same determination as those people who started it all, there''s potential for a true realization of the creator''s vision, no longer limited by the speed of the processor, but only human imagination, and the coder''s spirit^^



*whew* that felt good. A bit over-dramatized, but it''s more fun to write that way^_^


-Deku-chan

DK Art (my site, which has little programming-related stuff on it, but you should go anyway^_^)

University courses: math, and lots of it. Being self-taught this has been my biggest weakness and I''m now having to backfill on a lot of stuff I thought I''d never need to know! Some physics will also be useful especially if you end up working on anything that needs to act like real life. Learn some basic software design and engineering skills as well, being able to do a good design will save your butt down the road.

Dropping out: don''t do it. The games business is tough to break into and you''re going to need to be employable outside The Biz while you try to kick the door down. A degree will get you a job that''ll keep you in rent and beer money if nothing else. While it''s not a 100% necessity to have the paper to get in (heck, it didn''t stop me for the titles I''ve worked on) the competition is tough enough that it can under most circumstances make a Difference.

Games in general: yeah, it''s a sucky business to be in. My day gig is doing embedded systems work for a consumer electronics company and my stint working game development for someone else (childrens games, gaah) was both fun and painful. I''d have to take at least a $20K cut in pay to work for a game company right now - and it isn''t going to happen. I''m taking my extra time and money and Doing It Myself, starting with the engine and then either licensing it out or taking it into a title.

Just a rant...

About that hobby versus career thing: There are other careers that pay poorly and are hard work, but if you have a passion for something you can''t settle for keeping it a hobby. I''ve been studying game development for a long time as a hobby but my passion is music. Just like many of you are spending hours a day coding your asses off, I''m spending every waking moment creating and recording music, gigging with a couple bands, etc. If I ever make the leap to playing music full time I''m probably in for years of very little money, sleeping in a different city every night, living out of a suitcase, eating lots of ramen and bologna, playing my ass off, lugging gear around, sleeping in a van or a bus... but I don''t care. I love writing, performing and recording music and I''m not satisfied with playing gigs on weekends and recording whenever I have time while spending 8 hours a day during the week at an office doing things I don''t enjoy nearly as much (programming mostly uninteresting stuff).

I think everyone should ask themselves this question; "if you were rich, didn''t have to work, and could do anything you want with your time, what would you do?" Now what would you sacrifice or suffer through to actually do that as your job? The point of my rambling above is this: if you have to ask why people put up with such horrible working conditions to be a game developer, then you just don''t belong there.