Want to become a programmer!

dave2k2005

dave2k2005

dave2k2005

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Hey guys,
I am currently in Year 10 and have wanted to go into vetinary for about 4 years. All of a sudden, I am starting to lean more towards programming. I would love to do the graphics programming, but I really want to know everything about it before going into it. Anyone have any useful links for beginers, and anyone know what the pay is for a programmer. What is the job like and how many hours of work etc. What subjects do I need to excel at? I would like to be the person who creates the game models etc. if you know what I mean? Just try to give me as much info as possible about it!!!
Thank you
Dave
 
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The pay ain't great unless your really good. And to be really good you need years and years in programming...and when I say years..I mean years.
 
Start now if you want to be really, really good. Also consider messing with CAM, game modding and games scripting (e.g. Unreal Script). Even if the languages change and functionality grow's; many of the principles will still hold.
 
Definately, if you want to be a programmer then seriously start now. Learn C++...even learn VB or Pascal to start (only to start...its monkey language). And just learn similar programming techniques, you'll notice a lot of languages are quite similar in context, some completely different buy hey.
 
One piece of advine. My mate wanted to go to uni to do a BSc in Games Design and he got turned down because he didnt have A level maths. If your genuinely interested make sure the course you want to do doesnt require this or you are capable of doign it.

I started using VB about a year ago, and im only beginnign to scratch the surface, so if your genuinely interested then start as soon as you can as it really does take a lot of learning when it comes to coding.
 
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saffyre said:
Try java, its very new user friendly.
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Im wanting to get into that llike, looks like a good challenge. Get my current course out the way (only a couple of weeks left) then i think ill check it out. Either that or PHP.
 
dave2k2005 said:
Hey guys,
I am currently in Year 10 and have wanted to go into vetinary for about 4 years. All of a sudden, I am starting to lean more towards programming. I would love to do the graphics programming, but I really want to know everything about it before going into it. Anyone have any useful links for beginers, and anyone know what the pay is for a programmer. What is the job like and how many hours of work etc. What subjects do I need to excel at? I would like to be the person who creates the game models etc. if you know what I mean? Just try to give me as much info as possible about it!!!
Thank you
Dave
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Programmers can earn a lot of money(pay is relative to your experience and how good you are), but they can also work a "lot" of hours, i know guys who do anything up to and around 80 hours(40hrs normally) a week at crunch times. There also different specialisms for programmers like Engine, Tools, Audio, graphics etc etc

If you want to do game models(say characters or environments), then thats a seperate job altogether. You would be a 3d artist/modeller, which you need no programming skills for, you would need to learn a 3d package like 3ds max or Maya. The hours can be long for this too, but they pay is good.
 
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Year 10? That's what, 3rd year into secondary school? (We don't really do the whole 'Year' thing over here) If so, plenty of time to start learning programming languages on your own and see if it's really what you want to do.
The really important choices will be your As/A level ones in a few years time, as pointed out above they affect the courses you can apply to. The year after you have to choose your Uni's and Courses, which are the really big choices.

After a quick flick through my various Uni prospectuses lying around, it looks like you'll need generally decent grades (C, preferably B) in Maths and English, possibly Physics (for Electronics + Computing courses). Studying Computing for As/A levels is also a requirement for some courses, and helps your case generally. Doing a science for As/A levels also keeps your options open.
<This is based mostly on the Requirements for Applied Computing at Dundee, so isn't the definate list or anything>

There's lots of courses at lots of places though, so it's not like you have to do all those subjects ;)
 
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dave2k2005 said:
I would like to be the person who creates the game models etc. if you know what I mean?
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Already been mentioned but that's not what a programmer does. I think too many people decided on a whim that they want to be a games designer or programmer. It's not a decision to take lightly. If you want to go into the programming side, try some programming and see if you like it. Quite a few people go to uni to do computer science with no previous programming experience then realise they hate it.

