And then there are some more Korean MMOs where both user/pass are required to be all lower-case, thus eliminating a whole range of options. 8 lower-case alphanums is 36^8 vs. 8 any-case alphanums is 62^8.
I, uh... said that. There's no point to continue re-writing the same things once you've learned them, though. No, writing bubble sort over and over will *not* help. It is a simple algorithm that cannot be optimized to the point of needing to write it more than a few times. There are few things that are sufficiently complex that have not already been solved where it would be worth it to continuously re-write it.
Very well put. I'd also add onto that two more points: experience is extremely valuable and don't re-invent the wheel.
Experience helps a lot, since a problem is much easier to deal with when you've already seen something like it before. It's not everything, but the best way to become a better coder is, unsurprisingly, to code. Reading books is great, and definitely should be done, but you need to actually apply what you've learned.
If you run into a problem and think "someone else must have had this problem before," you're probably right. Look around for solutions to common problems before trying to solve them yourself... after you've already solved it once. Gaining the experience is more important than saving time, but once you've learned how to do it, there's no reason to keep re-solving the same problem.
They'd invite the FBI because it's not they who are breaking the law (if anyone is). The casinos are user-generated content, so it would be the users' problem, not Linden Labs'.
When rent is as big a portion of your income as it is, it *does* effect how much you need to be paid to live. Consider that your rent is double what mine is, and that rent takes up around 1/4 of your salary. That means you would need to be paid 25% more than me to have the same amount of money after paying rent. Now, when *everyone* has that problem, the prices seep into everything else, not just rent.
Your work is worth the same, but the money is NOT. That is why there are pay differences based on area.
I've only had personal experience with Full Sail, but I've heard good things about the other two big gaming schools (Digipen and Guild Hall). One of the things that makes Full Sail unique is also a double-edged sword: low entrance requirements. Honestly, it's why I went to Full Sail and not Digipen (2.2 GPA in high school and a 3.4 GPA in college, it's amazing how hard you can work when you love the work). It does cause a lot of turnover in the first few months with people under-estimating the amount of work required and over-estimating the amount of partying they can do when they go to a hardcore school. But, to be fair, everyone's warned right up front, and are required to take a math test before hand to see if they'd suggest tutoring. Full Sail even now has "pre-Programming" classes before you actually begin school, if you wanted to get familiar with it before you enter the class.
I'm happy to take questions if anyone has 'em, about Full Sail, Volition, or getting into the industry (even though I'm pretty new to it myself).
However, the skills that a person picks up with a general higher education, like... beer drinking, are all very very relevant in the game industry.
You might think it's a joke... but it's not. 90% of the networking at GDC happens during the after-parties. It's amazing the amount of alcohol the industry as a whole consumes:-P
Can't be said enough. Your name and reputation is almost as important as your ability, since it's what will get your foot in the door at a game company. My friend I met in college got a job at the studio I work at and recommended me, which helped my application a lot (making sure I at least got an interview, where I had to take it over from there).
And it's times like these that I'd recommend LinkedIn. It's a great way to keep in touch with people you meet.
I think it's more so the Spaghetti Code than just coder that people take issue with:-)
Only thing I can comment on is the "glamorous job" thing. I'm not rich, but I do make enough money to live comfortably. I don't sit around playing games all day (I only take trips to Volition's arcade a few times a day;-) and sometimes I don't get to work on the things I'd love to work on... but all in all, it's an amazing job. Glamorous, no. It's definitely a job and game developers like any other, or more so during crunch, put in their hours.
But still... I'm working on games. I'm coding for a living. I guess I can understand jealousy, since I am doing what I love and getting paid for it (how does THAT work?).
That's a pretty good idea to see whether he wants to actually be in the industry or not. Go with this, submitter's cousin, and first find out if you actually want to work on games before devoting your life to it.
