Quote: Original post by Bru
what are the minimum requirements to get into the gaming industry and what do you suggest?

As Andrew Russell pointed out with a simple "Capitalization" reply, his point is valid:
Learn to communicate clearly and effectively.

This includes proper spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and grammar. I cannot tell you how many applications are thrown out simply because of poor grammar. If a cover letter or email begins with "ru hiring im good fit", the application will be discarded.


Since you are looking for a programming job, you need to have a bachelors degree in computer science, or if you prefer, a masters degree. You will be competing with many other people who hold the degree. If you do not have one it will be much harder to find a job, you will not earn as much, and you will have a more difficult time climbing the corporate job ladder.


As mentioned above, socialize in person. Get to know other real live people, as they will be your best assets in finding and keeping jobs. You must have interpersonal skills no matter where you work.



Finally, you are 16 years old. You say you wish to be a game developer one day. But I must ask, is that really going to be your lifetime passion? Have you honestly explored other career options? Sadly, too many people devote their education to the topic, aspire to the job, and when they get it, they discover they hate the field and would rather just play games.

Quote: Original post by frob

Quote: Original post by Bru
what are the minimum requirements to get into the gaming industry and what do you suggest?

As Andrew Russell pointed out with a simple "Capitalization" reply, his point is valid:
Learn to communicate clearly and effectively.

This includes proper spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and grammar. I cannot tell you how many applications are thrown out simply because of poor grammar. If a cover letter or email begins with "ru hiring im good fit", the application will be discarded.


Since you are looking for a programming job, you need to have a bachelors degree in computer science, or if you prefer, a masters degree. You will be competing with many other people who hold the degree. If you do not have one it will be much harder to find a job, you will not earn as much, and you will have a more difficult time climbing the corporate job ladder.


As mentioned above, socialize in person. Get to know other real live people, as they will be your best assets in finding and keeping jobs. You must have interpersonal skills no matter where you work.



Finally, you are 16 years old. You say you wish to be a game developer one day. But I must ask, is that really going to be your lifetime passion? Have you honestly explored other career options? Sadly, too many people devote their education to the topic, aspire to the job, and when they get it, they discover they hate the field and would rather just play games.

capitalization..punctuation...
So did i say something that is grammerly incorrent?
About your question if it's going to be my lifetime passion, my answer is probably yes.
I realy do love the feeling of creating and seeing people using my creations. Though my creations are'nt realy "my" when i enter the game industry, i still find this a fun thing, and what would be better of filling this "creations come to life" feeling than creating games?(which i also like).

I am also curios on the knowledge side, what the requirements(of knowledge) for me to know if i want to get into the industry? is hlsl a must if i work with DirectX? if i know a little of physics must i know the very advanced subjects of mechanism?

Quote: Original post by Bru
capitalization..punctuation...
So did i say something that is grammerly incorrent?

What others are trying to show you is that there is a standard that you need to demonstrate to be able to land a position in this industry. While this is a creative, fun industry it is still a business and companies want to know you can get stuff done. Communication that has poor grammar, misspelled words and no capitalization certainly gives a bad impression of you, your level of seriousness and ability. Sorry, but that's just how it is.

Thanks,

Nathan

Quote: Original post by Bru

Quote: Original post by frob

Quote: Original post by Bru
what are the minimum requirements to get into the gaming industry and what do you suggest?

As Andrew Russell pointed out with a simple "Capitalization" reply, his point is valid:
Learn to communicate clearly and effectively.

This includes proper spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and grammar. I cannot tell you how many applications are thrown out simply because of poor grammar. If a cover letter or email begins with "ru hiring im good fit", the application will be discarded.


Since you are looking for a programming job, you need to have a bachelors degree in computer science, or if you prefer, a masters degree. You will be competing with many other people who hold the degree. If you do not have one it will be much harder to find a job, you will not earn as much, and you will have a more difficult time climbing the corporate job ladder.


As mentioned above, socialize in person. Get to know other real live people, as they will be your best assets in finding and keeping jobs. You must have interpersonal skills no matter where you work.



Finally, you are 16 years old. You say you wish to be a game developer one day. But I must ask, is that really going to be your lifetime passion? Have you honestly explored other career options? Sadly, too many people devote their education to the topic, aspire to the job, and when they get it, they discover they hate the field and would rather just play games.

capitalization..punctuation...
So did i say something that is grammerly incorrent?
About your question if it's going to be my lifetime passion, my answer is probably yes.
I realy do love the feeling of creating and seeing people using my creations. Though my creations are'nt realy "my" when i enter the game industry, i still find this a fun thing, and what would be better of filling this "creations come to life" feeling than creating games?(which i also like).

