One thought: Try not to be too obsessed by "aiming for perfection". In the first few years, finishing games will be the most important. Finishing a game and aiming for perfection is a contradiction. There are creations that can never be completely perfect. Maybe programming is the best example for that.
Many newbies make that mistake, and perfecting a tetris' framework for long months, without adding any actual value to the outcome. Just get it done, then move to your next fun project. You will learn more with different games, so that your code will get better and better.
I'm not sure why do you want the final, big game alone. I mean that's fine, there are many great projects like that, but deciding up front is a bit meaningless. You have no idea where you will be in a few years.
Sorry, I believed there will be more thought in my post, but I was wrong.....
Anyway, good luck!
Hello Szecs,
No need to be sorry man, I'm here to learn and your post is really helpful for me. It really makes sense what you said about people aiming for perfection and never reaching it. However, I believe perfection is reachable depending on what it means to each person. My definiation of perfection is putting everything I have in my mind in that game and it works flawelessly, nothing more nothing less. Ofcourse, in order to do that, I dedicating a couple of years trialing and erroring( if that is a word
)Thank you for your time.
I'm a newbie myself so take with a pinch of salt, but it's probably detrimental to plan that far ahead. Aim to educate yourself and work hard, but planning projects 5 years in the distance seems a bit limiting. Good luck anyways!
Thanky you ManStaringAtScreen. The 5 years is when I will start on the project. If I get a career job, I will be doing it on the side or working on it full time.
By the way, I really like your user name, it's so cool.
Dude. Take care of your physical health before you drop dead of exhaustion. Eating regular, full meals and getting a full nights' sleep are not optional, and you'll pay dearly for the lack.
*Had had sleep apnia for at least a decade and didn't know it*
Hello Narf the Mouse,
I have been sleeping 3 hours a day for the past 2 years. This doctor motivated me and I never looked back since. Check it out
http://tokyokawaiietc.com/archives/3871
I drink the same milk, and it is healthy all around for me. But I don't eat the same meals though. Veriety is good but the key here is not eating heavy.
Please get as much sleep as possible, because god knows you won't be getting any once you get into college.
You should probably know that there is a difference between having a passion in programming games, and having a passion in a story and wanting to bring it to life. I mean, you seem like you want to make this game a lot, but once you start programming, you will realize that you probably won't reach the lofty goals you've given yourself for years and years. I really hate being that guy but I think that you should focus on the shorter term, stay as excited as possible and soak up as much as you can. Work on the basics of programming (all of the wax on wax off stuff) and eventually you'll begin to feel more confident while at the same time developing a sense of what is reasonable for one man and what is not. Then and probably only then, will you be able to tackle a game like that.
Also, make sure you have general Computer Science knowledge as well, because what happens if you don't get hired as a game developer straight out of college? You can work QA for god knows how long until someone notices you OR you can become a Software Developer at first and make good money plus earn development experience, and then go home and work on your game until you go to sleep at a reasonable hour (while eating 3 square meals a day plus some snacks).
These are just my 2 cents.
Hello M6dEEp,
The food and sleeping routine I answered above, but your post is really informative and made me look at the big picture for couple of days now. You are right about one thing and that is if I don't get hired in my career proffesion, what happens next? I asked a couple of friends of a friend of mine who all graduated college/university level computer fields, ranging from technicians, networking, to software engineering, and the best field I found that will suite me is software engineering. It does mean that I will have to go back to adult high school and finish 2 more prerequisits (chamistry and physics grade 12's) but it is no problem.
As for the one man capablities, like I said, I'm willing to dedicate my whole life for it and that means, 5,10, 15, or 20 years just making it. Why you make ask? I planned to keep it personal because of how the whole community views cetain beliefs but to give people an idea of why I'm going that route is not because of money and never will be. It is spreading a massage to the world that will reward me hopefully for this life and after life. When your main aim is afterlife, dedicating your whole life to gain rewards there would make all your years bareable, exciting, passionate, fun, or however you may look at it. As long as you stick to a path that will please the created and the creator. That should be enough to see where I'm coming from.
Thanks for your contribution, really appreciate it.
I think this is worth emphasizing. I would recommend avoiding the "game development" curriculumn. Colleges and universities realize that it is a very popular track, so they advertise it strongly to gain new recruits. Instead, go for the more generalized CS track and use game development as a side project/hobby to keep yourself excited by what you're learning. Work on your games, use the things you learn from class in your game (data structures, algorithms, etc), use the challenges you face in your game dev to ask questions in class, and if you work hard and do things right, you'll graduate with a degree and a polished game in your portfolio.
The hard truth is that just about every university is pursuing the "game design" track because it's popular with students and brings in new recruits. Assuming that they graduate hundreds of students with a degree in game dev, and there are a hundred universities doing this, then you can safely assume that the market for game developers is either over-saturated or the degrees aren't worth much. It's statistically unlikely that most students will become game developers. Game dev is a niche skill, so if it ends up that you're not going to be doing game dev, then the degree isn't going to work very well for you in opening up other career paths. What's your backup plan if all you have is a game dev degree? Take the pragmatic approach: With a more generalized CS degree, you could land a well paying job in a much wider field and it will still be highly relevant to game dev if you choose to go that route.
There's another thing to consider: Game development (in the broad sense) is about more than just writing code. Every game needs art assets, sound, designers, marketing, business infrastructure, project management, etc. You can do any of these things and be a part of the game industry. If you're focused on the programming aspect, make sure that you both like programming and like mathematics. If you don't like programming or math, then when the initial appeal of game dev wears off, its going to be "just another programming job" where you happen to make games instead of desktop applications/widgets/services/drivers etc. At the end of the day, regardless of whether you're making games or other applications, your job is staring at code on a screen and making it do things.
Hello slayemin' timestamp,
Your take on it so true about universities putting this major in there to attract students and nothing else. I talked to a person who went into a similar course in another country and he had to go back to take computer science but only finished it in 1 year and a half, (having had some pre-requeists already in teh game developement program)
I do programming because I love programming.. and I happen to love games too, so I program games! If you don't have the passion for game programming and you're going about it yourself, it will be really difficult.
I'm also quite artistic, good with sketching and painting, music and so on.. I went down that track first because I thought that was my passion. After a year in art school, it turned out I did more programming in my own time than I spent time on those creative skills. Go figure?
Are you sure you're the programmer type? You got to love solving lots and lots of logical (or somethings not so logical) problems. That has to be a passion, next to the passion for making a game.
There's other ways of coordinating a game project for the ambitious. Realizing what your skills are and what skills you can recruit is essential for any project to reach completion. Do some proper soul searching. Are you really a jack of all trades, passionate for each facet of game development?
I know I'm most focused on the programming. That's why I'm now hiring a friend to make the music, even though I could do it myself. I'll probably get someone to make the art assets too, which I'd also be capable of, but don't really want to spend my time on.
I wouldn't completely crack down on "game dev" collage. It's a chance to do serious networking. Get to know people! Maybe you'll find your game development soul mate. I am chosing CS at university though, because I really want to do programming in depth. Collage is just as much about learning as it is about meeting similarly minded people.
Hello Zoomulator,
I'm really passionate in pleasing my creator and all the other routes are already fulfilled, so I'm starting a new one through games. It is never about popularity, or money, but the purpose is what is important.
Thank you
Mr. Nayef
