I do know you will need some well-rounded programming skills (most dev houses move their programmers around to different duties, so I hear), but specializing in one aspect is a good idea.
Have at least basic knowledge in all of these things:
Graphics - 2D and 3D(D3D and OGL - OpenGL is NOT dead)
C & C++
UI's (toolkits and from scratch)
AI (A*, minmax, rigging up something for the bad guys to choose their attacks)
plain old application programming (main loop, event and exception handling, I/O, etc.)
some good software engineering skills (UML & whatever the hell else people use; mine are terrible)
Also, Gamedev and Gamasutra have some good info for people starting out. Gamedev has a good little primer on the basics and requirements of game programming. They suggest writing tetris with a high score since it has a game loop, event handling, simple graphics and rules, and I/O (for the high score file).
Write it. Realize what you wrote sucks. Rewrite it. It should at that point. Then you have a computer game (albeit tetris) that you wrote. Write something else. Try to get a development job doing any kind of development in any language. Write a chess game or text RPG in your spare time. Run out of spare time. Turn pale. Lose you friends. Stop eating. Waste away.
That's where I'm at so that's where my advice ends. If any Obsidian programmers are out there, I'm sure they can say more.
Suggestions for future game programmers?
in Developers' Corner
Posted
I'm only a wannabe game programmer...
I do know you will need some well-rounded programming skills (most dev houses move their programmers around to different duties, so I hear), but specializing in one aspect is a good idea.
Have at least basic knowledge in all of these things:
Graphics - 2D and 3D(D3D and OGL - OpenGL is NOT dead)
C & C++
UI's (toolkits and from scratch)
AI (A*, minmax, rigging up something for the bad guys to choose their attacks)
plain old application programming (main loop, event and exception handling, I/O, etc.)
some good software engineering skills (UML & whatever the hell else people use; mine are terrible)
Also, Gamedev and Gamasutra have some good info for people starting out. Gamedev has a good little primer on the basics and requirements of game programming. They suggest writing tetris with a high score since it has a game loop, event handling, simple graphics and rules, and I/O (for the high score file).
Write it. Realize what you wrote sucks. Rewrite it. It should at that point. Then you have a computer game (albeit tetris) that you wrote. Write something else. Try to get a development job doing any kind of development in any language. Write a chess game or text RPG in your spare time. Run out of spare time. Turn pale. Lose you friends. Stop eating. Waste away.
That's where I'm at so that's where my advice ends. If any Obsidian programmers are out there, I'm sure they can say more.