EPTThank you.
You're such a great guy, bookmark'd your blog.
Want to program video games? - Page 3
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youngminii
Australia7514 Posts
Thank you. You're such a great guy, bookmark'd your blog. | ||
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CecilSunkure
United States2829 Posts
On November 20 2011 14:43 SarR wrote: I never get why people always talk about wanting to do game development in any discussion about programming. There is so much else you can do. Network programming, POS solutions, Database programming, web-based stuff. While i've not written any full-fledged games for modern Windows OS versions, I have dabbled in graphics based programming, the pinnacle of which produced a screen saver where I ripped sprites from various Doom based games and had them fight on screen. I wrote my own alpha-blending code, movement code and effects code and while it was the most fun I've ever had writing code, Id never do it for a living. There is way more money in other types of projects, specifically any thing that requires a Database. Someone always wants a program to manage customers and pricing and all that stuff. The game industry is way too competitive and unless you lease an engine from someone and base your game on it, its incredibly time consuming when compared against other types of software programming. Do it if you absolutely love it but don't expect to get riches from it. TLDR; There are other awesome stuff you can do with programming skills besides games. Programmings games is a whole lot of fun, especially if you want to start a small studio of your own in the future. Plus programming games includes like all those different topics you mentioned. If I find I don't like it I can go into any field I like. On November 21 2011 02:42 youngminii wrote: I'm going to start University (again?) next year and I'll be doing CS there, probably going on to do game design (unless I change my mind along the way which is like 99% possible). So I guess a thank you is in order. Thank you. You're such a great guy, bookmark'd your blog. Inspiring! I wish you luck! | ||
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KeksX
Germany3634 Posts
nice blog! Always nice to see people being passionate about programming, makes me feel less alone about this. I just have two things I want to say about your recommandations: 1) Don' ever recommend Dev-C++ again. Ever. Your credibility suffers a lot from this statement. Would you recommend an old timer to someone who wants to learn to drive? xD 2) Don't start out by programming games(at least don't recommend it). Most people have problems understanding basic programming concepts, so starting out with just skipping them and go into the game dev stuff is ... not the best way. Remember: Game Programming is still programming, you can't learn how to program games without learning how to program first! Also: The reason I've chosen to focus on C is twofold: in the game industry 90% of video games are coded in C/C++. This is because the way C was written gets you as close as one can comfortably be (within reason) to the hardware. This means you have full control over everything, which is absolutely necessary for a real-time software application requiring high optimization. If you're serious about programming video games, I highly suggest learning C. Although I do love other languages like Flash and Python, C needs to be the primary focus for most any professional. If you want to work in the industry on a relatively low level(engine programming) you should go for C++. It is the actual standard, however, most game dev tools that these engine engineerers will create use C#, so it's also enough to "just" learn C# and it's highly likely that this will be the standard in the future for most game devs. Also I agree with SarR: You can program games all you want, but if you are seriously into programming there are way more exciting things to do. If you're saying "I don't want to use premade stuff and actually code myself, but in the end just program games" learning how to program with a language like C++ might not be the best idea, things like XNA etc will do very well for you. | ||
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CecilSunkure
United States2829 Posts
On November 22 2011 02:51 KeksX wrote: 2) Don't start out by programming games(at least don't recommend it). Most people have problems understanding basic programming concepts, so starting out with just skipping them and go into the game dev stuff is ... not the best way. Remember: Game Programming is still programming, you can't learn how to program games without learning how to program first! Right right, I have a lot of other content, I was just posting about the series detailing actually making a console game since it's a pretty cool topic. [/QUOTE] On November 22 2011 02:51 KeksX wrote: If you want to work in the industry on a relatively low level(engine programming) you should go for C++. It is the actual standard, however, most game dev tools that these engine engineerers will create use C#, so it's also enough to "just" learn C# and it's highly likely that this will be the standard in the future for most game devs. Yeah I tried to recommend C then into C++, so it was totally in the plan to specialize in C++. | ||
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KeksX
Germany3634 Posts
On November 22 2011 08:18 CecilSunkure wrote: Right right, I have a lot of other content, I was just posting about the series detailing actually making a console game since it's a pretty cool topic. I can't remember how many countless hours I spent on writing little games in the console :D It's really addictive  .Yeah I tried to recommend C then into C++, so it was totally in the plan to specialize in C++. Great! I mean no offense to C, it's really a great and powerful tool, but in the gaming industry (or rather the media industry) C++ is way more comfortable to use. Good luck on your journey, will totally check your blog out! | ||
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CecilSunkure
United States2829 Posts
