Can i become a professional gamedeveloper learning at home?

Games Career Development Business

Started by Assassinbeast October 15, 2012 10:04 AM

26 comments, last by dakota.potts 11 years, 6 months ago

7,644

October 16, 2012 03:45 PM

2. What are you talking about? gamedevmap lists 17 game companies in Denmark.

He can also quite easily get a job in pretty much any other EU nation, EU citizens don't need permits to work in other EU nations and if he lives in for example copenhagen he can work in Malmö/Sweden where Massive Entertainment have their office (and they're currently hiring) without having to relocate (trains go between the two cities every 30 minutes or so) and quite a few danish cities are very close to germany as well (Allthough i don't know if there is any big german studio close to the danish border)

[size="1"]I don't suffer from insanity, I'm enjoying every minute of it.
The voices in my head may not be real, but they have some good ideas!

3Ddreamer

3,826

October 16, 2012 04:16 PM

Okay, let's take a real world look at working from home. I know a guy who is the game developer with a game designer working with him. The game developer does all the coding and the game designer designs the game while managing the art team.

Surprise!!

Everybody working on this game is working from home! The game developer is indy with a degree, but the rest of the team are all indy working from home with no degree! Said game developer has had big contracts in the past in his own right.

The point is that working from home is no indicator of education or indy status. Some indies have a team and work from home. Some corporate people are working from home, too! There are indy game developers using the worksite of their regular job in their spare time to make games. We need to be careful to keep ourselves free from quick assumptions.

Clinton

Personal life and your private thoughts always effect your career. Research is the intellectual backbone of game development and the first order. Version Control is crucial for full management of applications and software. The better the workflow pipeline, then the greater the potential output for a quality game. Completing projects is the last but finest order.

by Clinton, 3Ddreamer

Erik Moffett

109

October 16, 2012 09:16 PM

I'm not a professional game developer by any means, but from what I have seen it is expected that you are learning at home whether you went to school or not. As other people have said the degree will get you past the interview filter that most companies have. There are plenty of companies that wont even consider applicants without one. After that it is all about what you have to offer them. My friend got his last job because he had made an add-on for a game he played using LUA. Sometimes that's all it takes. The best advice I can give is, whether you go for the degree or not, start working on things. Make things that one day you can show to someone that will give them a reason to chose you over someone else.

rvkennedy

168

October 17, 2012 10:50 AM

I just want to know if it is kinda possible to become a professional gamedeveloper learning at home.

Im currently learning win32 in c++ from Michael Morrisons book "Beginning Game Programmng" and i aim to learn directx afterwards.
There are many good books out there that teaches directx.. so i kinda think its possible to become a professional without a school, but im not that sure.

Yes you can.

But do it like this: make the smallest game you possibly can. Don't make an MMO, make a little platformer or strategy game, or recreate an arcade classic.

I strongly advise making a mobile game, because the distribution channels are already in place. If you make a game for Windows, you'll have a hard time getting on Steam or Origin, or even MS' new Windows 8 store, which will have low user numbers early on.

Use the following tools:

For STEAM: C++, Visual Studio, DirectX
For Android: Java, Eclipse, OpenGL
For iOS: Objective C, XCode, OpenGL

Make sprites with Gimp. Make 3D objects with Blender

Then publish it. You are now a games developer.

--------Roderick

steffy81

220

October 17, 2012 01:17 PM

I am a self taught programmer. I have not had any formal education in this field (however I do have a degree in another field). I have had little support in my two years of learning. At first, I was told that I would not succeed and I should just quit before I started. I was told I would fail and I almost listened.

Since then, I have gained many of the basic concepts of the C++ language and added in Opengl. I am a long way from where I would like to be, and would love to take a few classes in the field. I think they would be invaluable in teaching me concepts and ideas that I have not picked up myself. I am programming games as just a hobby and not for a career, so I do not worry to much about this. My games are very simple and made for a young child, but I am having fun.

Now that I have countless hours watching videos, tutorials, searching forums, reading book after book, and made a few games that actually work, I have more support. I even found a friend that programs in C# and likes to branch out into other languages. He has seen my code and has told me that he does not understand a lot of it, because he has never dealt with opengl.

