For a while now i've wanted to be involved in the gaming industry. I know that a lot of people say that, and being 21 with still 2 more years left on my manufacturing BSc it's going to be a while before i could truly start looking at this, and with the ridicules university fees coming up that's not looking like too much of an attractive option right now. But at the same time i feel that now would be a really nice time to start tinkering around with things and learning the basics in between assignments. I've just bought myself a new computer that's actually capable of running games unlike my old laptop, and i've just joined a university as part of my BSc where i'm going to have access to a library containing a lot of game programming related books (there's a department for it here). Truth be told, programming has never been my forte though. I'd much rather be a project leader or manager, that's sort of what i do at work now, although with this being a completely different industry i don't think my small amount of experience here would count for much anyway. So, after all of this waffling on, what would you advise me to start looking at? I already intend to get into modding, looking at C++ programming and downloading the Unreal Development Kit to play with. TBH, i wouldn't mind simply making indie games in between holding down a normal job. TL;DR What would you advise someone who simply wants to make games for a living to do?
If you want the easier road, you could try Flash development and get a bit of a following on Kongregate or something. Or perhaps some iOS game development? Seems to be the most accessible ways to market at the moment, and iPhone/Android development especially has a gap in the market for talented developers.
Maybe you could contact some studios asking for advice, what do they look for when hiring? What is there educational background? Gunsmith worked for Codemasters maybe he could give some advice. (I would make tea all day just to be a part of that enviroment,lol).
If i'm honest Flash games really don't interest me. I did think about learning to make iPhone apps it seems so much easier to get into. I am sort of tempted, it's mainly the way you have to deal with Apple that puts me off. I've seen people on forums (and 4chan) before saying how they've gotten into debt through making an iPhone because of something to do with Apple's policies. But then if i don;t spend any money on it and make it free, then i've got nothing to lose. Still, i'd rather spend my time learning to develop full, retail standard games. Also very tempted just to make something epic in RPG maker, i know that's not the same thing, but it jut seems like good fun. Well, Crytek UK and Eurocom are both fairly near where i live, so they could be ideal ones to contact. I have looked at a few company's hiring pages in the past, and mostly they're after experience, i've never seen one asking for a degree.
Completely appreciate the not wanting to get into Flash, I myself would only do it if I could come up with a good enough idea that would seem to make some dollah! If you want to make retail standard games then you'll be in a tough spot doing it solo. The reason I suggest flash/iOS/Android is because it is more about the theory behind making games than the technology itself which will be transferable from learning on these platforms. And dealing with the other aspects (music, graphics etc) is a lot easier and if outsourced cheaper. Combine that developed understanding with your Project Managerial skills and you could try and get your foot in the door at a smaller games dev company and work your way up from there. I've heard that the gang at Media Molecule are quite approachable with simple questions. (They started out making games in their spare time while working for LionHead).
If your looking to make games, I'd recommend XNA. Its a pretty good framework for getting started with programming games, few good starter kits which are good for looking threw the source code and such. Also it uses C# which in my opinnion is a lovely language and XNA has alot of third party plugins to do different kinds of effects. As Tibby said better to learn good game making concepts and different aspects of making games. Technology itself wont be to hard to switch between. XNA will take alot of the hard work out of the inital setup of the game, a basic XNA project with no screen will still build compile and run, it will just show a blue screen but its your starting platform.
Oh right, i never really thought of it like that. I may well look into developing an iPhone game in my spare time. Start off small and work my way up to gain understanding. I've heard of Unity, an engine for iPhone, could be worth downloading that when i get chance. That would be simply amazing. Music shouldn't be a problem, i have a friend who's a musician who's recently finished his degree in music technology, i'm sure he could help me whip up some simple music since i've played guitar and bass on numerous projects of his. That's something else i will look into. Sounds brilliant. I have actually used C# once, but it was only to do some calculations in a mathematics type module that was part of a foundation degree i just finished. I always imagined that once i'd learned one it would be like starting again to learn another. I guess not. I suddenly feel quite a bit more optimistic about this.
