Warp wrote:

>   I think we should distinguish between different types of game programming.
> The game programming industry can be divided, very roughly, into two
> categories:
> 
> 1) Big game houses, ie. those which develop games like Doom3 and HL2.
> 
> 2) Small game houses, ie. those which develop small casual games
>    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casual_game)
> 
>   In the first case budgets are often rather humongous, teams relatively
> large (at least a dozen programmers and artists, some kind of management
> hierarchy between the different departments, etc.), and development times
> which are often counted in years. The development language of the core game
> engine is most often C++, in a few cases perhaps with some C, and perhaps
> in rare cases some other language. Games often have an internal scripting
> language for non-core features, and this can be either an existing language
> (such as lua) or the company's own language.
> 
>   In the second case budgets, teams and timelines are much smaller, and
> the development language of the core game code much more varied. It can
> range all the way from C/C++ to Flash ActionScript. Development teams
> typically consist of one programmer (or at most a very few) and 2-3
> graphics artists, plus perhaps some project leader (who may be a separate
> person or one of the main developers).

Right. Gotcha.

>   I have never worked in a big game company, but from what I have heard
> (I have a friend who has worked in several such companies, including
> Ubisoft), the development procedures are often much less strict than one
> could imagine for such a big software company.

That would certainly explain a few things...

> I suppose that in many cases
> it doesn't really matter how you do it, as long as it works. (But
> personally I try to avoid this, and try to develop things so that they
> are stable, safe, easy to use and reusable.)

Always the best way, IMHO. You never know when you'll need to change 
something, and if it's a mess you'll have a hard time altering without 
breaking...

>   If you are applying to a big game company, knowing C++ fluently (as well
> as its internal workings) will probably help. It also helps if you have
> experience in computer graphics and algorithm programming. Knowing other
> popular languages won't hurt either. Extensive programming experience in
> general, and game programming experience in particular, is also good.
> 
>   For the smaller companies I suppose it depends a lot on which programming
> language they are using. It's quite clear that if they are developing Flash
> games and you don't even know what ActionScript is, that won't look good.
> 
>   In both cases knowledge and experience of the gaming field in general
> is important, as well as an interest in developing games. (Everyone likes
> to *play* games, but how many *really* enjoy programming them? Programming
> games can be much more tedious than it might sound.)

Thanks for your input.

I'm still fairly sure I don't have what it takes, but casual gaming 
isn't something I'd considered. Maybe it's not as impossible as I'd 
imagined. Hmm... something to think about anyway.

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

Post a reply to this message