Well, it's definitely going to be harder since a good portion of the work that goes into games is games-specific, or at least altered enough from the mainstream way to make it much different. However, having a solid coding background and knowing your C/C++ fundamentals will definitely help.
My best suggestion to you would be to start coding games. Come up with a simple idea and go at it. Make a blackjack game, or maybe an asteroids clone, something like that. Making games is the best way to learn to be a game programmer.
All in all, I can't really answer the question since I'm fairly new to the industry myself:-)
I've got a bachelor's of Game Design and Development and, not so coincidentally, a job at a game studio. Sure, the game degrees that are advertised on TV with hit phrases such as "tighten up the graphics on level 3" or "I make a living playing games all day!" are crap, but the real ones, such as Full Sail's, Digipen's, or Guild Hall's are nothing to snub your nose at.
Instead of going and getting a degree in a tangentially related field, such as mathematics or computer science, why not get a degree in game development? Of course, I'd only suggest that if he's *sure* he wants to be a game programmer. Otherwise, a more general degree might be the way to go.
As far as online classes... the only ones I've taken were for classes that were idiotic no matter what setting they were taken in (I'm looking at you, gen. ed. fluffer classes), so I can't really render an opinion either way other than saying classroom learning enforces some things better than an online class would and is more personal.
"Game" degrees are useless outside the game industry, and a joke and target of pity from within the industry.
Oh? Hm. Guess I should of thought about that before I went and got a bachelor's of Game Development and got hired at a respected game studio. Probably would have saved from this whole "being a professional game developer" thing.
Slashdot Mirror
And then there are some more Korean MMOs where both user/pass are required to be all lower-case, thus eliminating a whole range of options. 8 lower-case alphanums is 36^8 vs. 8 any-case alphanums is 62^8.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:DragonflySi xtyseven#User:AmendmentNumberOne and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Yamla#User: AmendmentNumberOne
Whether or not your point is valid, you shouldn't have been banned for speaking your mind.
You got an extra http, Zonk.
The difference, I believe, is Microsoft published Gears of War whereas Harmonix published GH/GH2. Publisher's have a lot of influence.
Commenting on his post as if it were valid to the discussion is itself trolling.
I, uh... said that. There's no point to continue re-writing the same things once you've learned them, though. No, writing bubble sort over and over will *not* help. It is a simple algorithm that cannot be optimized to the point of needing to write it more than a few times. There are few things that are sufficiently complex that have not already been solved where it would be worth it to continuously re-write it.
Get hired as Linked List Programmer :-P
Parent is a troll, as is GP. GP is a link to troll images.
Very well put. I'd also add onto that two more points: experience is extremely valuable and don't re-invent the wheel.
Experience helps a lot, since a problem is much easier to deal with when you've already seen something like it before. It's not everything, but the best way to become a better coder is, unsurprisingly, to code. Reading books is great, and definitely should be done, but you need to actually apply what you've learned.
If you run into a problem and think "someone else must have had this problem before," you're probably right. Look around for solutions to common problems before trying to solve them yourself... after you've already solved it once. Gaining the experience is more important than saving time, but once you've learned how to do it, there's no reason to keep re-solving the same problem.
They'd invite the FBI because it's not they who are breaking the law (if anyone is). The casinos are user-generated content, so it would be the users' problem, not Linden Labs'.
It's a small world, apparently. Your resume's out of date :-)
When rent is as big a portion of your income as it is, it *does* effect how much you need to be paid to live. Consider that your rent is double what mine is, and that rent takes up around 1/4 of your salary. That means you would need to be paid 25% more than me to have the same amount of money after paying rent. Now, when *everyone* has that problem, the prices seep into everything else, not just rent. Your work is worth the same, but the money is NOT. That is why there are pay differences based on area.
Exactly. The average takes into account all of the studios in the high cost-of-living areas, so $80k in Cali is equal to $45k out in the midwest.
My bad, but relax.
One word: modding.