I am also curios on the knowledge side, what the requirements(of knowledge) for me to know if i want to get into the industry? is hlsl a must if i work with DirectX? if i know a little of physics must i know the very advanced subjects of mechanism?

Did you say something grammatically incorrect? Yeah, compare just the last two words of that sentence to your own. And the lower case Is, and so on. I'm not going to be a grammer nazi here, but it is something you're going to have to work on because people who are hiring you will look down on you if they read e-mails or any kind of message from you and it has grammar errors or spelling erros throughout it.

Other than that, the actual skills you're going to need are going to vary tremendously by what position you're trying to fill. Game development studios may have or wish to have specialist programmers who know how to do lots of shader programming, physics programming, networking, 3D math, and possibly many more things. Artists come in varities too (modeling, texturing, animation, skinning, etc.). I believe most do hire general programmers who know how to just program games in a general sense, but I don't know what proportions these are in to specialists.

If you're looking for a position like that, then you should at least have a working knowledge of how most / all parts of a game work and work together. That means at least knowing a major game programming language well (C++ used to be the de facto standard, but that may have changed recently). Prospective employers will very likely test your knowledge of it somehow. They will also expect to see previous work (demos of games, prior employers in the industry which you likely won't have, things like that). Knowing how to use Cg or any other specific API might not really matter, but depending on the company it could be a selling point.

That's for specific skills. Other things as have been said before are still important. Proper grammar is an unspoken but immutable requirement. Good teamwork is important. Meeting deadlines, making quality code, living up to the skills you claim you have, and things like that will all be very important in getting a job and keeping it.

Quote: Original post by Bru
capitalization..punctuation...
So did i say something that is grammerly incorrent?
About your question if it's going to be my lifetime passion, my answer is probably yes.
I realy do love the feeling of creating and seeing people using my creations. Though my creations are'nt realy "my" when i enter the game industry, i still find this a fun thing, and what would be better of filling this "creations come to life" feeling than creating games?(which i also like).

I am also curios on the knowledge side, what the requirements(of knowledge) for me to know if i want to get into the industry? is hlsl a must if i work with DirectX? if i know a little of physics must i know the very advanced subjects of mechanism?

If it's really your lifetime passion why are you wasting your time in the army? I've nothing against people joining the army, but I fail to see how it will help you achieve your goal of becoming a game developer. A far more productive use of your time at that point would be to go to college.

As for specific technologies, don't worry about it. In 5 years, the current "must-have" skill will have changed at least 3 times. Focus on developing good analytical and communication skills. If you want to work on graphics learn lots of math, if you want to do physics programming, you should be very comfortable with basic Newtonian physics.

Quote: Original post by ChaosEngine
If it's really your lifetime passion why are you wasting your time in the army?

Many countries have conscription policies -- that is, the government requires mandatory military service.

Quote: Original post by frob

Quote: Original post by ChaosEngine
If it's really your lifetime passion why are you wasting your time in the army?

Many countries have conscription policies -- that is, the government requires mandatory military service.

True. For some reason I assumed the OP was from the US.

However even if that is the case, many of them allow you to be excused from military service if you're attending university.

Quote: Original post by Bru
well, i got 5 years before i am 21, i just belive i should know enough until then if i'll know what i should be learning. game developing unlike biology for example is something that you can study outside of school\univercity.

That was my original plan - by the time I started University, I thought I was an "expert" in C++ and was very confident in my ability to make games.

However, after finishing my bachelors degree, I realised how important it was to have formal training in the engineering side of programming (not just self-taught programming skills).
Also, I realised that compared to a real C++ expert, I was actually a C++ novice, even after 5 years of practice!

If you do want to study outside of university you're going to need a lot of books on other topics such as: Software Engineering, Computer Organisation, Operating Systems, Data Structures, Linear Algebra, Computer Graphics, Computational Intelligence... in order to have a good, rounded knowledge of software and computer science.

Quote: Original post by ChaosEngine

Quote: Original post by frob

Quote: Original post by ChaosEngine
If it's really your lifetime passion why are you wasting your time in the army?

Many countries have conscription policies -- that is, the government requires mandatory military service.

True. For some reason I assumed the OP was from the US.

However even if that is the case, many of them allow you to be excused from military service if you're attending university.

I live in israel,israel is surrounded by alot of muslim countrys that would be happy to destroy israel,for that the army is a must here, for males its 3 years. now i cant realy skip the army by going to univercity,i can only delay it. and not going to the army is either jail, or if you find a reason not to go to the army that is not a medical issue then you'd be hated and never get any rights.
So pretty much i do have to waste 3 years of my life in the army(which also pays realy bad sallery like 50$ a month for working since morning to evening!)