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Sigma-X posted:It being different between openGL and DX seems loving retarded, though. I thought clockwise was openGL but I have not given a single gently caress about openGL since college and I'm a Producer now so I'm probably all wrong.  That was a real drat confusing semester. Educational though. (OpenGL, in general, does things the "correct" way, but since we mostly all learned DirectX first, we think of that as the "correct" way, and our instincts are lying upside-down bastards forever as a result)
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Nov 14, 2014 04:09
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Just be glad that you don't have to add a half-pixel offset into all of your 2D draw code to deal with the difference in pixel centers any more.Brackhar posted:Yeah, it's less about winding order existing, and more that it's different between the two. That's the quirk I was referring to. Also if you're having trouble coming up with something to code outside of work that's game-related, try modding any game and see how long it takes you to wish the tools were better.
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Nov 14, 2014 06:00
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Shalinor posted:No, it's totally normal, just like how DirectX matrices being transposed compared to OpenGL matrices is totally normal and DirectX transformation matrices are totally normal what do you mean they don't match the matrices I'm learning in linear algebra I bet DirectX is right or maybe not hmmm. Oh yeah, just like how 3DS Max uses Z=depth instead of Z=up and every other piece of 3d software in existence including all videogame engines does it wrong 
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Nov 14, 2014 06:22
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Sigma-X posted:Oh yeah, just like how 3DS Max uses Z=depth instead of Z=up and every other piece of 3d software in existence including all videogame engines does it wrong Max sucks, old rear end legacy poo poo lol noobs
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Nov 14, 2014 06:35
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Hate Max, Y-up fo LYFE.
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Nov 14, 2014 07:24
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Shalinor posted:No, you're not going to get a job at Blizzard without an amazing portfolio. Lower your standards and work on your drat portfolio, or you won't be able to land a job anywhere. People don't tend to land a job at Blizzard out of a generic CS degree unless they're amazing - most work at lower-tier studios for years, and slowly work up the ladder to higher-profile projects. mutata posted:Blizzard receives hundreds of applications everyday. They have thousands of people to choose from for any given position. Skills, experience and an amazing portfolio will get an amazing person into Blizzard. Skills, more experience, and inside connections will get an above average person into Blizzard. If you do not meet these criteria, it's going to be VERY HARD to break through the noise. Sigma-X posted:
OwlFancier posted:If you don't ever program outside of classes, do you actually like what you're studying? Higsian posted:Not a programmer in the games industry, but I can tell you that the above 2 statements are very very closely related. Frown Town posted:TL:DR: Start small and dream big. Don't be afraid to re-evaluate your dreams. Thanks everyone for your input, even if I didn't directly quote your post every little bit helps. These are the responses I wholly expected to get, so I'm not surprised in the least. Like I said, I asked my original question out of sheer curiosity and I laughed my rear end off at your comment Sigma. To everyone asking if I actually enjoy programming since I never do it outside of class, yeah I'd say that I do. I just don't ever find myself doing it because I would rather play video games, or go ride my mountain bike, or wrench on my car after a long day of class or homework. Basically I'm taking the path of least resistance for myself instead of programming after class, because pulling out a C++ book and reading, or working on exercises is work, no matter if I'm passionate about it or not. Plus it's hard not to discourage myself before I even start; The creative side of me is pretty dead at the moment, I'm trying to get it going again but it's hard. 98% of the ideas I have for something I'll either pass off as stupid, or they'll be ideas that are just way to complex for me to possibly tackle at my level, so I never begin. Lowering my standards or reevaluating my dreams is a tough truth to face, but maybe in the long run it's what needs to be done? I just don't know if I could muster up the same passion working for another studio that I could if I were working for Blizzard. Very few games outside of Blizzard have given me the awe factor that their games give me, the awe factor that makes you go "wow, I'd really love to add to this, or be a part of this world". Maybe all of that changes once you start working on your own project. Either way, all of the above may as well just be ramblings; I get the message, work on my skills, build a portfolio. My next question though is how? or specifically what should I focus my time on creating? Winter break is coming up and I plan to pick up a C++ book and really try to nail this stuff into my head so I can learn to code from my own brain and not google, and then moving on to creating stuff I care about. Beyond that what else should I work on? Should I work on projects in something like Unity or UE4, or concentrate on building pieces from the ground up myself? I've had ideas for a while to recreate small portions of older games that I enjoyed growing up such as Perfect Dark in something like Unity or UE4, or more recently (going back to thinking about Blizzard, sorry) The Lost Vikings in the Sc2 editor. Alternately, and much less ambitious is the idea currently scribbled on my white board for an arcade game where you fight off alternative lifestyles with a shovel. ...It's funny the more I read this post and what I've written the more I realize that I should be creating stuff for myself and my own enjoyment, not creating pieces for the sole goal of building a portfolio.
