Hello all, its my first post here. I'm in a computer engineering and informatics college and next year I will have to do a big final project(supposed to take 6 months usually but I'm fine with it if it takes longer than that).

I was thinking about making something like an adventure game like the many many old SCUMM ones. And just maybe if I finish it it might even sell.(considering the success of Gemini Rue recently I at least have hopes.. maybe it will take more than a year and I'll have to make interesting characters/story/puzzles but still... its a possibility)

I have a couple questions... is it possible to do this in roughly a year(I'll try to find 2-3 people to help with sounds and art)? I found this http://www.gamedev.net/page/resources/_/technical/game-programming/how-do-i-make-games-a-path-to-game-development-r892

thread and I'll definitely try doing this during this year to prepare so I won't go into it right off the bat.

My more important questions though are... how useful would it be in order to find a job later as a game programmer? On one hand I feel like I will learn plenty of things. On the other I wonder if a lot of them are too outdated and I'd be better off doing something else that would require an equal amount of time.

Last question is once I'm done with school and supposing I finished this product and it's rather decent, how do you go about actually finding a job? Almost everywhere I've looked they all seem to require past 2-3 years of experience in the field or having worked on another released decent game. How can you actually do that if they all won't accept you(at least according to what they say is basic "requirements" to hire you)?

Seeing as those 2-3 first few years are the most crucial ones I'd very much appreciate some guidance.

Thanks for your replies,
Konstantinos

Thanks for the reply! I found the FAQ(didn't see it at first since in forums they are usually a sticky) and it answered a lot of my questions and others I didn't post here.

Tom answered most (if not all) of the questions already, but I felt that I should add:

Most undergraduate projects require approval by a professor (I don't know what your school's rules are), each with their own idea of what is and isn't acceptible. You will likely need to present what you intend to build for your project in order to gain approval. Perhaps it would be best to run ideas by your favourite professors ahead of time. Some professors won't like game projects and some won't mind (they tend to steer students towards projects in their personal areas of interest).

The professor grading my project was reluctant to allow me to build a basic 3D modeling program, but he ended up liking the final product. Your professors might be able to suggest a reasonable scope to target for your project (although you coming up with a detailed schedule with some buffer room will help your do the same).