10 replies to this topic

[TrevorLambert]

My name is Trevor Lambert,

I am in this forum because I NEED to know a little bit more about the careers in programming! :confused:

Ever since I was little I loved playing video games, I was good at any that I played, and now I can PWN anyone at Halo or CoD :-P

But now I want to take that love of video games to a career.
I joined because I need to talk to people in the industry who can help me gain a real perspective in the gaming career.

I have messed around with programming a bit, trying to teach myself C++ after school from various books from the library, but it is hard to fit alot of time into programming when you have class and homework, etc...

I recently graduated from High School and now I am looking into colleges that would be good for this kind of career.

But before I go to school I want to try and learn a language at at least a beginner level to see if this path is right for me before I spend cash money on a degree.

I have the ambition, I just don't know where to start.

What I am asking for advice in is:
What is a good language for someone like me to start in?
What education is required for a career in game programming?
What are employers looking for in programmers?
If you have a career in programming, how did you start out and how did you learn?
And really any information in the art of programming and the field.


I am begging for dome guidance, thank you for reading this and I hope you can help me out a bit ;)

[gregwarner]

For a language, I would recommend C# and the XNA Game studio. All the tools are free to download from Microsoft, and you can even develop for the XBox, so it's a wonderful tool for getting started in game development. There are tons of XNA tutorials out there to get you started. Plus, the Visual Studio IDE is fantastic for helping you write your code.

If you know very little about C++, then I would start with some basic C# tutorials before you get into the XNA API so you'll be familiar with the concepts of the language.

[TrevorLambert]

Thank you, man!
That was exactly what I was looking for in response to my starting language question!
Now that I know which language and IDE to use, I can probably find some good tutorials online.

[gregwarner]

Excellent. I'm very familiar with C#, and I've begun learning the XNA framework, but I've written in a couple of other 3D game engines in the past, so feel free to ask any questions you may have.

[TrevorLambert]

Welll, I am a total noob, so I could ask questions all day.

Ill just follow some XNA Tutorials and try and figure out the answers myself, but if I get all confused, then Ill ask you.

[gregwarner]

Here are the XNA tutorials I learned on:
Riemers XNA Tutorial > Home

[WingedPanther]

Welcome aboard! One thing to be aware of is that game programming is a VERY small part of the software market, from a job perspective. There's a lot of other coding out there to support businesses that doesn't get nearly as much recognition.

[TrevorLambert]

WingedPanther said:

Welcome aboard! One thing to be aware of is that game programming is a VERY small part of the software market, from a job perspective. There's a lot of other coding out there to support businesses that doesn't get nearly as much recognition.

I am aware of that, and I am also wanting to learn how to program in general to an extent, but I want to put more emphasis on programming games.

[TrevorLambert]

gregwarner said:

Here are the XNA tutorials I learned on:
Riemers XNA Tutorial > Home

Thanks a lot for this link!

Hey, sorry for acting like a super confused noob, but could you possible help me figure out some sort of learning plan, like a sort of list. I wish I had a list of things that are recommended to learn to become a game programmer, and possibly in a good order to learn them. I know that learning languages could take years just to get an "Okay" understanding of them, so I want to make sure that I am learning the right things and not wasting my time learning a language that I wont use in a career.

Again sorry for being so nooby, and thank you for being a big help already, but I have no connections into the programming world except for the internet.

[gregwarner]

I assume by learning plan you mean you need to learn C# first. Game programming assumes you have a foundational knowledge of the language first. Try this site: I haven't had time to look at it yet, but I just googled for C# learning and found this. If it doesn't suit your tastes, just try googling for C# tutorials or C# lessons and I'm sure you'll come up with something.
C# Practical Learning
Good luck!

[LuthfiHakim]

Hi Trevor, welcome aboard!