Interested in PC game development - advice needed

[Bhoya]

You're in edinburgh and if you were thinking of taking a course, get yourself up to dundee and onto the course I'm doing. Its very highly regarded and claims to be one of the best games development courses in the country, if not the world.

http://www.abertay.ac.uk/Courses/CDetails.cfm?RID=1&CID=185&Key=003

you don't need a background in programming although it would help. You do however, need to be good at maths. its a very hard course and maths and physics would help you a huge amount!

It focuses more on the technical aspect of games creation, if thats what you're looking for. As others have said, its not as glamorous as it sounds but i enjoy it!

Was always quite gutted by that course. I started at Dundee uni the year before doing a computing degree then they announced this course which you could do combined with Japanese with a year over there. Just couldn't justify scrapping my Dundee degree but it always looked so cool with the PS1 Net Yazaro suite.

 

[Bloodshot]

Hey, I'm still at school and interested in PC game development or something along those lines. I was wondering what could I do to get some practice or if there's anything I could do just by myself to get some experience. Work experience would obviously be a route I'll look down in the summer or after I've finished school but is there any programs / tutorials I could use to get started and into programming, etc? Sorry it's a bit vague but I don't really know what to say

Any help much appreciated

What do you want to do? From your post it looks like you want to get into programming - but yeah, do some research first .

Take a look here:

http://www.sloperama.com/advice.html

You're still quite young, but if you want to get into games - you really need to be looking into what part of games you're interested in ASAP.

 

[[TW]Fox]

it is

but only in the right places. Look at the ammount of money rockstar turn over. They have 150 employees and i honestly cant see them disappearing off the face of the earth any time soon.

The vast majority of Rockstars current and future portfolio is not PC games. They've even publically stated they may not release GTA IV for PC either.

 

[semi-pro waster]

The vast majority of Rockstars current and future portfolio is not PC games. They've even publically stated they may not release GTA IV for PC either.

So pick a different development house then. Rockstar is just one of a variety of well known names, Realtime Worlds here in Dundee is a pretty big company and they are developing APB for the PC currently and there are plenty more.

Also if you can program for one platform it is easier to port your skills than starting from scratch.

 

[Phyre]

Start with C# (that is, if you want to do the programming). It's far easier to learn than C++ and the skills are mostly transferable.

 

[Freeman]

As a few people have mentioned definitely try and join a MOD team. That way you'll learn about team management and working with other people (just like every single games development company) as well as learning new programs such as 3DS Max, Unreal for graphics or C#/C++ if you're into programming.

I think the games industry and games design in general is extremely tough and time consuming but if it's what you want to do don't let anyone put you off by what they say.

 

[Pho]

The vast majority of Rockstars current and future portfolio is not PC games. They've even publically stated they may not release GTA IV for PC either.

As long he learns either OpenGL/DirectX (or both if possible) moving to console development isn't a huge difference. Consoles generally use one or the other (well, a subset of them anyway), it's just far easier to start on a PC rather than buying console dev kits.

 

[yer_averagejoe]

As long he learns either OpenGL/DirectX (or both if possible) moving to console development isn't a huge difference. Consoles generally use one or the other (well, a subset of them anyway), it's just far easier to start on a PC rather than buying console dev kits.

You obviously haven't tried PS2 development! And Ps3 is even worse!

 

[Pho]

I spent a few months working with those horrid PS2 linux dev kits. Apart from the fact that half the OpenGL API missing, in theory, it's the same logic to draw say a square to the screen as it is on a PC surely?

 

[Master Skooter]

no offense but game development is boring unless your a code monkey. Most secondary school students imagine game development to be a very cool thing, when in actual fact its a lot of time spent in front of visual studio looking at code.

You have to be a special sort of person to be able to do that. The coders we have at work just put their headphones on and get on with it.

Agree 100%, and they work lots of long hours when a games nearing release date.

That's why I'm also a support guy

 

[Shoseki]

When you get down to it, coding a game is not that different from coding many other types of system, however it does make use of some heavy maths concerning the physics/graphics engine (which is why I'd never code my own physics engine, been there done that) and use an open API such as OpenSG or OpenGL for graphics.

