Hi All,

I would like to enhance my programming skills. I have done few projects like space invader, and atari asteroids as games. I was doing 3D game programming but was fired due to my lack of skills. When I back home from work, I have plenty of time.. I want to invest it to enhance my programming skills.. So Would you suggest projects or some stuff that I can do in my spare time ? I'm most of the time reading data structure and algorithms but I never practice them.. for example of the things that I focus on.

I lost the confidence in my self, and I need to restore it.. but don't know how..

btw, here is a list of some of the projects that I have done https://www.youtube.com/user/ahmedragia21

I believe the answers were covered quite well in your previous topics about it.

You have written that you are self-educated and you know very little. You have written that you were a professional programmer for seven years and employed by a game studio for one year, but what you were able to accomplish was mostly through trial and error and through copying code found online. You have also written many things that show you lack mental maturity.

Simply, you do not have the necessary skills required to learn on your own. You need to learn how to learn. And you need to learn how to get your medical conditions under control. YOU CANNOT DO EITHER ON YOUR OWN. You need professional help for both.

From this thread you started earlier, and this one, and others like it, the suggestions still hold.

You have written that you are disabled by bipolar disorder and that you have required hospitalization. As someone who suffers from it fairly badly myself I can sympathize. Yes it is hard, but it is not an excuse. EVERYONE has hidden battles that you cannot see. If the condition is currently preventing you from working -- which it can -- then you need to get help with that first. Since you say you have lost confidence in yourself and need to restore it but don't know how. Again, the answer already given is to regularly see a psychologist who can help you learn coping strategies, and to see a psychiatrist who can prescribe medications to stabilize the bipolar swings and to reduce their intensity.

It looks like your self-educated path did not work. Your education did not cover enough critical topics. So one option is to get a formal education that includes all those critical topics. In other words, go get a college degree in computer science. While others may be able to work without that degree, learning the topics sufficiently on your own, you have not. So get the degree.

Alternatively, you have mentioned in other posts that different careers appealed to you. You have mentioned taxi driving, which is a viable career if it interests you. You have mentioned being educated as an "electronics engineer", which may also be a viable path for you. Game programming is almost certainly out as a career option until you get more education.

Spending your time reading about data structures and algorithms, but never practicing, will not turn you into a game programmer.

Attempting to learn them from tutorials and web sites will not turn you into game programmer.

It is possible that getting formal schooling may force you to study, which may be enough to enable you to program games. That is a multi-year path that requires a lot of dedication, and it may or may not be available to you. if it is not available to you, then based on your history, I don't think game development should be your career path.

Stating again:

#1: Get your bipolar under control. You will struggle in every job and struggle in education until you do. You do not have the skills to cope with that on your own. You need help.

#2: Get a formal education in computer science -- not self education, not an online education -- before attempting to return to game development. Until then, the harsh and painful assessment is that you are unlikely to develop the skills on your own. Again, you do not seem to have the necessary skills needed to learn on your own. You need help doing it. But based on your posting history, all the comments about how you struggle with basic topics, the inability to work with space invader barriers after multiple months of "effort", it does not appear that you are able to pick them up.

OR

#2: Change careers. You seem to be star-struck with the career, but not actually passionate about the work. It is like a child seeing a fancy car and claiming they want to be a mechanic, versus someone who tinkers with engines in their spare time and then declares they want to be a mechanic. If the career were a good fit you would be making games on your own, actively picking up algorithms on your own, and actively developing programs on your own. This does not appear to be a field you are interested in.

Frob, thanks so much for your help, I really appreciate it, I'm controlling my bipolar disorder. By the way I quit the game job this month, and I will do pure programming stuff, that are not games. That's why I want to practice some suggested projects or some games.

For education, I'm 28 and I'm immigrant in Austria and I have to work, there is no possibility to study CS :(.

I have managed to get the barrier working

Frob, I have managed to finish some software before, you made me feel that I suck and I shouldn't do software, your reply made me feel depressed more . I just want to improve.

it seems you wrote about me here http://bryanwagstaff.com/index.php/life-advice-about-changing-careers-depression-and-games/

I never want to make games anymore, its very hard for me.. but I just want to practice them, so I need advice, because writing games can teach you a lot in CS.

I also written that wrapper or you can call it a 2D game engine, https://code.google.com/p/directxgameengine am I still a bad coder or can't get coding ?

it seems you wrote about me here http://bryanwagstaff.com/index.php/life-advice-about-changing-careers-depression-and-games/

Yup. I reblogged the same post on my personal site because of suggestions that it was a useful post and I didn't want it lost to the sands of time of the site. Note that I didn't quote you specifically on anything, only quoting what I had written.

I also written that wrapper or you can call it a 2D game engine

Good. You can learn by doing.

Learn by doing, and also learn by study.

am I still a bad coder or can't get coding ?

I don't believe I've ever written that you were a "bad coder". I have written that based on your own statements and posts your current skills seem unprepared for working professionally in games.

They are different.

I've known many people who don't have the skills to work in games. Quite a few business programmers I know would be terrible game developers. That does not make them a "bad coder", it means the job is a bad fit for them. Other jobs are a better fit for them.

The fact that you wrote you had seven years of programming experience but were struggling with relatively simple game development tasks suggests the same thing -- the job is a bad fit for your skill set. That does not mean you are a bad programmer, just that it is a bad fit with your current skill set.

But game studios hire people because they are successful at actually completing games, not out of sympathy or an attempt to educate and train. If you are not creating more value than you cost to employ, then it is best to move on. Nothing personal about it at all. In similar fields, you want an auto mechanic who can work on cars quickly and does not need to look up common details. You want a physician who knows all the body parts and knows all the diseases and doesn't need to look up what should be common details. Experienced game developers rarely need to look up any but the more advanced routines and more tricky algorithms, and are constantly studying and learning to stay current. Workers in all fields must produce more value than they cost.

If you want to continue making hobby games, by all means continue.

I will do pure programming stuff, that are not games. That's why I want to practice some suggested projects or some games. For education, I'm 28 and I'm immigrant in Austria and I have to work, there is no possibility to study CS

Then make games.

Pong, tetris, breakout, arkanoid, and similar. They are relatively easy targets with modern tools. Or make text based games if you don't want to worry about graphics right now.

Keep doing it, over and over, until you get faster and better.

When you write "I'm most of the time reading data structure and algorithms but I never practice them" it says that you are NOT doing that.

The more practice you've had the more experience you get and the faster you can become. Look at projects like Game Jams of 24-72 hours to build a game, such as Ludem Dare where many teams build great games from scratch over a weekend. I've worked with people, and have by myself on multiple occasions, put together prototype games in a few hours. 2048 was put together in a weekend, Flappy Birds was under a week, several tutorial games I've written on the site were written in an afternoon, and I've written several game prototypes within two weeks, or about 10 days. The networking subforum on the site has a multiplayer dungeon game (both client and server) that were made functional in a similar short period of time. Keep practicing and get better.

Keep practicing. Make a game over the weekend. Then make another game over another weekend. If you cannot complete a game over the weekend, make a smaller game the next weekend. Repeat week after week.