C#/C++ seems to be the most commonly used languages in the games industry. A good starting thought for making 'fun' games is to work on the basis that all games operate on patterns, and mastering them is the challenge of a game. A simple pattern to master such as tic tac toe, will becoming boring quickly and repetitive. An overly complex pattern will be much harder to master but could cut off casual gamers (think mech based games perhaps or advanced fighting games). A pattern between the two (or scalable, i.e. easy to learn, hard to master) will offer the most fun for players. And multiple patterns can exist within a game, whether it is patterns for dealing with certain challenges, controlling certain characters or others. Read this in a book once when I was looking into game development (focused on my degree instead) and it really hit home for me.
The first step is deciding the language. If you want to make a standalone game, then it is really C#, C++ or Java. C# is simple - use XNA. The only problem is that it will not run on other platforms. Java I have no clue. But C++ is the tricky one. You have the option of either cross-platform or Windows only. I beg you to choose cross-platform. Therefore you will be wanting to learn OpenGL and/or SDL. OpenGL is the cross-platform Direct3D, and SDL deals with all the rest (sound, input etc.). If you really need better sound, eg 3D positional sound, then OpenAL is a good library to use. The one thing to remember is all these languages are object-orientated. C# demands objects, again I am not sure about Java, and C++ gives you the option. Make each enemy an object - then derive all units from a generic unit; you could go all the way up to making the game itself an object in its own right.
I would suggest that to start with you just get to grips with the languages. I've just finished my degree in Games Programming. We started in the first year, just doing basic C programming. Then in the second year we moved onto C++. Then third year it got a bit more advanced, and we also did Java. I would recommend getting to grips with C++ and Object Oriented Programming. Then move onto a simple game to start with. Not to try and put you off, but, as others have said, you won't be making retail standard games as your first project. Not if your starting from scratch. The Big C++ book is a pretty good reference, although alot of it you can find on the net, but I find it nice to have a book.
Some real nice tips here. I will keep them all in mind, thanks. Right. Well, more useful stuff there. nice to speak to someone who actually has a degree in this. I'll try this, starting off with C then moving up to C++. I know that i'm not going to be working on retail standards games straight away (if ever), it's just something i'd like to aim for. I'll look for it in the library. Question for you. How did you find the degree? Have you tried applying for jobs with it yet? Asking because it's something i might well be interested in, in the future if the uni fees stop being extortionate.
There must be loads of books on Amazon about this subject. Also I remember there being "Build Your Own Game" software that you could find in places like PC World back in the day. They might be a good way to start from scratch.
There are TONS of games made with Java, although they tend to be ones either freely available on the web or for (older) mobiles. Phones are going the way of flash, so I can imagine the market for java phone games is shrinking. There are some very good java conversions of classic arcade games that you can play on the web.
The degree wasn't too bad. It was mainly of use for learning the programming languages. We didn't do a massive amount on actual game development methods, sort of. We didn't do anything on menus or anything which makes things slightly tricky when you want a menu for a game. Quite alot of some of the modules I already knew as I'd done A level maths, so if your not a maths person, the courses have this to offer too. I got a first class degree, so it can't have been too bad, I'm not so sure as it would have been worth it at £9k each year though. @Tibby Runescape uses Java. Alot of the older mobile games used Java, and android uses Java IIRC (or atleast a form of java).
Not to be a troll, but I don't massively consider those to be retail quality (although this is an arbitrary term) games in today's world. I am a Java/J2EE developer, and for what I use it for it is fantastic, but it just doesn't seem suited for games development mostly because of it's graphics interfacing (which I haven't massively looked into to be honest).
How the hell did I forget Minecraft, , that's certainly been successfull, he's made something into the millions. Yes the graphcis aren't great, but it does support OpenGL. Its certainly not the most commonly used language for games, but its not bad for getting started with little games as its a very nice language, possibly slightly simpler than C++ too. I did mostly Java ME, but the limitations are ridiculous, all of the sprite stuff uses ints, and not floats, so your stuffed if you want to do anything remotely accurate. Need to look at SE again to do something, also want to do some minecraft modding.
