Hi there

I'm creating this topic as an introduction to who I am and why I have found my self here. I'm a mature student(26) from England. I have just started My second year at college. So far I have learned a lot about making 2D games from my previous year. This second year is going to be involving more 3D stuff and using engines such as unity and 3DS max. which at the moment I have about an hours experience with. However I'am thoroughly enjoying it, even though I'am only on day 2 of my second year.I just have a few questions that I hope some of you lovely people can help me with. I Love Love Love video games, always have always will. I'm so excited to actually start making some games. How ever career wise I'm unsure as what path I should follow, Artist,animator,programmer ect, they all appeal to me. I've always wanted to set up a business and never new what until about a year ago when I first started studying. So I hope that in the future I will be an indie dev.Think I have rambled on enough now. I will list my questions.

1. What is the best career path to follow? I mean what is the industry lacking?

2.whats the best engine to start off with? so far I have only used construct 2.

3.Is programming as difficult as it sounds? whats the best language to use?

4.How can I get ahead of my fellow students?

5. what is your favorite game and why?

I have more but I'll leave it be for now.

I don't think I'm qualified to answer your first question because I haven't worked for game development company.

Regarding the engines, I also don't think I am qualified to answer it, because I only have used one game engine and that is Unity. I used to program games using OpenGL + *whatever language*, but after I moved to Unity I don't really want to go back. One reason is because it is WAY faster to make games using an engine than to program everything by yourself. Anyways, maybe there are better engines than Unity, such as Unreal (which I heard is though for beginners), but I would still recommend Unity, since you already have some background in it from your second year at uni.

Programming is hard, but not as hard as some people make it seem it to be. I mean, at the beginning there's lots of information to take in and it might seem overwhelming. But if you choose to go with Unity's C#, you won't have to code all the maths behind vector classes (although it is beneficial that you understand vectors), you won't need to worry about writing a batching system for your 2D sprites, you won't have to worry about collision detection logic and so on. Game programming is one of the hardest areas in computer science. BUT if you're going to use tools such as Unity, it will make everything easily understandable.

There's no best language per se. It depends on which engine you're going to use. Since different engines require you to program in different languages. BUT if you decide to not use an engine, then I would really recommend Kotlin. I really liked the language. If I am correct, behind the scenes it is essentially Java, but it has some cool features that Java doesn't have. Such as operator overloading which is very useful in game development since you have to do lots of vector math operations.

If you want to get ahead of your fellow students, you should start learning now, and learn outside of your school's curriculum. The best way to learn is to actually do things. Make a simple pong game using Unity, then do something like Breakout (Arkanoid) game and then climb the ladder by trying to build more complex games.

My favorite game has to be original Metal Gear Solid. I really like the cutscenes, the storyline, the gameplay and everything. I think it's a perfect game, but of course it's only my opinion haha.

I'm no pro in any way shape or form, I'm still very much learning and I doubt that I will ever stop doing so. So take my words with a little grain of salt

1 hour ago, Glenos said:

1. What is the best career path to follow? I mean what is the industry lacking?

This is can be really subjective and based on location. The best for you may not be the best for someone else. You will more than likely find more work in programming outside of Game Development. This also depends on many factors.... Portfolio, education, who you know, ect...

1 hour ago, Glenos said:

2.whats the best engine to start off with? so far I have only used construct 2

The "best" can be defined differently for different people. Currently you have Unity for C#, and Unreal for C++. Otherwise you can look into engines like Game Maker Studio.

1 hour ago, Glenos said:

3.Is programming as difficult as it sounds? whats the best language to use?

This depends on the person. I didn't find programming as hard as some of my colleagues did when they had started but I wont say learning my first language was easy. To them programming is like rocket science, while others find it more or less straight forward. Again, the best depends on what you want. Programming languages are tools to accomplish goals, just like engines are, if you're meeting your requirement then that is all that matters.

1 hour ago, Glenos said:

4.How can I get ahead of my fellow students?

Work on your portfolio, and make the right connections. During your college time spend any free time you have learning and improving.

1 hour ago, Glenos said:

5. what is your favorite game and why?

Command and Conquer Red Alert. Too long to explain why.  

1 minute ago, Rutin said:

Command and Conquer Red Alert. Too long to explain why.  

Red Alert RULES!

6 minutes ago, EddieK said:

Red Alert RULES!

Command and Conquer was my fav RTS series besides StarCraft until EA raked Westwood Studios over. I remember all the custom maps on Westwood Online we would play of RA. ? The good ole' days.

Thanks guys

A great response from both of you. It has given me some clarity and helped push me in the right direction

Its getting late for now where I am so I'm keeping it short and sweet. I will be checking back tomorrow, perhaps with more questions haha. 

I also love the C&C franchise, they don't quitemake them how they use to.

1 minute ago, Rutin said:

Command and Conquer was my fav RTS series besides StarCraft until EA raked Westwood Studios over. I remember all the custom maps on Westwood Online we would play of RA. ? The good ole' days.

Unit ready, unit ready, new construction options, unit ready, your base is under attack, unit ready

Hey Glenos!

22 hours ago, Glenos said:

1. What is the best career path to follow? I mean what is the industry lacking?

What the industry is lacking isn't really what you should focus on in my opinion. Game development is hard work in the industry level so you need to push yourself more than you would in any other software development field. Small companies can't pay you well and the hours might get long if you want to get the project finished. You need passion, not logic. If you need to make money, get a job as a tester at Avira. If you want to make games no matter what, find out what you are passionate about and get as good at it as possible.

