Being "just a developer" before being a games developer

I also started with non-games. My first programming experiences were during a "computer science" course (it was actually part of the normal math course and taught by a math teacher with no real CS experience) using Turbo Pascal. Later I found the Visual Studio Express Editions and started writing simple programs, first in Visual Basic, then in C#. After writing a couple of (more or less useless) applications and gaining experience with both C# and C++ somebody showed my the XNA framework and AntMe!, which were my first contacts to the world of game programming. When I finally registered here (I have visited the site from time to time before) I already some finished games (student projects) under my belt.

I didn't learn to program because I wanted to make games, specifically, I just thought computers in all forms were cool and an extremely flexible tool that could do anything.

And I just couldn't stay away from trying to learn as much as I could about them.

It turned out that doing stuff with immediate graphical feedback was what I enjoyed the most, and there are lots of interesting programming problems in games.

Of course I find good games fun, and have spend countless hours playing them. I early got some notion that this could be something I'd like to do for a living, but I was more into electronics at the start, and dreamed about building robots. I've always been interested in the interface between computer/machine and human, in all forms that could take, and the psychology involved, and games have a lot of room to explore that.

A lot of my early programming efforts were game related, but more about the tech, efficient sprite drawing and grayscale tilemaps in asm for TI calculators and things like that. Being perfectly happy with just the routine being done and optimised, with no game to go with it

Then I guess I slipped further and further into game development, with a hint of embedded systems.

I worked for a few years with UI tech for mobile phones, then had some Indie aspirations, tried it, ran out of money, and then I got myself a game dev employment.

Didn't join this site until after that, which probably make me unusual...

For me, if I wouldn't have been a total game nerd at the time when I had to choose what to do in my professional life in the future, I might not have chosen IT and programming in the end.

To be honest, I was not much of a computer nerd and not into programming or stuff like that... I was just a hardcore gamer. So naturally, when I got both an apprenticeship offer in IT and as a chemistry lab rat, I choose the former.

Going through my education in a place without any game industry to speak of, the Indie scene still being obscure at the time, and basically interests shifting away from gaming, My interest in making games (which was never REALLY that strong) disappeared, while my interest in programming intensified... so I ended up as a developer with a degree in Software engineering doing anything but game dev.

But over time I happened to become interested in games again, this time building them more than playing. So here I am, learning the ropes again as a hobby game dev. Joined this forum years after having started dabbling in game development, and with 10+ years of expierience as Business Software developer.

I decided to learn programming because rpgmaker and game maker where a pain in the ass unless I started to learn theyr custom script stuff. In my head, Id rather learn a real programming language then learn a custom stuff that can go out of existence. So I looked up on game companies what they where hiring for programming, and it was all c/c++. So I decided to check what this c++ programming stuff was about... I liked it.

I got into programming for games back when I was ~10, started making little things then and then working on MUDs and text games through my teens and then ended up in government and business software development for ~15 years. After deciding that that kind of work was soul-crushingly dull and boring as mud, I decided to go back to school, learn the graphics and physics and whatnot I never learned on my own, and then moved into the games industry. It's definitely not boredom that's soul-crushing, now.

I have always been interested how companies work, especially game development businesses. My dream job was to work in the financial department of some game development company.

As I was growing up, I played around with Delphi Pascal and 3d Studio Max, HTML, but I didn’t really make anything substantial, just really basic stuff... It was just something I did for fun after school/college.

So yeah, I studied Financial Economics in university (with the idea of being an accountant). After, I spent a summer learning C++ and then did Masters in Business Information Systems. During that time I found about this site. It really helped me with some of my projects even though they were not game related.

Afterwards, I realized that I want to make one game. However this “dream” game seemed something impossible for me. I had to become a much more productive and knowledgeable person to be able to make it. (Something between Castle Story and Stonehearth) So I joined my small family business. We needed a website, so I made one. Then I started to sell online (eBay, Amazon, my own site). From time to time, I make my own websites/tools to help me out.

All of this so that I can made my dream game someday. Well it’s been 4.5 years since having my idea. I failed to make my dream game 2 times now. However I did make a complete 2D space shooting game. Now trying to make it as a releasable product.

I would also say that my aspirations started out differently than most.

Back in the 80's when I was about 10, there was a program that our science teacher assigned another student to write that was essentially questions with y/n input to try to classify life. This student had the attention of a girl I had a crush on so naturally I had to learn how to program too. And of course, I had to one up him.

I found that I had a computer available to me (there were two in the school) and a book that could get me started. I set out with the intent to learn what I could and to figure out how to create things with what I have learned.

Games were on my mind and I certainly would've liked to create something like I had seen in arcades or the console systems of the day but I believe my thoughts were more those of a kid that was given something that he could build things with. Writing programs to fill some business need... well I don't imagine that kids think like that very often.

I think its just a matter of what inspires people to take that first step -- no one picks up an instrument with the goal of playing small shows at unknown bars, you pick up an instrument either for the personal satisfaction of it, or because you want to be a star. Programming is no different, and game developers are the rock-stars of the programming world (there are plenty of stars in other genres too).

Myself, I had always been interested in computers, games too, and the thought of making games was my impetus and motivation for taking those interests further.