The reason I give much of this back story is to show that yes you can do it alone, but having others behind you will be a huge benefit. It is a difficult thing to do alone. There is no one for me to bounce ideas off of. No one to look at my code and help figure out mistakes. Very few to even talk to about this, because they do not understand anything about the language. Its like I am speaking a foriegn language to them, and in a way I am. I can use forums and look up videos, but I would like to have others that know what I am looking at and talking about. Things are easier when you have a support system both in just saying you can do it, and in knowing what you are doing. It is always good to know people that can do the same thing you can do and are in the same boat as you are.

Cdore

362

October 18, 2012 04:45 AM

It's funny because I'm in the same boat. It's not even about trying to get into the game industry, but the programming industry in general. I'm still having trouble getting back into college, but I have the skills that put me on a level playing field with those with a Bachelor's, at least. It's unfortunate that those skills cannot be demonstrated to get to that interview, gaming or non gaming. So all I can do right now is keep studying and keeping making programs until one of them gets noticed.

ATC

551

October 18, 2012 05:16 AM

I'm a 100% self-taught programmer and games/software developer... I've never taken a college course on programming, computer science or game/software development. In fact, I'm a college dropout... I had only 1 year and 1 semester of college before being forced to drop out to care for my grandparents on their deathbeds (mom had to work and lil bro was legally obligated to go to school). Everything I've learned comes from books, the internet, practice and experience; if used correctly, these resources can be every bit (or more) powerful than a classroom.

I got my first real job in the industry years ago without a problem. I was chosen over candidates who had college degrees, due to the extent of my programming knowledge and wide range of experience with writing all sorts of software (and because I knew several languages fluently). All it took was a resume detailing all of my experience and showing them some samples of my work -- even hobby and "academic" projects. It also helped that I had done a considerable amount of "freelance" work writing small bits of software, libraries and classes/components for small businesses and individuals. The point is that if you're the guy who's always willing to go the extra mile -- do things better, learn more stuff, keep up with new developments in the technological world -- then you can beat people with formal training/education.

All programmers are "self-taught" to some extent. If you don't have the passion/motivation to teach yourself to further/better your skills outside of a classroom then you'll never become a good programmer! But all this aside having a college degree is a major advantage. It's essentially "proof" that you've played the game of school and know your stuff. I strongly suggest going to college and getting a degree. I'm 24 now, and doing well without a degree and running my own business, but I plan to go back to college. It's just something one should do in life, if anything for the experience...

Regards,

--ATC--

_______________________________________________________________________________
CEO & Lead Developer at ATCWARE™
"Project X-1"; a 100% managed, platform-agnostic game & simulation engine

Please visit our new forums and help us test them and break the ice!
___________________________________________________________________________________

dakota.potts

455

October 19, 2012 05:00 AM

I would like to know this myself, as a musician.

I have been playing music for a while. I may or may not go to school for it. I have put in 3 years of study getting proficient at the bass and classical guitar, as well as reading music and learning music theory. I would like to go to my local community college for Entertainment Technology, but they are in the middle of a crazy fiasco with mis-managed funds and such. I will probably take online classes through Berklee for composition

in the 10 days since joining this site, I have done a very large amount of composing. It's absolutely terrible but I've put it out there for people to criticize anyways. (Shameless soundcloud plug: http://soundcloud.com/you/tracks)

I hear a lot of this in the music business. Anything is possible. But let me posit a question: Why is school not worth it to you, and what are you replacing it with? I take private lessons, gig with bands, compose, learn new instruments, and surround myself with music. Are you surrounding yourself with game development the way you should be? Exploring every avenue? Can you be your own businessman, accountant, PR rep, manager, and anything else the job calls for? I used to think this only applied to music, but as my parents open their own businesses (my dad doing Software consulting, application design etc. and my mom with a zombie apparel company) I'm quickly realizing this applies to any "self-made" pursuit

If so then yes, but I don't see the thought in not going to school. Especially if, as has been said here, you will go for free and even receive living expenses.

Can i become a professional gamedeveloper learning at home?

This topic is closed to new replies.

Popular Topics

Recommended Tutorials

Can i become a professional gamedeveloper learning at home?

This topic is closed to new replies.

Popular Topics

Recommended Tutorials

Reticulating splines