RedDwarf/

Just make sure everyone in your dev team is of a similar level of competence. You''ll probably end up working at the speed of the least competent/committed member of the group, so make sure that isn''t going to be too slow.

And the best of luck.

RedDwarf:
I very much agree with your last post. I think the reason game development tends to attract some people who aren''t up for the committment and time that learning something like good programming or good art is simply because.. games are fun.

You won''t find too many people who, growing up, have a "passion" for word processors, and want to devote their lives to them. In general, for somebody to want to program something for the sake of programming, not because the output is particularly fun (as in games) they have to know something about the process first. Meaning, you''re not going to drive to do something without knowing anything about it unless you want the output for some reason.

I can''t imagine somebody thinking, at age 12, "Dammit, I love word processors and data bases, and I''m gonna take all the time I can to learn whatever it takes to make a great one."

But I can definitely imagine a 12 year old, or younger saying "Hey, I could make a better game than that." Unfortunately, as it turns out, a lot of the kids who have that thought end up not realising how much work it is, and quitting when they find out. (Note: the age in this example means nothing, just an example).

Anyway... that''s my take on it.

Hello, id just like to add my comments. Im only 14 years old and im already learning to program. It was actually my dad''s idea, cuz i play games so much, so he told me since i love them so much i should make them. I didnt take it seriously at first, but then i took his advice, and im enjoying the whole learning process. Im only going into grade 9, so i have learnt nothing about programming from school. I want to join the industry when im older, but i know it will take my awhile to get used to the workload if i want to. In crunch mode, to my understanding, game programmers can end up working as long as 120 hours a week. Also, a club MAKING a game isnt so bad, cuz, afterall the best games are made by teams these days, and its good to learn to work together as a team to make a game. Also, when u guys say one programmer is better than another, what do u mean by better? How much they understand about programming? what speed they can program at? how much programming they''ve actually done in their life? all of the above???

That certainly doesn''t apply to everyone here. There are plenty of mature, intelligent and realistic people here, with the resources and tools to get the job done, a professional approach, and the common sense not to mess with other companies copyrights.

Also most people on gamedev seem to have the good sense to start projects they can actually finish.

Hey, I'm 15 and I have been writing code for a few years already, and its kinda funny... I came from a completely different angle. I started out with perl and other CGI stuff, and I think database programming and all the stuff that goes behind a dynamic site is really interesting, and definately fun to program. Just recently, I've decided to concentrate on C++ because I'm taking AP Computer science next year in school (10th grade) and that deals with C++ only. I picked up the language fairly rapidly because I know perl/php so well already... I definatlely think I'm better than my Computer Science teacher (I know that's not saying much, but I'm 15)... the school uses Borland Turbo C++ 4.0 or something around there lol... and the teacher who says he's "very good at c++" obviously isnt because if he was, he'd realize that its about being good at windows programming or directx or whatever... the language isnt that complex anyway... its all about the header files and libraries that you include with it, and being able to use them.

Anyway, my point is, I'm working hard at my goal of eventually being able to make a spinning cube mesh, not Quake 5 or anything! And, not a day goes by that I dont write a line of code (now, I'm writing at least one windows app a day just to get good at it lol). Yes, at 12 i would have thought a database was cool... if i knew what it was! I'm acutally happier that it turned out this way, rather than giving up as soon as i realized the amount of work that goes into "making" a game.

on the other hand, word processors are very boring, and i only use word for homework lol and i would never dream of dedicating time to writing one.

spinning cube, here i come!

Oh Yeah, Here's my edit with a few things i forgot...

my response to the left/right brain topic:

left brain is the programmer side
right brain is the artist side

i think you had them reversed...

well, i dont know what's up with me, but i definately know my design skills... you can look at my site... www.srnet.net and tell that it is a nice, clean design

and also checkout the preview for my homepage at www.srnet.net/preview.gif

i think that's pretty cool... its not close to done, but its osmething to look at

not only have i done all the graphics at www.srnet.net... i also did ALL of the backend programming (everything is dynamic php/sql) i dont use ANY php on my site that i didnt write.

oh yeah, just to clear things up: even though everything on my site appears to be html, its really dynamic... its to trick spiders into indexing the pages, and hopefully all of thsee news articles will generate hits... that's the plan, and i just started.. (spiders usually cant index dynamic content, so i had to make it appear as html and i put unique titles and meta tags for EVERY news item, so in about a month my pages will be in search engines, and i'll get a ton of hits)

but now i've strayed off topic... i was just showing that you can be very artistic, and be a good programmer, too... and be young

and another thing. i was under the impression that game programming is the most demanding of any kind of programming. being a database/script programmer, i have to say that game programming is quite a bit harder, if you are writing your own engine and everything. lots of math... i'm taking calculus and physics next year, and i bet they'll help a LOT, but in most cases you'll never use that much math in a database script (such as this asp forum...)

Edited by - AndyIC3 on August 12, 2001 11:52:00 PM

Andy, about knowing windows/directx being the important thing. It''s true that''s a major part of being a good programmer. But, the biggest thing I''ve learned after a year in the gaming industry, is it''s not what languages you know, or what sdk''s you know how to use. In my opinion, the most important skill is problem solving. Figuring out the best way to use a language or sdk to solve a problem. After 4 years of university, I thought my code was pretty good. Looking back, some of the things that took me a week, I could do in half the time. The code would be smaller, easier to understand, and be a whole lot easier to work with after the fact. Just my 2 cents. Oh, and also, I knew the syntax of C 3 years ago. But, I''m getting better and better at it each day. In a year, I''ll be even better still. I''m almost at the point where I can say "I''m very good at C".

Hmmmm I think u are vere academic RedDwarf,

I know a lot of people at University who dont listen at the cursus and get their diploma with poor results and sometime even too much time.
But that dont necessarily mean they arnet able to produce hard work and dont have the capabilities.
For instance a friend of mine is actually writing what seems to be a damn good chess programm (beating a 1900Elo player-me)and u will not find him in a programmers club neither in the top of the class.
My personnal Opinion is that they are 2 kind of peoples able to be dedicated and having the skills.
The first are pretty annoying man who live for work and the second are people who live for their passion. If their passion is game developpement maybe u can find him working hard with Direct3D instead of finding him in the top of the class or in a programmers club.

An othr thing though I know 15 year boy who can make games better than most of your topclass pregraduate will never do.

>> and the teacher who says he''s "very good at c++" obviously isnt because if he was, he''d realize that its about being good at windows programming or directx or whatever...

Sorry, but that''s wrong. Many of the best C++ programmers in the world will probably never have used DirectX. There will also be many excellent C++ programmers who don''t know or use Win32 (you can program C++ on just about any platform afterall). And there will also be plenty of terrible programmers who can use Win32 and DirectX.

Knowledge of how to use certain libraries and actual C++ coding ability are not necessarily related.

I know what you mean though, that if he''s a good programmer, he should have the sense to learn these libraries, and hence be able to produce more impressive work.