I am a younger programmer (grade 9), and I am extremely interested in having a career in the Game industry. I have been programming for a number of years now, although my knowledge of programming languages is limited to QBasic and elementary C/C++. I''m working on learning DirectX (in fact, I have a number of books on the subject), but still, my knowlegde is extremely limited. I''m not going to even bother asking how to program efficiently or with windows. I''m aware that those subjects easily take up several books and/or university courses. However, I''d like to know what kind of education is needed for a Game Programmer, and what Development houses are generally looking for when they hire. Thanks. On a side note, I am currently working on a game in Qbasic, to help myself learn general programming techniques (and hey, its a great way to fill up a lunch hour!) I have allready finished one or two games (my most recent I posted on the web), and that game can be found at www.geocities.com/momogames . Be warned, the source code is, admittedly, not as structured as it should have been, and the simple mature of the game forces its depth-of-play to a minimum. On top of that, since you can''t page flip in DOS, there is a serious blinking effect. But perhaps you''ll find it fun (I can dream, can''t I?).

You will find out that you are the most important teacher yourself. Late nights with debuggers and trial and errors is the way to go. Education should most likely be some technical one with alot of math in it and perhaps some programming in general. There arent many schools that teach game programming as it is. But there are a few, try finding some and see what they have to offer. Other than that you should try to get into some advanced technical programs with advanced programming and math.

Pure programming courses and such you wont be able to afford by yourself, but when you get a job at later stage, try getting one with good educational policies. Make them send you on alot of 5 day courses .


I have spoken.

Thanks!

And now my head is spinning :D

[edited by - starstriker1 on December 18, 2002 9:45:24 AM]

In QBasic there are two ways to avoid flickering, one is to flip pages(only available in screen mode 7) and two is wait for the vertical refresh.

Hmm... you can vsync in DOS?

How? I probably need to use PEEK and POKE, right? And I''ll take this moment to Curse Basic''s lack of pointer support. Its there, but it sucks. Needless to say, I''m going to be doing a lot more C/C++ programming in the future, after I''m done with this next game.

Anyways, its nice to know that I''ve been on the right track all along (self taught programming). I guess I''ll just keep cranking away at the books!

no it''s actually a wait command.

WAIT $somehexnumber

I can''t remeber what the hexnumber is I''ll look it up and post back here later.

That makes sense... use the WAIT command to wait for a response from somewhere in the screen data...

I have personally looked into many game colleges and find them to mostly be rediculously expensive for what they offer, I suggest just going to college for computer programming and make games on the side and use them as demo''s when you apply for jobs, somewhat of a portfolio, just my opinion, althought I havn''t even entered the programming industry but that is what I feel atleast through the people I have spoken to. Feel free to point out that I could be totally wrong.

I''m going to visit a game development studio sometime in the next year (its nice living in the same area as Bioware). Since I''m sure it''ll be a great learning experience for me, what kind of questions should I ask?

quote: what kind of questions should I ask?

What about: "What do you look for when you hire a computer game programmer?"

And for schools, check www.gamasutra.com under "education". You''ll find more than you can handle. The most famous (for me maybe? ) are Academy of GET (Game Entertainment Technology) and Full Sail. But they take ridiculos prices for their education!! Full Sail is one year, and costs $39 000! Maybe you can get some sponsoring from Bioware?

"No lies of sugar can sweeten the sournes of reality"

}+TITANIUM+{ A.K.A. DXnewbie[onMIRC]