Well, I first have to give a bit of background on myself. I have 8 years of programming experience. I am in the 9th grade. Game development is always what I have longed for, and have strived to make my own games. Lately, I''ve been succesful! But, I''m wondering WHAT to do with the rest of my life. I would like to know, what is the best programming position I should aim for (not necessarily game programming) and what companies I should aim for. What colleges should I go to? I don''t mean to brag, but from what I have seen in programming classes, I really wouldn''t learn much. I''m sure that in the advanced classes I would, but would I have to go through the basic classes and re learn what I have spent 8 years learning? I would appreciate some feedback, and money isn''t the most important thing about my job, but how much money would I make when I grow up? Would this 8 years of experience mean anything on my resume? thanks in advance, Muzlack Oofmay Sponge Factory --Muzlack

I''d like to add, IS there a spot in the market for my company? I heard sierra is trying to bring back adventure games, so if I make my adventure game quickly enough, do I stand a chance? take a look at my website for a screenshot, and tell me what you think! (entitled : "Screenshot of Lucan")

Sponge Factory
--Muzlack

Neat stuff I wish I had over 1GHz PCs to play with when I was in 9th grade.

Glen Martin
Dynamic Adventures Inc.
Zenfar

1 gig! Haha! 333mhz here. I entered a web contest, I hope I won first place, cause thats a new computer.

Unless you''re a mozart class prodigy (and judging by the games on your website, I doubt it), you will still benefit from an education. You are making very simple games. There are online flash games with more depth. I don''t say that to sound harsh, just to give you a reality check.

I''m not discounting what you''ve learned, but you don''t have eight years of experience. Experience is time spent doing something constructive with what you''ve learned. It does not count time spent learning. You could put the games you''ve made on your resume, but as far as experience goes, you''ve got none.

Please don''t take this the wrong way. You''ve got passion and a desire to learn, and that''s more than half the battle. But you''re young, and not nearly as good as you think you are.

Take care,
Bill

Oh no! I''m wasn''t trying to say that I''m an expert at all! I''m just saying that I''ve looked into some of the classes available to me, and all of them are teaching "the basics." I have the basics down, and I''m teaching myself to put them to good use. I didn''t mean to say that I have a lot of experience, but I do think that I have learned alot about many of the programming languages available to me, and know how to use them. I''m just now putting them to good use, and am practicing that. I don''t think I''m a master game developer at all! I just don''t think I''ll learn anything from these "beginning Visual Basic" classes or anything else like that. Are there classes at my age though that I can take that would actually be at my level of knowledge in programming? Because I don''t need to learn what a variable or a struct is..

quote: Original post by Siebharinn
Unless you''re a mozart class prodigy (and judging by the games on your website, I doubt it), you will still benefit from an education.

He''s talking about high school programming courses. You do not understand how useless they are. I''m in grade 11, so I''ve been taking high school programming courses for 3 years. And this pretty much sums up what has been taught at school every year for three years:

quote:
Because I don''t need to learn what a variable or a struct is..

Basically the class is 3 people who can program, and 27 people who don''t care. No one is learning anything at all. Everything I know about programming I learned myself from books and this site

Muzlack, A moderately good college or university will probably cover C syntax (the structs and such) in about 7-10 weeks. That''s 7 weeks of a four year degree. Don''t worry about being bored and seeing nothing new in college. High school programming classes are definately not at the same caliber.

As for your 8 years of experience, no it probably wouldn''t mean anything on your resume. When job descriptions specify "4 years of experience" They really mean 4 years of _professional_ experience, as in you''ve held down a job or jobs professionally writing software for four years.

As for which college to go to: the best one you can get into! You can find rankings for the top schools in general and specifically for computers at www.usnews.com

quote:
He''s talking about high school programming courses. You do not understand how useless they are. I''m in grade 11, so I''ve been taking high school programming courses for 3 years. And this pretty much sums up what has been taught at school every year for three years:

Well, in his post, Muzlack wrote:
What colleges should I go to? I don''t mean to brag, but from what I have seen in programming classes, I really wouldn''t learn much.
(emphasis mine)

I don''t know anything about programming classes in high school. I''m amazed they offer those at all.

Take care,
Bill

Computer Science != Programming

YOu haven''t scratched the surface yet. Trust me.