Advice for student

[DrPizza]

Advice?
Courses he should take, etc.?

Help is appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Gibson486]

No DrPizza🙁 do some real world math🙁 Like builidng a bridge😉

 

[kyzen]

Branch out. Don't focus on one aspect of game design; any company would rather hire somebody with experience in multiple programming fields and level design than somebody with just experience in one field of programming.

 

[tfinch2]

Game programmers must be self-motivated first and foremost. Make sure they get every mathematics and physics course they can.

http://www.smu.edu/legacy/academics/TheGuildhall.htm

Take a look at that as well.

 

[Zanix]

Game programmer? Start making mods and hope to get noticed. Like CS.

 

[MercenaryForHire]

Make sure he's got a fallback plan. 😛

Kyzen has the right idea - don't overtarget - just be an ubercoder in multiple languages and design fields (level, character, AI) and that will get a job somewhere.

- M4H

 

[BigJ]

From what I hear, the hours and pay are normally worse for entry level gaming programmers than they are in other programming jobs.

So he better be dedicated to it and really love it if he plans to pursue a career in it.

 

[MercenaryForHire]

Originally posted by: BigJ
From what I hear, the hours and pay are normally worse for entry level gaming programmers than they are in other programming jobs.

So he better be dedicated to it and really love it if he plans to pursue a career in it.

See "EA Games" 😛

- M4H

 

[kyzen]

Originally posted by: Zanix
Game programmer? Start making mods and hope to get noticed. Like CS.

An excellent point.

If you have a disc full of material - be it mods/total conversions for existing games (which show you know how to make use of development tools for existing software), or games made on your own (even stuff like a Tetris clone shows you know how to do something) you are infinitely more likely to get a job than somebody fresh out of college whose only claim to video game fame is that he can beat Halo on Legendary in 3 hours.

Of course, the same goes for many software jobs... portfolios are the best way to get your foot in the door (argueably better than a college degree in some fields).

 

[Reel]

I would highly advise that your student do everything he can to get involved with a gaming company early if it is truly the path he desires to take. If he can somehow get his foot in the door and perhaps spend a summer working with them (even if it is getting coffee) then he will learn about the company and industry, gain vital experience, and have an established relationship to build on for further experience. Unfortunately, as many people have suggested, programming games is not as glamorous as the finished product. Many games never make it to market and are cancelled at various stages of development. Many games run late on their deadline which means long days and no weekends which leads to mistakes in the software which leads to more long days and no weekends. It is a vicious cycle and many of the developers I met from Blizzard loved the concept of working at a game developer and loved the games but hated the hours and the grueling pace they had to work.

 

[Ameesh]

Originally posted by: BigJ
From what I hear, the hours and pay are normally worse for entry level gaming programmers than they are in other programming jobs.

So he better be dedicated to it and really love it if he plans to pursue a career in it.

this is very true, i interviewed with Bungie while i was at microsoft and declined the job after i found out how crazy everyone worked. I was going to work on the networking part of the halo 2 engine but when i saw how everyone worked like 70-90 hour weeks i was turned off.

their pay is very good though but i suppose that only works with teams that have runaway hits on their hands.