A good place to start for game development?

[ultimamax]

Hmm..

It'd be interesting if you could higher some sort of live-in life coach that slaps you whenever you can't explain why what you're doing is legitimately productive.

I just want to be paid to slap people. :(

[Ad Bot]

[.:FancyPants:.]

for the past few years of my life i've spent too many hours thinking this threads exact title.
i've tried three languages before settling on C++ and tried two engines in an attempt to code a fairly basic 2D platformer. i just can't get anything right.
for gods sake can someone PLEASE give me some direction.

[Moonstar Akemi]

for the past few years of my life i've spent too many hours thinking this threads exact title.
i've tried three languages before settling on C++ and tried two engines in an attempt to code a fairly basic 2D platformer. i just can't get anything right.
for gods sake can someone PLEASE give me some direction.

Maybe the people who are trying to get started could start a group and we can all work together on making our way up to creating mini-projects?

All the resources you need are online. Although I can see your point; programming classes basically force you to be productive, or suffer real-life consequences, so that's cool.

Genius, right? It also helps give me assurance that I'm trying as hard as I can to force the knowledge into my head with self-research and a school class. As soon as I get done with C++ for my school course, I'll be taking a couple other languages for school while teaching myself C++ outside of school.

I think that the main problem with learning a new language is the fact that most of us newcomers can't create something original which gives us the idea that we're simply going by the book and learning nothing from i. I believe once we surpass that issue, C++ will become a lot easier to learn and we'll become much more productive by using it as a hobby rather than something to learn.

[Bisjac]

it was great in college. like half the classes were stock full of students who all enrolled to make video games. these were the ones that hardly graduated. just kids who played a lot of video games and thought thats what computer science was.
computer science seems to make more sense as a degree goal in and of itself. like step 1, dont look to far ahead till after you have it. you shouldn't attend a school expecting some dream job out of it lol.

game development is kinda the low end as far as the jobs a BS:IT can get you earning,

[LinearAlbatross]

Yeah, game development probably isn't good as a full-time job as an indie dev unless you're already making good money from stuff you've already done.

[Bisjac]

99% of game dev jobs out of college are you working for some bigger company doing busy tedious bitch work. getting paid nothing. and getting your name in the smallest font possible on the credits. just to not move anywhere because the industry has been whored into large corporations that streamline the process. by time you deserve some kind of promotion into a more important and exciting role, the company was bought out or merged, and the team replaced.
the industry has been "walmarted" and isnt quite the fantasy we all grew up having.

you can likely earn more by creating your own game from scratch alone or with 1 friend. but its a hell of a lot more work without guarantee of success.
and the end game to that, is you are bought out by a bigger publisher to whore your name away like the rest anyways :)

there is some self respect for being an indie dev for life. but not quite the fame and fortune

[Blockzillahead]

Yeah Bisjac is right, being a game developer doesn't pay that high, and it is tedious work. You're better off being a software engineer or something if you want it to involve coding and get paid triple digits with age.

[ultimamax]

IMO, follow your dream, but don't follow it blindly. Have a safety net, a degree to fall back on.

[Ben Grapevine]

99% of game dev jobs out of college are you working for some bigger company doing busy tedious bitch work. getting paid nothing. and getting your name in the smallest font possible on the credits. just to not move anywhere because the industry has been whored into large corporations that streamline the process. by time you deserve some kind of promotion into a more important and exciting role, the company was bought out or merged, and the team replaced.
the industry has been "walmarted" and isnt quite the fantasy we all grew up having.

you can likely earn more by creating your own game from scratch alone or with 1 friend. but its a hell of a lot more work without guarantee of success.
and the end game to that, is you are bought out by a bigger publisher to whore your name away like the rest anyways :)

there is some self respect for being an indie dev for life. but not quite the fame and fortune

I personally would find the satisfaction in saying "yeah, I worked on that game" to be worth it.  Not to mention the money and job experience associated with it.

[BluetoothBoy]

Don't work for lots of money, work doing what you enjoy.

[King of the Bill]

Don't work for lots of money, work doing what you enjoy.

This. I'm well aware that even if I were to complete my ENTIRE game design idea and get it onto Steam, I still wouldn't be able to make even a decent living off of it, but it's what I'd love to do.