How Do You Become A Console Game Programmer?

sknja writes "I am currently a junior in college and am about to begin the last 2 years of a 5-year electrical engineering program. I have a concentration in computer engineering, and a minor in Japanese. Right now, my life revolves around classes, video games, and learning Japanese. Since I am passionate about all three, I want to try and combine the three, my goal being to become an engineer working on game consoles. Since the end of school is drawing near, what steps should I take toward achieving this goal? Do gaming companies ever have co-op or internship positions open?" Is Japanese a practical or useful skill in this context, and how should/do game companies value internships and programming degrees vs. practical experience on game mods?

Comments

lame subject line cuz I need one

[spectral]

Hopefully the original asker will answer this question, but from what I read, it seems like he's more towards the hardware end of things (working on designing the consoles) than on the software (working on games for them). There's some crossover, but he's in computer engineering: hardware with a bit of software. Nowhere does he mention programming.

So, is it really wanting to be a programmer, or is it wanting to be a designer of the hardware?

Re:lame subject line cuz I need one

[spectral]

That question being posed, and assuming the answer to be you want to work on hardware: Good luck getting in to the center of a large Japanese corporation if you're a foreigner. I'm not saying it's impossible, but highly unlikely. Especially if you don't have a perfect command of the language. Foreigners over here are useful for a few things: Teaching drunken businessmen english, staring at, making fun of when they think we can't understand them, and scaring little children.

The best part is when they're talking about you on the train, sitting right next to you, thinking you can't understand what they're saying.. then you say something in japanese to your friend sitting next to you and they shut up for the rest of the train ride. *grin*

I hate to admit it, but you might have a better chance getting in to Microsoft to work on X-Box. Especially if you're doing an internship.. but good luck even for that. I have no personal experience, but I doubt something like X-Box hardware design would use interns much at all. At least there (if you can get in), you get some experience in your native language, and then maybe make the switch to a Japanese company.

Anyway, nan nen kan nihongo benkyou shita? ore.. san nen kan, demo, zenzen benyou shinakatta kara, amari jouzu ja arahen-n ya.. ^_^ Ima, kansai gaikokugo daigaku no gakusei, demo roku gatsu (getsu? I can never remember) no futsuka ni amerika ni kaeru to omoimasu..

Wow romaji is ugly as hell. Especially when you mix in kansai-ben. Bleh. :P

Re:Debunking the greatest game industry myth?

[idries]

I am a games programmer (admittedly, not a console programmer) and I found it fairly easy to get into the industry. Most people that I know in the industry say the same thing. However, I think that this is because I/they were suitable people to work in this industry. There are alot of people, employed as "programmers" in other sectors who are not suitable to be game programmers, and they don't get the jobs. I think that it's more accurate to say "Not everyone can work in the games industry".

I'm not trying to be elitist, most games companies (certainly in the UK) are small and value their programmers, hence they are much more picky on who they employ. Larger companies employ more programmers and are not as badly effected by individual poor performance. Add to this the fact that games programming is often more complex than alot of work done outside of it. Having previously worked (as a programmer) outside the industry I know that alot of my ex-colleagues could not do my job. Games are large and often totally proprietary pieces of code. Anyone who has been writing web/database apps (as I was until I joined the industry) will have a serious shock if they start working for a professional games company (I know that I did).

I don't know how any of this relates to console hardware but anyway....

Nobody seems to have mentioned...

[i0wnzj005uck4]

Do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of devkit advance and start hacking. Many, many success stories of breaking into the industry have been heard from hobbyist hackers who produced a tiny demo showing promise, even on the GBA. You'd be surprised how many 2D game programming techniques translate almost unchanged into the 3D realm. If you're interested in 3D console programming, tho, pick up a dreamcast and get the devkit for that.

On hardware design: I have no idea.

On Japanese: Another big move in the industry is to have localised versions of games come out closer and closer together. Wouldn't it be nice if a game could hit a Japanese market at the same time it hits the American and European ones? This requires knowledge of internationalization practices. Japanese is one of the harder languages to support, programmatically, so building support for it into your games will give you a good grounding and excellent experience. Release a demo that parses and displays UTF8 strings on the gameboy advance. You'll be hired, I guarantee it.*

(* not a guarantee.)

The flip side...

[Shaheen]

I'm not a console programmer, but I am (well, will be) a developer doing dev tools and kernel stuff for Xbox.

I personally just went the "obvious" route: gave my resume to my closest Microsoft recruiter and interviewed, etc. I do consider myself the luckiest SOB ever in terms of positions I got to interview for, however.

If you feel you have an awesome game idea, Microsoft actually does make it tons easier to become an Xbox developer than it is to become a developer for other consoles. MS has the Xbox Incubator Program, which takes what MS feels are very good ideas and basically becomes your publisher. They will buy the dev kits and resources you need to finish your game.

Unfortunately, I don't have time to finish my thoughts at the moment... Perhaps later.