I just finished up another post on event handling with the console: http://cecilsunkure.blogspot.com/2011/11/windows-console-game-event-handling.html That article teaches you how to make a cool drawing program that looks like: ![[image loading]](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HxwIM8dWIc0/TtFUjALFvvI/AAAAAAAAACg/YoXf6dCwL5k/s1600/Capture.PNG) | ||
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LXR
357 Posts
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feardragon
United States969 Posts
I actually got started with DirectX since I didn't want to start at actual ground zero. I found this great guide on DirectX. So my hat's off to you on this great stuff. Also I chuckled when you said that game developers were rich and unreachable....mainly because game programmers are actually considered really underpaid for the skill level required for their job. xD | ||
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horsman
Canada45 Posts
The insight I'd like to add to this picture is the power that fundamentals for math in 3 dimensions (or 2) and understanding of the graphics pipeline add to creating games. If you are interested in game programming I highly recommend picking up a copy of "Real time Rendering" and perhaps "Game Engine Architecture". I'd also be happy to do my best to answer questions anyone has about the work game developers of all types do. | ||
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horsman
Canada45 Posts
On December 02 2011 15:58 LXR wrote: struggling with the idea because i'm not sure if the programming field for video games will be as fulfilling as I hope. Hi! in my experience it is as fulfilling as I hoped and more interesting than writing most types of applications. The best part of developing games is that the code you write is often very different on a day to day basis and uses your critical thinking skills frequently instead of you just needing to rehash something you've done before. The danger is being taken advantage of by the industry and being paid less than you are worth. It is worth noting that the average salary of a game programmer in the US was around 80 000 in 2007, which is quite respectable, but about 25% less than what a comparably good programmer would make in the finance industry. | ||
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iplayBANJO
United States129 Posts
Cool blog though, I'll probably browse through some of the linked materials and duplicate some old fashioned DOS style games just for giggles. Right now though I'm told I should be focusing on mastering Assembly so that I can pass my compiler class whenever I take it. It's one of those courses that you always hear stories about 30+ people starting the class and less than 5 passing every semester. | ||
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Noak3
United States236 Posts
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aevealon
Singapore80 Posts
This is a really big help haha, going to bookmark your blog :D | ||
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julianto
2292 Posts
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horsman
Canada45 Posts
On December 02 2011 16:26 iplayBANJO wrote: Java (and C# as some others have mentioned) are very common languages for indie games as they are common in mobile applications and are largely platform independent. (I'm not so sure about C# since I have never used it personally) I was told once that the Unreal Engine uses C# and is the most commonly used game engine out there. Hi, just want to respond to a few of these misconceptions. Java is extremely uncommon in game development because of the garbage collector, memory usage, startup times and graphics library bindings available. Of recent times the only significant game I can think of made with Java is Minecraft. C/C++ is the main language of virtually all the important part (read: parts that need to run fast) of game engines or games out there. Many engines implement a scripting layer on top of the engine that might be in Lua (example Homeworld) or C# (example Unity3D) or Unrealscript or Actionscript (Flash), for instance. Last note: Unreal engine is probably not even close to the most common game engine out there! Think Adobe Flash first, maybe Unreal competes at the highest quality of game for most common, but it is probably only used in something between 10-15 games a year (which I think is a generous estimate), while something like Unity3D might have shipped in 100 - 500 range and Flash something like 10 000 games. | ||
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leperphilliac
United States399 Posts
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dignity
Canada908 Posts
I can completely understand why you are busy too... I have a game demo to finish in 3 days. | ||
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horsman
Canada45 Posts
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Ramuh
Germany238 Posts
Few month ago i made a Minecraft Clone that runs in a CAVE, which is basically multiple 3d Screens. It was awesome. Also made a Star Fox 4 Player Battle Clone, that is controlled with Kinect. These were University Projects, and i got the best grades for it :D Making Games is fun :D Though i often lack the ideas to create something of my own  | ||
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Gesh
Bulgaria69 Posts
As Stephen King has said - If you want to be a writer, write, dammit! ( loosely quoted) So, if you want to be a game developer, pick an idea and start coding /working, dammit! The same applies for the others areas - artist, designers, etc. etc. Let me elaborate - we are living in an age, where all the information and tools, that you need for you to make games are readily available or if you in the mood, there are enough open source projects, you can join. Right now, I'm working on my own sandbox rpg (using XNA) and I had some patches sent to VCMI - recreation of the HOMM3 engine. So, if you want to make games, sit on your butt and make games. Great blog, please add gamasutra to your links, there is lot of information there. E..g I learned how to implement the bloom effect from an article posted there. | ||
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