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Advice for newbs. How did you start?

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Started by newbie_game_dev May 02, 2015 06:04 PM

23 comments, last by newbie_game_dev 8 years, 11 months ago

newbie_game_dev

159

Author

May 02, 2015 06:04 PM

I got a lot of question for people who are now succesfull or finally achieve what they want in game industry.

My question is.

How did you start? What did you do to get in to where you are right now?(making games or working for EA or ubisoft or an indie).
If you are a beginner on this generation. Are you still going to do the oldschool style of making your own game from scratch or are you going to use an engine like Unity,cryengine or unreal?
Did you got to game programming school? or are you from different background? How does it help you from developing games?
If you ever wanna get into game company as for starters will you ever gonna use a pre existing engine? our are you going to start from scratch to learn whats going under the hood as thats what most AAA company is looking for?(IMO)

Basically Im asking your story :D

My background:

I have never work for an IT company before. So mostly I program by myself. Doing some stuff like database app just for fun. A little web dev here and there. I dont have any degree. Most of my knowledge are self taught. I want to go to school but i cant afford right now. Now after some reflecting. I realize I still want to get into game dev.

Maybe from your story I could learn something. who knows.

L. Spiro

25,818

May 03, 2015 04:06 AM

I started by doing. I got out my TI-81 calculator that we needed for school and started programming. I made progressively more complex games and moved to more complex languages over time. Repeat infinitely.
I am not a beginner, but when I was I would never use an engine. Modding games is fine enough, but in order to really learn you have to really get dirty. As a result, I worked on the tri-Ace engine for Star Ocean 5 and am currently working on the Luminous Engine at Square Enix. These are not jobs you can possibly hope to get if you focused on using engines rather than studying the raw technology behind them. And it is when you are young that you should be learning the hard stuff. This is when your brain learns most easily.
I dropped out of high school and do not even have a high school diploma (let alone any degrees). It helped significantly. I had more time to study useful things such as game programming and Japanese (neither were offered at my school, maybe not even in my hick state) and allowed me to get a head start on the work industry. Many people at Square Enix have advanced degrees and even PhD’s, but as a result they also have a significantly lower salary, even though they are the same age as myself (or older). Work experience matters much more than papers. You will always take a lower wage when you first join the industry, so it’s always better to join as quickly as possible and get the lower wages out of the way. I am already a senior in Square Enix as a result of my 11.5 years of industry experience.
I would not suggest getting into the industry via AAA companies. You are much more valuable to a smaller studio. As a result, it is hard to predict whether you should focus heavily on an engine or not. I would suggest the safest thing is to not focus on engines, but at least use them a bit and get familiar (2 projects in each engine perhaps).

L. Spiro

I restore Nintendo 64 video-game OST’s into HD! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCtX_wedtZ5BoyQBXEhnVZw/playlists?view=1&sort=lad&flow=grid

Hodgman

52,717

May 03, 2015 06:06 AM

How did you start? What did you do to get in to where you are right now?(making games or working for EA or ubisoft or an indie).

I started out by making Half Life mods. After modding for 4 years and doing most of a degree, I got a job as a game programmer at a large studio.
After that, I started making engines from scratch as a hobby. Eventually I transitioned into being a professional engine programmer. After that, I started working as an indie and consultant.

If you are a beginner on this generation. Are you still going to do the oldschool style of making your own game from scratch or are you going to use an engine like Unity,cryengine or unreal?

I'm not a beginner now, but IMHO it's valuable to do all of the above instead of focusing on one approach.

Did you got to game programming school? or are you from different background? How does it help you from developing games?

I did a regular Software Engineering degree. I would recommend this over a "game school" as they're respected by everyone and cover the broad/solid foundations. Game schools are more of a gimmick IMHO, which I'd only recommend if you're not willing to teach yourself game-related programming on the side. They're also useful if you dont want to actually be a game programmer but still want something that looks like a technical degree. A computer science course offering a game technology major would be a good mix of traditional foundations and gimmicky games focus.

If you ever wanna get into game company as for starters will you ever gonna use a pre existing engine? our are you going to start from scratch to learn whats going under the hood as thats what most AAA company is looking for?(IMO)

Companies are looking for people who have talent and can do the job.
AAA companies do use big/complex engines - if they're hiring you as a game programmer, then they'll expect you to have experience working with big engines.
If they're hiring you as an engine programmer, they'll expect experience working with the guts of big engines.

It's important to have a portfolio of shipped games, and to be able to talk about the work you did on them, no matter what that work was.

. 22 Racing Series .

newbie_game_dev

159

Author

May 03, 2015 07:59 AM

I am not a beginner, but when I was I would never use an engine. Modding games is fine enough, but in order to really learn you have to really get dirty. As a result, I worked on the tri-Ace engine for Star Ocean 5 and am currently working on the Luminous Engine at Square Enix. These are not jobs you can possibly hope to get if you focused on using engines rather than studying the raw technology behind them. And it is when you are young that you should be learning the hard stuff. This is when your brain learns most easily.