I got into programming for games back when I was ~10, started making little things then and then working on MUDs and text games through my teens and then ended up in government and business software development for ~15 years.

This is pretty much me, except after 15 years, I've decided that I'm not really that interested in the kind of horrific hours and crap pay that most game programmers put up with and I'd much rather spend my free time doing things that don't involve programming anymore.

I still think game development is fascinating, but I'm not willing to sacrifice the rest of my life for it. If I could get a job in the games industry which paid well and didn't require tonnes of crunch time, I'd probably be motivated to do as Sean did and try to break into the industry, but I think it's probably too late for me.

I got into programming for games back when I was ~10, started making little things then and then working on MUDs and text games through my teens and then ended up in government and business software development for ~15 years.

This is pretty much me, except after 15 years, I've decided that I'm not really that interested in the kind of horrific hours and crap pay that most game programmers put up with and I'd much rather spend my free time doing things that don't involve programming anymore.

I still think game development is fascinating, but I'm not willing to sacrifice the rest of my life for it. If I could get a job in the games industry which paid well and didn't require tonnes of crunch time, I'd probably be motivated to do as Sean did and try to break into the industry, but I think it's probably too late for me.

Pretty much on the same boat. I started programming because of games. After guerilling long hours, I concluded that any front-end development, including games, is just bad career choice for programmers. You are practically not in control of your own code. Product managers/producers/sales/random executive directors become your 'bosses'. They command you the direction of your app/games, e.g. how fast your fade-in animation should be.

Tired of zero leadership by people who don't actually care about games, or have any clue at all about software craftmanship but pretend they are the next Steve Jobs (god, there are so many of those people nowadays in the tech startups), I move to backend/server-side engineering. Nobody can tell me whether doing X or Y is better, except folks who are also engineers themselves, which I am happy to have discussion/arguments with.

I got into programming for games back when I was ~10, started making little things then and then working on MUDs and text games through my teens and then ended up in government and business software development for ~15 years.

This is pretty much me, except after 15 years, I've decided that I'm not really that interested in the kind of horrific hours and crap pay that most game programmers put up with and I'd much rather spend my free time doing things that don't involve programming anymore.

I still think game development is fascinating, but I'm not willing to sacrifice the rest of my life for it. If I could get a job in the games industry which paid well and didn't require tonnes of crunch time, I'd probably be motivated to do as Sean did and try to break into the industry, but I think it's probably too late for me.

Pretty much on the same boat. I started programming because of games. After guerilling long hours, I concluded that any front-end development, including games, is just bad career choice for programmers. You are practically not in control of your own code. Product managers/producers/sales/random executive directors become your 'bosses'. They command you the direction of your app/games, e.g. how fast your fade-in animation should be.

Tired of zero leadership by people who don't actually care about games, or have any clue at all about software craftmanship but pretend they are the next Steve Jobs (god, there are so many of those people nowadays in the tech startups), I move to backend/server-side engineering. Nobody can tell me whether doing X or Y is better, except folks who are also engineers themselves, which I am happy to have discussion/arguments with.

This is not unique to games - software development in general (and I imagine most industries as well) is plagued by people who try to do too much "hands on" in areas they are not qualified to have an opinion because they have a higher pay grade, or wear a suit, or whatever.

That being said, I've been lucky enough to not have to work under people who don't like games. There are some cases of people trying to dictate things that shouldn't be dictated, but that usually shakes out in the end when the result doesn't work or is sub-optimal and has to be changed.

And then there's the stuff that's been in the code base for 10 years that you can't change because that's how its always worked and no, you can't take the game down for everyone for a week to make it "better".

But again, that's not unique to games.

More on-topic, I started out young with just programming in general. Getting my parent's Mac to do interesting stuff with Basic, Pascal, and finally C before moving to a PC and C++. At the time I also really enjoyed computer games, so the two just kind of fit together really well (aside from my inability to do any kind of art for the stuff I made).

Pretty much on the same boat. I started programming because of games. After guerilling long hours, I concluded that any front-end development, including games, is just bad career choice for programmers. You are practically not in control of your own code. Product managers/producers/sales/random executive directors become your 'bosses'. They command you the direction of your app/games, e.g. how fast your fade-in animation should be.

Tired of zero leadership by people who don't actually care about games, or have any clue at all about software craftmanship but pretend they are the next Steve Jobs (god, there are so many of those people nowadays in the tech startups), I move to backend/server-side engineering. Nobody can tell me whether doing X or Y is better, except folks who are also engineers themselves, which I am happy to have discussion/arguments with.

Realistically that is what happens when somebody is paying you six figures a year to program for them. If you want "full control" make your own games. This is also why I never went for the AAA sphere and stayed with the funded indie companies. Everybody who works there generally likes making games since there really isn't room for ladder climbers.

Games got me interested in programming but I really wanted to do systems programming back when I was learning. I always thought it was neat to try and make device drivers and work with embedded systems. I kind of fell in to making games as I was just applying everywhere after school and a startup making a PC game gave me a chance. I've just stayed with it ever since. Now that I'm not 20 anymore making games is slowly destroying my desire to play games so I'm starting to look for an exit in to enterprise development. That kind of seems to be the way with game development though.