In this PDF there are some other generic gamedev mistakes outlined. 

22 hours ago, Glenos said:

2.whats the best engine to start off with?

It really depends. If you just want to get simple games done, pick Unity and don't look back. But if you want to learn something specific, that's a different story. Do you want to work in CD Projekt Red or what's the ultimate goal? Play around with different things for as long as you find out what feels the most effortless to you. Maybe it's animating 3D characters. Maybe you lose the sense of time as you're programming an event system for a game engine. Then find out what companies require from people hired for those positions.

Speaking of CDPR, they're hiring. Here's what they're looking for in an animator for an example:

https://jobs.smartrecruiters.com/CDPROJEKTRED/743999672349495-animator

You can often contact the people in those positions and ask what they're looking for. They might give you a list of things you should work on. Be active, be personal, create contacts, make them remember who you are.

22 hours ago, Glenos said:

3.Is programming as difficult as it sounds? whats the best language to use?

Anything can be difficult. Is playing guitar difficult? If you want to play Paranoid, then no. If you want to play Classical Gas... then it's the most difficult thing in the world. If you want to create simple games with Unity, then programming means writing mundane scripts that spawn objects, move objects, hide objects, etc. It's super easy. If you want to write a PBR rendering engine, then it will take some doing. Many people think you need to be excellent in math to be a programmer. This is not true. You need to love solving puzzles and a strong logical brain doesn't hurt. You need math if you're building something that requires math (like 3d space calculations, probabilities, etc).

22 hours ago, Glenos said:

4.How can I get ahead of my fellow students?

Like Rutin said, make connections. If there are guest lecturers, go talk to them, tell them your name, talk about interesting things, ask interesting questions. If people know you and like you, they want to work with you. Then, if a position opens up, they'll remember you. When there are multiple people who are on the same level, it's all about who you know.

22 hours ago, Glenos said:

5. what is your favorite game and why?

GTA V. All parts of it are enjoyable, which is incredible. It's also super immersive. Can't say enough good things about it.

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What the industry is lacking isn't really what you should focus on in my opinion. Game development is hard work in the industry level so you need to push yourself more than you would in any other software development field. Small companies can't pay you well and the hours might get long if you want to get the project finished. You need passion, not logic. If you need to make money, get a job as a tester in a virus protection software company. If you want to make games no matter what, find out what you are passionate about and get as good at it as possible.

In this PDF there are some other generic gamedev mistakes outlined. 

Thanks for getting back to me. I only asked what the industry was lacking as I was curious if there was some where I could fit in. and if I have one thing is drive and motivation. Games are a big passion of mine and I'm a little embarrassed its taking me this long to realize that development is what I want to do. But yes i still need to discover what kind of role I would enjoy. Thanks for the PDF, have already downloaded it an ill read it after posting this.

49 minutes ago, Ianuarius said:

It really depends. If you just want to get simple games done, pick Unity and don't look back. But if you want to learn something specific, that's a different story. Do you want to work in CD Projekt Red or what's the ultimate goal? Play around with different things for as long as you find out what feels the most effortless to you. Maybe it's animating 3D characters. Maybe you lose the sense of time as you're programming an event system for a game engine. Then find out what companies require from people hired for those positions.

Speaking of CDPR, they're hiring. Here's what they're looking for in an animator for an example:

https://jobs.smartrecruiters.com/CDPROJEKTRED/743999672349495-animator

You can often contact the people in those positions and ask what they're looking for. They might give you a list of things you should work on. Be active, be personal, create contacts, make them remember who you are.

I plan on just making simple games to start with, I've got a little experience making 2D games which is still a skill i would like to improve upon. The ultimate goal is run my own studio and yes i know how ambitious this sounds but there's nothing else that i would like to strive for more. And yes i still have a long way to go till i reach that goal but I'm sure if I work hard at it keep growing it can become a reality. I loose sense of time when I'm  making anything for a game, but yet I'm going to start off small with 2D games.

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Anything can be difficult. Is playing guitar difficult? If you want to play Paranoid, then no. If you want to play Classical Gas... then it's the most difficult thing in the world. If you want to create simple games with Unity, then programming means writing mundane scripts that spawn objects, move objects, hide objects, etc. It's super easy. If you want to write a PBR rendering engine, then it will take some doing.

Yes I know anything worth having wont come easy. Just wanted someones opinion on it who has done it themselves. Like I said simple games to start with until I build up my knowledge.

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Like Rutin said, make connections. If there are guest lecturers, go talk to them, tell them your name, talk about interesting things, ask interesting questions. If people know you and like you, they want to work with you. Then, if a position opens up, they'll remember you. When there are multiple people who are on the same level, it's all about who you know.

yes this is very true and I do believe in networking, which applies to many different industries. I am going to EGX with  the college in a few weeks so I see it as a great networking opportunity. Then again this is another reason I joined this site so i could get some advice and meet some good people too  

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GTA V. All parts of it are enjoyable, which is incredible. It's also super immersive. Can't say enough good things about it.

 

Yes I love GTA also but dont play it enough.(too many games)

Again thanks for you input  sorry if i seem a little cranky I've been studying all day and I'm now going to stop after reading the pdf.

On 9/6/2018 at 2:37 PM, Glenos said:

1. What is the best career path to follow? I mean what is the industry lacking?

You should ask this in the Careers forum.

On 9/6/2018 at 2:37 PM, Glenos said:

5. what is your favorite game and why?

You should ask questions like this in the Lounge.