L. Spiro

OMG that bad ass engine. AMAZING! Im so jealous :(

I wish I was introduce to computer in an early stage but we are just poor back then and cant even afford to buy computer. Just out of curiosity at what age did you start game prog and work at a big company?

At the age of 25 this is almost impossible but there's always a chance how little that may be.

I would not suggest getting into the industry via AAA companies. You are much more valuable to a smaller studio. As a result, it is hard to predict whether you should focus heavily on an engine or not. I would suggest the safest thing is to not focus on engines, but at least use them a bit and get familiar (2 projects in each engine perhaps).

Upon seeing this. I plan that if I get the basics of say for example XNA/Monogame. Make 2 projects from those like pong clone and breakout game. Then move to unity for RPG style. Is that what are you suggesting? C# is the only language I know so far so Unity and XNA/Monogame is the best choice.

newbie_game_dev

159

Author

May 03, 2015 08:12 AM

Companies are looking for people who have talent and can do the job.
AAA companies do use big/complex engines - if they're hiring you as a game programmer, then they'll expect you to have experience working with big engines.
If they're hiring you as an engine programmer, they'll expect experience working with the guts of big engines.

It's important to have a portfolio of shipped games, and to be able to talk about the work you did on them, no matter what that work was.

I see. so it depends on what do you want to be. Something I dont understand, if you're a game programmer. You will never know how the engine works. You may understand how it does but how it works is a complete mystery. So uh how can they hire you for a engine programmer? If you started out as a person making game from scratch then releasing it, you got a higher chance of getting into that company as oppose for person who had just use a pre existing engine? So it means that doing a game from scratch(not a general purpose engine but only for the game your doing) is much preferred? I maybe over thinking this a little bit

Aardvajk

13,217

May 03, 2015 10:05 AM

ZX Spectrum BASIC as a child.

Passion for writing games dragged me screaming through things like AMOS on the Amiga.

Took a college course, lasted less than a year due to mental health issues but they at least told me C existed. Didn't teach me much of use but started writing command line text adventures and moved into C++.

Never used an engine. Doing things myself is all the fun for me. But if someone was paying for a result I would embrace tested technology.

Got an opportunity when I was about 36 and had worked in lots of other areas (sales, employment consultancy, gift of the gab stuff) while rushing home to write games every day, to code for a living. Not games but business software which is far less stress I gather.

Passion was the driving force at all times. Zero formal training really. Over ten years participation in this site made a huge difference to me as well.

journal | website | twitter | youtube

L. Spiro

25,818

May 03, 2015 03:23 PM

Just out of curiosity at what age did you start game prog and work at a big company?

I started game programming at late 13 or early 14.
At a company, 22.
At a big company, 29.

L. Spiro

I restore Nintendo 64 video-game OST’s into HD! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCtX_wedtZ5BoyQBXEhnVZw/playlists?view=1&sort=lad&flow=grid

BHXSpecter

3,123

May 03, 2015 08:10 PM

I started game programming at late 13 or early 14.

That is the age I started programming. I started with BASIC and moved straight to C++ when I was 16. I've dabbled in other languages over the years, but I don't work for any company. I had dreams of working on the Mortal Kombat game and even working for Midway/NetherRealms one day. Now, I just help others when I can, but I just work on personal projects.

Orymus3

18,866

May 04, 2015 12:58 PM

How did you start? What did you do to get in to where you are right now?(making games or working for EA or ubisoft or an indie).

If you are a beginner on this generation. Are you still going to do the oldschool style of making your own game from scratch or are you going to use an engine like Unity,cryengine or unreal?

Did you got to game programming school? or are you from different background? How does it help you from developing games?

If you ever wanna get into game company as for starters will you ever gonna use a pre existing engine? our are you going to start from scratch to learn whats going under the hood as thats what most AAA company is looking for?(IMO)

How did you start:

I started programming around age 9, in the very early 90s. I briefly attended programming classes in college but « died of boredom » and chose to quit.

I eventually landed a QA job at Ubisoft and went from there. (I’m a producer now, by day, and indie-developer on evenings and weekends).

I’ve just started using Unity last year, and have seen major improvements over DartLang (Google language which was somewhat limited imo).

I don’t really have a background in any of this, I’d like to think I’m self-made... and it hurts everyday.

There’s an undeniable truth to learning through practice that leaves you vulnerable to a severe lack of understanding of the core basics. Though this happens rarely, I sometimes come across a problem for which I devise a solution, and ultimately learn weeks later there was a very SIMPLE way to do this I didn’t know about because I didn’t go to school. It sucks.

I like to say that I know how to code, but that I am not a programmer. What I mean by that is that I can line-up decent lines of code, prototype something, but I fail to think like a programmer and build correct software. Undeniably, finishing up projects becomes harder when everything is spaghetti-code.

I have started my own company, 7-8 years ago now. I’m using Unity for it. And I don’t plan on doing AAA ever, so engines like Unity are a perfect fit for me: reduced production times is desirable.

Advice for newbs. How did you start?

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