Someone's cyberstalking me, apparently :-P
I've only had personal experience with Full Sail, but I've heard good things about the other two big gaming schools (Digipen and Guild Hall). One of the things that makes Full Sail unique is also a double-edged sword: low entrance requirements. Honestly, it's why I went to Full Sail and not Digipen (2.2 GPA in high school and a 3.4 GPA in college, it's amazing how hard you can work when you love the work). It does cause a lot of turnover in the first few months with people under-estimating the amount of work required and over-estimating the amount of partying they can do when they go to a hardcore school. But, to be fair, everyone's warned right up front, and are required to take a math test before hand to see if they'd suggest tutoring. Full Sail even now has "pre-Programming" classes before you actually begin school, if you wanted to get familiar with it before you enter the class.
I'm happy to take questions if anyone has 'em, about Full Sail, Volition, or getting into the industry (even though I'm pretty new to it myself).
However, the skills that a person picks up with a general higher education, like ... beer drinking, are all very very relevant in the game industry.
:-P
You might think it's a joke... but it's not. 90% of the networking at GDC happens during the after-parties. It's amazing the amount of alcohol the industry as a whole consumes
Can't be said enough. Your name and reputation is almost as important as your ability, since it's what will get your foot in the door at a game company. My friend I met in college got a job at the studio I work at and recommended me, which helped my application a lot (making sure I at least got an interview, where I had to take it over from there).
And it's times like these that I'd recommend LinkedIn. It's a great way to keep in touch with people you meet.
I think it's more so the Spaghetti Code than just coder that people take issue with :-)
Only thing I can comment on is the "glamorous job" thing. I'm not rich, but I do make enough money to live comfortably. I don't sit around playing games all day (I only take trips to Volition's arcade a few times a day ;-) and sometimes I don't get to work on the things I'd love to work on... but all in all, it's an amazing job. Glamorous, no. It's definitely a job and game developers like any other, or more so during crunch, put in their hours.
But still... I'm working on games. I'm coding for a living. I guess I can understand jealousy, since I am doing what I love and getting paid for it (how does THAT work?).
Dunno :-P Space sims aren't all the rage nowadays. What I'm working on right now is pretty amazing, so stay tuned :-)
Mod this man up, he knows what he's talking about.
That's a pretty good idea to see whether he wants to actually be in the industry or not. Go with this, submitter's cousin, and first find out if you actually want to work on games before devoting your life to it.
Well, it's definitely going to be harder since a good portion of the work that goes into games is games-specific, or at least altered enough from the mainstream way to make it much different. However, having a solid coding background and knowing your C/C++ fundamentals will definitely help.
:-)
My best suggestion to you would be to start coding games. Come up with a simple idea and go at it. Make a blackjack game, or maybe an asteroids clone, something like that. Making games is the best way to learn to be a game programmer. All in all, I can't really answer the question since I'm fairly new to the industry myself
I've got a bachelor's of Game Design and Development and, not so coincidentally, a job at a game studio. Sure, the game degrees that are advertised on TV with hit phrases such as "tighten up the graphics on level 3" or "I make a living playing games all day!" are crap, but the real ones, such as Full Sail's, Digipen's, or Guild Hall's are nothing to snub your nose at.
Instead of going and getting a degree in a tangentially related field, such as mathematics or computer science, why not get a degree in game development? Of course, I'd only suggest that if he's *sure* he wants to be a game programmer. Otherwise, a more general degree might be the way to go.
As far as online classes... the only ones I've taken were for classes that were idiotic no matter what setting they were taken in (I'm looking at you, gen. ed. fluffer classes), so I can't really render an opinion either way other than saying classroom learning enforces some things better than an online class would and is more personal.
"Game" degrees are useless outside the game industry, and a joke and target of pity from within the industry.
Oh? Hm. Guess I should of thought about that before I went and got a bachelor's of Game Development and got hired at a respected game studio. Probably would have saved from this whole "being a professional game developer" thing.