I didn't start to really program till my freshman CS programming class. Since then I've gone to grad school, written 3 engines for 3 different completed games and am now working at a game company working on consoles.

If you enjoy programming, do it as much as possible! There's a lot more to programming than what your peers learned in high school.

Quote: Original post by RaydenUni
I didn't start to really program till my freshman CS programming class. Since then I've gone to grad school, written 3 engines for 3 different completed games and am now working at a game company working on consoles.

If you enjoy programming, do it as much as possible! There's a lot more to programming than what your peers learned in high school.

I've also read somewhere that some of the best game programmers did not write a single code until sophomore college year (!).. How great is this?

Quote: Original post by pto

Quote: Original post by Greek89
However i fell like im kinda late to learn the game development stuff that will get me a job in the gaming industry.

I did computer science at uni having never programmed before (so I was 19 when I started). I just liked computers I had never dreams of making games since I was 2 months old or anything. My final year (2003) picked the graphics subjects because they sounded more fun then the other electives. 2004 used my final graphics programming assignment and some home demo's to get hired as a junior programmer at a games company.

We also have a programmer at work here who started coding in his 30's. Like everyone else said - if you like it do it! The rest will work itself out.

That is good to hear!

as a person who started programming early i would say that when you start is less of an issue then having a good mentor, i learned basically out of the teach your self in 21day/hours books at 12yo and off of qbasic sites, i really wish i had a mentor or a teacher when i started. i would of had a much better learning experience.

the design aspect of programming grew out my need to organize what i had so i knew what i had done and still needed to do. that also made it easier for me to jump into the object oriented programming when i moved away from the basic languages.

i personally wished they offered programming classes earlier then high school but thats just me. i think you will do just fine as long as you can express what needs to be done in logical order and words.

You have nothing to worry about, age is of no concern. It's like anything else really. Some people have played guitar since they were 12 but lack any kind of progression. Some people picked it up in their retirement and are naturals.

Experience can always be gained, but the talent for something is sometimes just lying dormant ready to be tapped.

Many of the best programmers I know are lab Physicists, too. Understanding the theory certainly helps, but when you have to build solutions to your problems on a daily basis... you'd sometimes forget these folks were Physicists in the first place.

I would rather say it's better to start later than sooner.
Programming is about problem solving, and I experienced that the will and ability to solve problems come with age. (Most of the time it won't come, but more likely to come).

Most of those arrogant/lazy "post code"/"help with teh game"/"ho to camera" threads come from young people, and I guess the reason is the age (I may be wrong).

So when you will be say 24, it won't really matter if you started at 14 or at 20.

It's just an opinion, presented with poor English.
So fell free to correct the mistakes in this post.

I started like when I was 10. Too bad I didn't know english and at first I was afraid that if I use that print command in qbasic, it will try to use printer. My computer didn't have printer so it might explode. After I got over that, I programmed text adventure games for couple of years without using variables. Variables are stupid. Why do I need a money variable. If my guy has 100 moneys and then he receives 200 moneys I know he will have 300 moneys! I don't need a computer to count that! Plus my game will be more optimized because it doesn't have to make those calculations!

That's the part you are missing by starting late. Still jealous? :)

From that age I miss dating girls, having fun, doing sports.
The lack of problem solving abilities isn't an excuse for that...

Quote: Original post by szecs
From that age I miss dating girls, having fun, doing sports.
The lack of problem solving abilities isn't an excuse for that...

you can still do all of those things when you're older!

... unless you're married. Then you can do none of them.

Quote: Original post by Drathis
I started like when I was 10. Too bad I didn't know english and at first I was afraid that if I use that print command in qbasic, it will try to use printer. My computer didn't have printer so it might explode. After I got over that, I programmed text adventure games for couple of years without using variables. Variables are stupid. Why do I need a money variable. If my guy has 100 moneys and then he receives 200 moneys I know he will have 300 moneys! I don't need a computer to count that! Plus my game will be more optimized because it doesn't have to make those calculations!

That's the part you are missing by starting late. Still jealous? :)

Yeah I started when I was 10ish and thought I was pretty awesome. Until I found out when I was 20 or so that I actually sucked at programming and it was actually much harder to unlearn the bad things I had "deduced all by my self" not to mention the nasty attitude.

Not saying every one that starts young is like that, but you're not in a position of disadvantage if that's what you're worrying about.