Hi, I just want to ask some serious question. But before that , I just want to let you know about my background.

I am 25 and a factory worker. Ive been programming for quite a while now but because of tough competition I wasnt able to get a programming jobs. What gets me into programming was that when I was young, I use to play on nintendo and wondered how do people do that. So I decided Im gonna get a CS degree. But I hadnt been able to program till I get my first laptop which was when I was on my 3rd year of college. I was at that time around18. I came from a poor background in a poor country so affording computer is really hard. Anyway after graduating I work as a freelancer but that only last for a year because also due to luck I was able to go to foreign country and work as a factory worker. I have no choice because I needed money. After that I started learning game development. I started learning and reading c++ books and study openGL. I havent had much practical experience in c++ but I can say that I am able to read c++ code and understand it. My progress is pretty slow as well on learning Game development because my job is kind of hard labor so I pretty much run out of stamina by the time I got back at home. SO my question is

1. Is there someone in here or someone got into game dev jobs that started in a rough background? If there is one, I would like to know what did you do and what were you doing back then :D I just want to have a motivation to continue.

2nd. As a person wanting to get into game industry, Is it right to aim for bigger game dev industry? like EA or SE? Will continuing c++ be a good asset for me? or Just use c# which a lot of inie game dev use?

3rd. What are the chances that at my mid 20s I can be able to get into game industry? How high would you think that be?

As you can see Im pretty confuse right now as I really really think that I am late and that I should switch my interest to other field. I dont Know..

Hope someone can answer me.. Thanks :D

My two cents are just continue like this and try to postulate.

But you'll have to know some things about the game development industry. As I just said, this is now an industry with often more than 100 people working on a single game. So the main danger is that you'll get disappointed once you entered a company because 1) you'll generally do a little part of the game, 2) you might do not what you wanted to do (doing the user interface is good, but you might preferred doing the hard job), 3) big companies might treat you just as a little piece of the puzzle, 4) in little companies you'll have to work hard, a lot and you won't get very well paid, 5) you won't get very well paid in big companies like EA or Ubi, 6) you might leave your country to another one, 7) they may not keep you once the game has been released.

I personally liked companies like ID Software, or Epic years ago just because they started as little, friendly, family-oriented companies. But now ID has been sold and Epic had changed a lot. These companies looked to be the last "real" game companies to my opinion.

This is all what made me never focused too much on the game industry.

On the other hand, you might be lucky and enter a very good company (see companies in the north of Europe and in the east of Europe) and have the job that you want to do.

My final words will be: try to focus on the part you like the most: rendering techniques, audio, physics, user interface, game logics, or artificial intelligence. You won't be able to have good knowledge for all nowadays just because each of them reach very high level: rendering now is mainly physically oriented, physics require a high university level for some specific tasks, game logics are more and more complex, just like AI.

So depending on what you like the most, continue on this way, learn, do it the best you can and maybe try to enter some indie or hobby projects to get more knowledge and experience with.

I hope that I did not killed your will, this was not my intend. You can see my post here (http://www.gamedev.net/topic/638124-anyone-here-a-self-taught-graphics-programmer/page-5#entry5298615) so that you could see my road too...

I hope that I did not killed your will, this was not my intend. You can see my post here (http://www.gamedev.net/topic/638124-anyone-here-a-self-taught-graphics-programmer/page-5#entry5298615) so that you could see my road too...

Amazing. You started at an early age. Youve also been to different IT jobs thats very nice. I wish that happened to me. The engine you were doing is that a 3D engine? Did you release the source code for that?

This topic appears from time to time. Today there's a way of getting into games industry that we didn't have many years ago. It's called self-publishing. I didn't see anything in your post indicating that you have ever made a full game by yourself. Today you can make a game and publish it, make it a part of your professional portfolio. And guess what - you can call yourself a part of games industry! If I were you I would aim to follow this path. I understand you may not have much of free time, so focus on simple game that you can spend some time during weekend, maybe evening, maybe even on your way to work if you commute. Self-publishing is incredible powerful tool nowadays and working on own portfolio not only will make you a better candidate for a job but also will teach you lots of things about this industry and working on games at all.

I hope that I did not killed your will, this was not my intend. You can see my post here (http://www.gamedev.net/topic/638124-anyone-here-a-self-taught-graphics-programmer/page-5#entry5298615) so that you could see my road too...

Amazing. You started at an early age. Youve also been to different IT jobs thats very nice. I wish that happened to me. The engine you were doing is that a 3D engine? Did you release the source code for that?

This is not amazing, this might just look good for some people and less for others :)

The 3D engine is closed source and will remain closed-source as long as I can, he's a bit like my first baby ;)

Just like j_uk_dev said, you have also this opportunity. But it all depends on your aims. You for sure won't be able to develop a new GTA on your own. But you can do real and interesting, fully-finished games that could use specific and technical stuffs that can be useful for game company developers.

And there are also specific game schools now where you can get a descent degree, which also might help you.

Today you can make a game and publish it, make it a part of your professional portfolio

I am aware of this kind of thing. But the chance of making a game that would click to people is much harder. But if for the sake of having a portfolio, i guess I could give it a try.

And there are also specific game schools now where you can get a descent degree, which also might help you.

Theres a topic on the internet that focus on this kind of thing on wether you should get a game course or focus more on general IT degree. Also I find that taking online course is much slower than me experimenting. It might just be my learning style. Been also searching about this online if online course helps, found there is a low chance that that would help you in getting the job. Shame would really love to see your code. As I always want to see and know how people code their program.

You can get into the games industry easily - have lots of projects/demos that you have done by yourself in your spare time.

However, the key to this is showing well polished, clear, to-the-point demos. A well established portfolio that demonstrates what area you want to work in is very important. Don't be over ambitious, you will not have the manpower to finish a large game to a high quality.

I am aware of this kind of thing. But the chance of making a game that would click to people is much harder. But if for the sake of having a portfolio, i guess I could give it a try.

I believe the guy who made Flappy Bird though same way ;)

Portfolio in this industry is incredibly important. Portfolio means experience. Many employers want to see you being able to run the development from start to its finish. It shows your dedication, self-motivation and other things. It is hard to sell a game, but we are not talking about marketing stuff here. Look that many job ads contain a bullet point stating that you have to have at least 1 published title in your career ( and believe me, self-published titles count too ). Also working on your own games rather than corporate AAA titles it's lots of fun due to being able to make all the decisions and shape the game the way you want. Working for a company ( especially big one ) doesn't look like it looked 20-30 years ago, and you have to be ready that sometimes you may need to work on "boring" stuff. Working on your own games will show you how you deal with that "boring" stuff too. Sometimes you would get annoyed because you may need to work on something that in your opinion doesn't make much sense, but still your boss made a decision etc. Hence, my strongest bet is to try self-publishing ;) This will automatically put you in the industry, no matter whether you want it or not :D