hi everyone just lookin for some tips like what college is a good college for game development and or prgramming,i actually went and bought maya 4.0 which is i dont even think i could fathum the thought of what i could do with it.heck i cant even get it to start running.some kind of error saying it cant find a AW*.dat file in the folder \FLEXLM\ anyhew i just wanted to ask to see 1 what classes should i take? 2. any good colleges? 3.whats an AW*.dat file? 4.if anyone who has experience would like to train id be more than happy to listen ,and 5. i have an awesome idea for a few games that if possible would be MONEY MAKERS! But i mostly want to get into the game dev. so i can give kids more fun than i had playing PAC MAN, and MOON PATROL. well gotta run nice to meet ya all and hope to hear reply soon.

WELCOME TO THE HALLS OF GAME DEVELOPMENT.

Please use your indoor voice.

quote: Original post by richard wingo
i actually went and bought maya 4.0 which is i dont even think i could fathum the thought of what i could do with it.heck i cant even get it to start running.some kind of error saying it cant find a AW*.dat file in the folder \FLEXLM\
...
3.whats an AW*.dat file?

I don''t believe you did buy Maya. The .dat file in the FLEXLM dir is the licence file that should have been created upon installation of a legitimate version.

Maya Personal Learning Edition (which I have) does not need a licence file, so you don''t have that. And I don''t believe you spent a few thousand on a program you don''t know how to use.

ok so my buddy got it and i dare to ask how i just wanted to try it out

Thief.

ok, since everyone else is flaming, i''ll join in with some reponses

fist dont be so nieve thinking there is one best path to whatever goals you may have. Game programming and non-game programming are not as seperate as you may think.

1) Computer science classes, general education classes obviously
2) Sure most colleges are good, parties, hot girls (though not in the CSC department, thats what gen ed is for). I know you want a responce like "Hey University of * has an excellent game programming department" but your not going to get that. Colleges are interested in acedemics and studies, not little video games. My college offers an AI class, a GUI class(buisness/database related), and graphics class(requires HIGH level math so Im not going to take it). The point is you need to apply your general knowledge to game programming on your own time. They wont teach you how to do it, but they will give you knowledge that will help you understand it when going to learn it on your own. Of course there are speciallized institutions like Full Sail, but do you REALLY want to move thousands of miles away and spend tens of thousands of dollars for an education that you may not even beable to find a job with.
3) you got your answer (ps if a cracked program doesnt work, dont expect to find help on the web for it)
4) uh there are millions of tutorials, nobody will be willing to teach you how to program/program games from complete scratch (expecially if you dont know any languages)
5) hah, yeah we all do!

anyways, there is no golden road to oz here. you need to build it yourself and that includes drawing your own blueprints.

While I have to agree that you shouldn''t pirate a copy of Maya, let me be more helpful by telling you what you can do:

1)Realize that graphics, while major part of video games, are not everything. Contrary to what a lot of people think EVEN IN THE INDUSTRY, a good game is more than good graphics.
Maya, 3D Studio Max, and even Blender (which is free, not only as in beer but as in speech, so getting Blender should keep you out of trouble if you need a graphics package and don''t have the money) are good for making 3D models of characters, scenes, etc as well as animation, but you still need some way of importing those raw files into your game.

2)
Start here if you are a Beginner. In fact, at the top of this webpage, you will see under Resources a link called "For Beginners" that also points there. Keep in mind that it is out of date and heavily centered on DirectX.

3)
I prefer to read the Articles and Resources links. Pick a topic that interests you, such as General/Game Programming, Graphics, AI, Design, etc and just read.

4)
Also check the Books. While reading a book won''t make you better at programming, for example, it helps you clarify ideas, especially if you actually do the examples in the book and follow along on your own.

5)
In terms of college, it depends on what you want.
You could join a video game college specifically. Check out Digipen and Full Sail for info on those. I remember one other but I can''t think of it off the top of my head.
You could also go to regular college/university. This might be better, especially if you aren''t very sure about anything in the first place. For instance, you might find that making video games just isn''t for you. Having a regular degree in Computer Science means you can work in a large number of fields.

On top of that, if you want to be a programmer, take classes about programming, mathematics (Calculus I & II and Discrete Math I & II at the very least), and make sure you have a sprinkling of liberal arts. While literature or history courses might not sound like they would help, they do more often than not.

If you want to be a designer, you don''t necessarily need to know how to program, but it helps. Still, liberal arts is more important here.

