From Business Apps to Games...?

jbc2522 · 2004-09-22T11:35:05

Hi there. I'm new to the game writing community with some (probably) embarrassing, and ask-ed a million-times-before-questions. Here goes, I've been writing various types of niche commercial software since graduating ( manufacturing, finance, etc. ) from university 12 years ago, and have become profoundly bored with it all! It was suggested to me that I look at switching to a career writing games. This is appealing, but I'm concerned it is a little bit of pie-in-the-sky: So I'm wondering what kind of programming roles are typical in a games company, and which might be most suited to my skills. From what I've seen these jobs appear interesting to me. If there is common theme that attracts me to these positions, its the algorithmic work where objectives are tempered by resources like time, memory etc.: 1. Game AI. My guess is that these kinds of roles are reserved for either someone who has past experience, or someone who has specifically studied this field. My gut feeling tells me that this is something at which I could do well, as I have variously applied shortest path and depth first searches in my work. Though we never called this AI, it appears have at least something in common with game AI. 2. Game Physics. Like Game AI, my expectation is that this sort of job is likewise reserved for experienced or specifically trained individuals. Physics isn't something I've touched in some time, and reading some of the posts in the physics forum is daunting -- everyone appears to be an expert. I can hardly follow the details. Still I feel I have pretty solid credentials to be useful here. My university education is in math, and I studied differential equations for a couple of years. 3. Graphics. It's not easy for me to imagine all the details here, but I can see that efficient data structure and selection are probably pretty important. For example: there is a tonne of graphics data, some of it needs to be rendered. If I wanted to pursue this seriously, is there any advice? From my brief research, i've seen that make demos illustrating a certain skill are valuable. Is there consensus on this? I'm gratefully to anyone who's bothered to read this, and appreciate any feedback. Thanks, from Vancouver. jbc

Games Business and Law Business

Started by jbc2522 September 17, 2004 05:18 PM

9 comments, last by RobertCostello 20 years, 2 months ago

RobertCostello

175

September 22, 2004 11:35 AM

Bummer. Not sure why I wasn't logged in.. Anyway...

Quote: Original post by Anonymous Poster
jbc,

It seems you have done most of your homework. The real question you seem to have is, is the move right for you? As someone who has gone full circle, biz apps => games => biz apps, I can share my experiences.

--Robert Costellowwww.playfulminds.com

From Business Apps to Games...?

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From Business Apps to Games...?

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