TBH there are two main routes, the M$ way which is mostly DirectX, or the Open Source way which tbh is far far harder, but much more flexible, based on mix and matching open source projects (OpenGL, OpenAL, OpenInput, and various structure and ECMAscript interpreters and handlers for media types etc).

 

[Welshy]

Doesn't seem like a particularily sustainable long term career choice.

It isn't particularly. There are far too many people in sixth form and younger thinking making games will be amazing and cool and fun, but as has been mentioned, a lot of it will be coding.

OP, are you actually interested in development or just the idea of games development? If it's the latter, then I doubt it's the right choice for you.

 

[Zefan]

Get Unreal Editor, mess about with it. That's what got me really interested in design etc.

 

[barkey52]

It sucks stupidly long hours and finding lead programmer collapsed on the office floor from exhaustion is no fun.

most of the people I know now work in Amsterdam in content production. which is effectively painting digital houses.

 

[KittensCake]

It sucks stupidly long hours and finding lead programmer collapsed on the office floor from exhaustion is no fun.

most of the people I know now work in Amsterdam in content production. which is effectively painting digital houses.

Haha, I knew someone that worked as a freelance game developer writing flash games for these gaming websites, making small mini games...etc and he collapsed and was hopitalised because he had been so stressed staying up for days and days without sleep living on red bull...etc to get a project done.

 

[Turtles]

Well I'm just really interested in PC games and PCs in general. I thought I better try and get an idea of what game programming is like (Only done Visual Basic at school) and I wanted to try some design type program (I've only used Google Sketch-up and Photoshop). I'll check out some of the programs recommended. I don't know if it's what I want to do in the future, I just wanted a kind of taster to see if I'm any good and if I enjoy it. I haven't taken Physics, Art or Graphics at Higher, and I'm not that great at Maths - so maybe developing PC games is not for me...we'll see
Thanks for all the replies.

 

[Bloodshot]

Well I'm just really interested in PC games and PCs in general. I thought I better try and get an idea of what game programming is like (Only done Visual Basic at school) and I wanted to try some design type program (I've only used Google Sketch-up and Photoshop). I'll check out some of the programs recommended. I don't know if it's what I want to do in the future, I just wanted a kind of taster to see if I'm any good and if I enjoy it. I haven't taken Physics, Art or Graphics at Higher, and I'm not that great at Maths - so maybe developing PC games is not for me...we'll see
Thanks for all the replies.

Sketch-Up and Photoshop are used heavily within the design department here, so that's a very good start design wise. If you want to get into design, then as people have already mentioned - get yourself an editor and start making some maps. I'd generally ignore the guys wanting to make a total conversion of any kind, as 95% of those projects fail.

Start small, then work on some slightly biggers projects with the people you network with online. Additonally, QA is a very competitive - but very viable route into design, so you may want to consider that after getting a degree in something TRADITIONAL. Designers don't need any kind of game degree; take a course that you're interested in just incase you don't like games after all (a high percentage of people burn out after 5 years).

Good luck !

 

[yer_averagejoe]

to give you an idea of the maths invloved im in third year and this was a module. Procedural terrain generation.

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17869683

 

[Shoseki]

to give you an idea of the maths invloved im in third year and this was a module. Procedural terrain generation.

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17869683

This doesn't really give any indication of anything I'm afraid, it could have been done many different ways.

Computer graphics can be as simple as gcse maths (basic matrix multiplication for transformations) or as high as degree level physics (advanced fluid dynamics, conservation of energy materials modelling etc etc). It all depends on the level of realism.

My general approach is as a system developers, not as a physics or maths majors. I would farm out a physics engine, but know enough to be able to use the API and thus apply the engine as I saw fit. I also have enough knowledge to be able to apply the graphics without needing to know how to implement monte carlo radiosity or other difficult things (though I did implement a ray tracer for fun once, I believe they are standard projects in BSc/MSc + graphics/maths degrees).

Once you know the basic things, the sky is the limit. Having spent a long time making graphics systems, the concept of making games seems a bit noddy to me :S I prefer to work on big graphics API/CMS type projects, but then everyone's tastes are different.

 

[Sarduk]

As mentioned, get programming in C and Java, although without a structured I know I would have found it difficult. Also, check out UnrealED and blender is a good modelling package.

Why Java?