I think game modding isn't too bad a way to learn programming. Maybe you'd want to learn the absolute basics with a bit of C first but game modding is a good way to learn some relatively advanced concepts like OOP. UT2004 is quite mod friendly and it has a lot of documentation. However it uses it's own language so with some other games like HL2 you have the added bonus of learning C++.

As for useful qualifications, you'll definately want to do a maths A-level. For getting into a comp sci course at uni it doesn't really matter what others you do. Although computing would be a good idea for your own benefit as that'll help you judge if it's really what you want to do with your life.
 
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Did you want to be a programmer or a designer? If you're at all artistically inclined and start now you could be pretty good at 3d modelling by the time you start uni.

Whatever you decide to learn, by a book. It's much better than learning via website in my general experience.
 
I've worked on a few games, both 2d and 3d, and know a bit about the graphics side of things too, e.g. the artpaths necessary to get animated models from 3ds max into a game.

My main piece of advice is to start SMALL. Like, really small. I'm thinking of a game like pong / space invaders / tetris. Something simple.

There are many languages to choose from, of various complexity.

If you are looking to do this professionally, the best language to learn is something like C++ / C#. If you're looking for something easy to learn, have a look at Dark Basic Pro or Blitz 3d which are both very accessible for newcomers. I still use Blitz 3d as a prototyping language, as it's quick and easy to get a game foundation up and running.

Most languages have 'addons' that can handle the physics side of things - there are many cheap / free physics libraries such as Tokamak, Newton, ODE etc. that can do all this for you. All you need to do is to say how 'heavy' and responsive each part of the model is, e.g. a car weighs X, the car tyres have a friction of Y.

For learning professionally, you can download Visual Studio Express (C#) which is totally free, and will provide a base. I would start out by learning to create simple applications (e.g. with buttons / textboxes)

For 3d modelling, there are several free packages you can play around with, such as Gmax, Milkshape 3d, Blender. I recommend starting with Milkshape 3d, but don't be surprised if it takes you weeks to get anything approaching a life-like model. Note that it takes years to learn to model professionally (most artists choose a package, e.g. 3ds max, Maya and stick with it until they know it inside out), and a lot of artistic talent helps too.

Note that games development is a very hard field to work in - the pay is pretty bad, but it's one of the few things I would do for the love of it, rather than it just 'being a job'. If you work alone (commonly referred to as 'indie') then you'll find it tough to actually release a game, and to get it published.

If you have any questions feel free to ask
 
caff said:
For 3d modelling, there are several free packages you can play around with, such as Gmax, Milkshape 3d, Blender. I recommend starting with Milkshape 3d, but don't be surprised if it takes you weeks to get anything approaching a life-like model. Note that it takes years to learn to model professionally (most artists choose a package, e.g. 3ds max, Maya and stick with it until they know it inside out), and a lot of artistic talent helps too.

Note that games development is a very hard field to work in - the pay is pretty bad, but it's one of the few things I would do for the love of it, rather than it just 'being a job'. If you work alone (commonly referred to as 'indie') then you'll find it tough to actually release a game, and to get it published.

If you have any questions feel free to ask
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Very true about the games industry being hard to break into. The amount of people wanting to get into the industry greatly outweighs the number jobs unfortunately. Since the age of about 12 I wanted to be a 3D modeller. I did graphics, computing, business studes and General studies A levels at college, then went on to do a Computer animation degree at university. But unfortunatly I found it impossible to get a job in the industry, even a really junior one. By all means, if you really have your heart set on a job like this then go for it. But expect to work very hard and be in the top 5%. Also dont specialise too much, so as to keep your options open incase you change your mind about what job you want to do, or simply can't get the job you want to do. Good luck to the OP though.

Edit: As caff mentioned, start learning 3D modelling software now. I would recommend Gmax, as its just a stripped down version of 3DStudio max, which is one of the most commonly used industry standard modelling tools.
 
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