[Chris]

Figured I'd ask here.

I'm going to pursue a career in game development. What do I need to know, etc.

Is it a tough business? Whats the salary like, etc etc.

Thanks,
Chris

[Scooby]

Dont work for EA?


But then again theyre publushers, so whatever.

[NoseMaster]

I'd say give up now. The game industry is ridiculously hard to make a career out of :\

[Torx]

get into game design for cellphones, then sell your games to phone companies.

do your own thing.

i hope you enjoy A. graphic design or B. sitting in front of a computer hours on end coding. Its really not a fun career from my pov.
you really have to have a passion for it.

[Jamsan]

I think Eps and Dan are game programmers... They'd probably give you the most insight.

[Lord Kain]

I know a game programmer for Ubisoft.

He started as a phone games programmer, then got recruited by Ubi.

The thing is that you must have connections to be hired, or be REALLY talented.

And to be known, you can always start as a beta tester (inhouse) in a game company and try to get higher.

That's what I know about the industry, based on Montreal's market.

[Drakkon]

I'm an educational game developer (not kids games, more college level stuff)....thats the only place i see having any real fun in game development after being in it for a couple of years. Of course i get to go out and actually learn new things to develop programs around so thats what has made it interesting. Its taken me knowing the basic algorithms in flash, java, basic, and a decent knowledge of how systems need to work to keep afloat in the company currenly at.

The thing about game dev for games like quake, doom, bf2, etc is that you need to know a ton of C, a ton of 3dstudio, or a ton of open gl. And its not something you can just pick up at some trade school unless you shell out a ton of $$$ for one of the big ones in CA and if you do you will be hard pressed to get into any real game development company as the market was flooded with people during the 90's and first part of 00. I'm not saying you cant do it though, its possible and with the right knowledge set theres always a nitch for someone, but finding that nitch right now with a good company from the people i know has been pretty difficult.

[Nothing.]

I'm not sure how well you can make a career out of gaming. I think they are pretty full now. I bet there is a back up for a while.

[superlinuxman]

starting salary for a programmer is gonna be around 50k and if your and artist its gonna be around 45k. the market is great for it right now i dont know what the hell you guys are talking about im looking for a job in gaming and i know there are a ton of jobs out there

[Bear]

I used to be very into mapmaking/level design for the Unreal 2 Engine. After getting to know authors and their work, you see that some of them are hired as contract level designers by Epic. It's a good idea to get your foot in the door by going into mods, mapmaking, etc.

I would've pursued it but I lack the talent and it's a very time consuming process.

[Chair]

http://mediacast.sun.com/share/Chris...meDesigner.mpg

[Chris]

"...and we need to tighten up the graphics a little bit"

I feel really dumb now.

[Chair]

lol

[superlinuxman]

i stoped watching G4 just becasue of that gay motherfucking commerical well and its lamer and getting lamer programmign

[Undertaker989]

www.devmaster.net
www.gamedev.net

start there.

[James K]

Really it's going to depend entirely on what you want to do in the game industry. Do you want to do art? Code? Where I work we also have a ton of designers and producers and also a bunch of support staff people. It's still a great time to get into the game industry and there are still a ton of places hiring regularly due to the next gen push.
Salary is pretty decent depending on where you work plus most places pay royalties and other bonuses regularly and most places also have a ton of perks. superlinuxman pretty much nailed what I've seen as entry level salaries. I'm not the best artist in the world just pushed myself hard enough to get a job at a good studio and now I go to work and create terrorists and guns and zombies all day long which beats the fuck out of most other jobs to me. It was a hard path to follow (for me) but it's been worth it every single day.

[Torx]

OMFG!!! i swear i fucking hate those commercials! those are the most POS commerscials ive ever fucking scene! i wanna fuckng kill somebody!

and that girl, omg, the pisses me off, the one thathat,,... ahhh1! i fuckin ghat them aLL!!!!! die!! the commercials look OLD as hell.. like some shit filmed in the early 90's

[Eps]

Nail down exactly what part of the business you are interested in. Game development is a broad description. Do you like to code? There are options other than games such as simulation development for colleges or the DOD. Some people really get into the technical side of things and prefer to be a software architect. Other people like the creative side of coding and prefer to work with existing code to bring a game to life. Do you like to design? Its a career in itself to make design documents. These are the books that are given to the development team which contain all the details of the game such as what its about, how it looks, how it plays, how much damage you take from a bullet, etc. There are people who do nothing but design games in this way and sell the idea to publishers who then hire a development team to make it. Do you like to play games? I have a friend who is the lead QA for a publisher. It isn't limited to just testing for bugs. When a developer proposes a project for the publisher he is the one who looks at it and decides if it would be a fun game and hence worth the publishers money to finish developing.

All of those are very different avenues of game development and all require different expertise. Figure out what you are looking to do and then get educated. Good Luck.

[NoseMaster]

I wish I had the patience to get into the industry. Except I have no artistic talent, and I can code but I'd be bored to death. Game Testing would be fine cause I used to do and enjoy that for myself, but that pays like $6/hour

[ThatHideousStrength]

Sounds like this field requires you to be into this stuff even before you get into a job. Like programming your own mods etc. Get plenty experience of how things work. I doubt someone could soak up all the information right away.