Artist? Definitely take art classes as well as any computer graphics classes. High level calculus (yes there are Calc III, Multivariable Calc, etc) helps, although it might not be necessary.

I am leaving out writer only because in video game development, usually the story is basically done by the designer and it is simply fleshed out by writers. People will argue with me on this. I accept that.


There are a large number of things you can do in the industry. If you are serious, you can always start out as a game tester. Keep in mind that you will get paid crap but it does get your foot in the door and well on your way to moving up in the organization.

Oh, and game ideas are a dime a dozen. Not to be harsh, but these forums get someone claiming to have good ideas all the time. If you can come up with a working prototype of the idea, then maybe you can talk.

Some of my favorite books:
-Game Architecture and Design
Read and reread this book. It clarifies so much about the development process every time you do.

-Code Complete
I am currently reading it. If you program and design the programs, this books helps you see that sitting down and hacking out code is not the way to go.

-OpenGL Game Programming
This helped me get going on OpenGL in a Win32 environment. I took a computer graphics class but failed because the professor didn''t go over OpenGL well. I read this book, did some of the examples, retook the class, made this amazing final project and aced the class!

-The C++ Black Book
A thick book that allows you to find anything you need on C++ quickly. The index is amazingly well done. Of course, if you don''t know C++, this might seem overwhelming. I would recommend learning C++, either by taking a course in it or reading a "Teach yourself C++" book, and then if you find yourself curious about how the programming language was designed, Bjarne Stroustrup, the creator, wrote "The C++ Programming Language" which is good reading and clarifies a lot about the syntax. Then the Black Book can be a great reference book.

-Physics for Game Developers
Has basic info and algorithms for physics that you might come across in making your game.

Also, come to this site, learn all you can from it and its people (read through the links to articles and visit the forum to see what people are talking about).

Also check out Gamasutra and Flipcode as well as any links you can find to other game related sites.

Play games. It is research B-)
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Guys Guys Guys... THis guy''s new. His friend got it for him. He probably just said that he bought it so he didn''t have to explain how he got it. His friend gave it to him, he didn''t know it was pirated. Anyways, I will say WELCOME.
1. I would suggest looking at some online tutorials first. Take a look at gamedev.net. There''s hundreds.

2. Digipen is good, I haven''t been there personally

quote: Original post by GBGames
-Physics for Game Developers
Has basic info and algorithms for physics that you might come across in making your game.

I just got this book a couple days ago and I can vouch for it as well. The only downside might be the author assumes you have basic college level calculus skills (some linear algebra doesn''t hurt either), although in all fairness you can''t really do justice to the subject without some calculus. :D

Perfectly understandable. I was using Windows exclusively when I started college and I bought the student discounted version of Visual C++ 6.0 Standard for $50 ($100 regular price).
Of course, I had a job at the time. I could afford that. I can completely understand not being able to afford Maya though. Isn''t it on sale now for about $3000? Seriously, no one is going to be able to buy it if they don''t know if they will seriously use it.
I wouldn''t have bought VC++ if I didn''t know I would be using it normally.
Now, if I actually started working and making money from Maya, I would definitely pay for a license. If I was just learning, however, Maya isn''t exactly losing money on the deal as I wouldn''t buy the program if I had to anyway.

I still suggest free software when I can though. Blender is decent and open source, so you can get it for free as well as edit the code yourself. This is great because even if you use Maya/3DSMax in the end anyway, you at least learn basic techniques on modeling and such.

GCC is a good compiler that is also free. For one, it gives you more control over your programming than MSVC++ does since until I had to, I didn''t know that object files existed in compiling C++. You learn more about the process.

There are a number of free and open source products out there, ranging from operating systems to windowing systems to development tools.

Still, I am off the mindset that piracy is a form of shareware. Others may pirate because they refuse to spend the money, but I think that trying things out before I buy them is great. If I was in Wingo''s shoes, I would probably also mention that I bought Maya just to avoid explaining how I got it. Let me clarify though. If you are going to use MS Office, Maya, etc for your job, make sure you are legit and have a legal license. Otherwise, I can''t see spending $500 - $7000 on software that you use to write papers for class and the like.
Video games, of course, are meant for pleasure, so they should be paid for. Still, once you have paid for it, I don''t see a problem with using cracks to make backups or allow games to think that you have a CD loaded when all you really have is a hard drive image(so you don''t have to have a CDROM drive or sort through discs), among other things.
Of course, now we''re off-topic.