so the fact that I cannot mount a dragster engine into an F1 car doesn't make it an engine anymore?

so the fact that I cannot mount a dragster engine into an F1 car doesn't make it an engine anymore?

I don't get the analogy, sorry.

What I'm saying, which looks very close to what you are saying, is a game engine is a tool for making games. Even more it is a tool to make game development easier.

Obviously if sb doesn't know how to make a game it is unlikely he can even remotely think to build an useful engine.

But still, a game is not an engine. A game can USE an engine, but they are different.

A set of classes taking care to properly allocate/initialize/handle sprites can be part of an engine. A sprite class with an init function... well.. it's a sprite class with an init function!!!!

Back in topic if OP wants to be an engine programmer he has to build a game engine and yes... to build a game engine he needs to know how to build a game.
But if you want to get a job as a graphic programmer I don't think people will judge your work based on how fun the game is or how many levels it features.

They will probably want to see if you know the topic (lighting, effects, optimizations) AND they will want to see if your rendering code is a mess or something making life easier when it comes down to develop a game.

With a degree and relevant courses it shouldn't be that hard to find work. OpenGL is a fine place to start, though IMO your best chance of getting a game done fast is to choose XNA, at least if you find C# easy to use.

If you have zero experience with games then I wouldn't concentrate exclusively on the games industry. Make a small game these months and use it to improve your chances, but apply for other programming jobs as well and be ready to work with something else for a while first. No matter where you want to work it's almost always a lot harder to get your very first job than your second, and programming experience from other fields help a lot with games. If possible find something with graphics or networking or similar as those skills are often 100% relevant even if used for something completely different.

[color="#1C2837"]So I don't want to know what I need to learn to be able to program a videogame by myself, but what I need to do to improve my chances of being part of the videogame industry. [/quote]
[color="#1C2837"]This is sad and why the game industry is dysfunctional. You CAN make your own games and people do it.

On 9/1/2011 at 10:06 PM, Kid Antrim said:

I'm not really interested on being an engine programmer, I would like to pursue a career in the videogame industry as a game designer but I figured you would have to start in the bottom before anybody let you design anything. I thought in my case it made sense to start as a programmer.

WOW. Really?

Even with your degree, you'll find it easier to land a job at the actual bottom than to try to get into the industry as an engineer. Assuming there are open positions, hiring managers will find much less reason to turn you away for a game tester or production assistant position. And those positions lead more logically to a design position (and wouldn't require you to take a pay cut to make the transition).

However, the right place to start is actually in the design department. The junior position is usually level designer.

In that case go get the latest mod-able game, and start building levels. Start learning what makes a level fun, and how to use the tools at hand to achieve that. Imagine a lead designer developing a story-line and specifying a scenario which tells part of that story. And design levels to tell that story point while being challenging, fun, and cool.

Yeah, there's a lot more to game design than that, but that's the entry level spot you should be trying to land. And conveniently, if you have any skill at it, you can demonstrate it in the context of ready-made games.

I can't think of a more straight forward way to land a job than to have great examples of your work to show. And I can't think of a position in the industry for which it would be easier to show your work (as an entry level applicant) than that of level designer.

On 9/2/2011 at 8:27 AM, dpadam450 said:

On 9/1/2011 at 9:01 PM, Kid Antrim said:

So I don't want to know what I need to learn to be able to program a videogame by myself, but what I need to do to improve my chances of being part of the videogame industry.

This is sad and why the game industry is dysfunctional. You CAN make your own games and people do it.

You can make your own movies too. And people do that, but those aren't the movies people are going to the theater to see.

Most significant products (of either industry) are a collaborative effort of lots of skilled, motivated, and experienced people. There's nothing sad or dysfunctional about that.