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Nov 14, 2014 09:33
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Diametunim posted:
Yeah, I think it's super important to do stuff because you think its cool and you think that working on it is intrinsically rewarding on its own. That works better than to be focused 100% on building skills in isolation. Cause if you are passionate you'll naturally put in the extra time and be more likely to live eat drink breathe the thing which is what it takes to really learn something on a deep level. So I think if you find something you think is kickass and learn what you need to learn to do that thing and do it well, then that will end up being a very cool portfolio piece in the end. Or at the very least you'll learn a fuckton. Passion is good, and it shows when you have it in a project. If you want to learn C++ just use that to implement your project whatever you choose it to be and look up techniques and what not as you need them.
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Nov 14, 2014 09:50
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Make Tetris. Make Breakout. Make Bejeweled. Make something that's easy and fun. Get it working and playable first, then start changing it. Whatever it is you pick, you need to start making things on your own, because you learn by making mistakes, and the more mistakes you make on your own the better off you are in an employer's eyes. Also, playing something you made is super-fun. Then throwing all of that out and re-writing it because you realize it's terrible is its own kind of fun. And don't give up on your dream. It won't be your first step, but that doesn't mean it's not on your path. The trick is having the diligence to keep walking, because no one's bringing it to you.
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Nov 14, 2014 10:10
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Diametunim posted:Lowering my standards or reevaluating my dreams is a tough truth to face, but maybe in the long run it's what needs to be done? I just don't know if I could muster up the same passion working for another studio that I could if I were working for Blizzard. Very few games outside of Blizzard have given me the awe factor that their games give me, the awe factor that makes you go "wow, I'd really love to add to this, or be a part of this world". Maybe all of that changes once you start working on your own project. A couple of things: 1) You're not going to start at Blizzard. Their hiring process for juniors is abysmal. So get the Blizzard or Bust notion out of your head. 2) Try making some games and see if you enjoy it. It sounds like you haven't really done that yet. Nobody is super proud that they made a 60% on Metacritic, but they can be proud of their contributions. And it's a stepping stone. 3) Are you excited by the Rock Star status or the ability to make Rock Star quality games? There's a lot of folks who want to do coke and bang groupies but that don't want to learn to play an instrument. Your first studio is where you're going to learn what you like and don't like about the games industry. Just like your high school romance wasn't for keepsies, but to learn more about what you find attractive in a significant other. Before that first studio, you should be playing around and learning what you like about games. And it may be that you enjoy playing them more than making them, and that's fine - I like to eat more than I like to cook. Aim low, build some successes. There is a lot of low-level bullshit that goes into making a game - go make a snake clone to learn that bullshit. Then go make a tetris clone to learn about the kind of stuff that goes into evaluating a complex game level. Then, eventually, make something that you're designing. Again, keep it achievable and manageable. Check the Making Games Megathread for an idea of what other people are doing in their spare time. Once you're actually in the industry, the amount of side projects you do will likely drop. The reason to do side projects now is that school won't teach you employable skills - it'll only get you half way, with too much broad dabbling and not enough deep expertise-building. So you'll need to augment that on your own with some game-centric projects. Your original post and, to a lesser extent, your newest post seem to indicate a lot more desire to Be In The Industry than to actually do. And that's OK for now - I didn't really know what I wanted to do (and you could argue my career path indicates I still haven't figured that out, either) when I first knew I wanted to be in the industry either. The important thing is to ID that role you want (you will be able to ID it more easily by experimenting with different elements of game programming - tools, rendering, game logic, AI, etc) and then expand your knowledge in that area and develop proficiencies in that area. And you do those last two by doing the thing. The reason everyone says to do side projects is that school won't give you the actual hands-on learning in the areas you need to learn. They'll teach you theory and maybe test some comprehension of that theory, but that isn't enough - reading a lot of books on programming makes you very good at reading books on programming. You've gotta fall off a bike to learn to ride it, etc etc. I had read an awful lot about UV unwrapping 3d models before I actually started doing it and it turns out I was really loving bad at it until I had just done it a bunch of times, and you're going to do the same thing with programming. I don't watch adventure time because I am hella lame but all my friends (or their kids) do, and this is some pretty legit advice: 
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Nov 14, 2014 11:05
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Sigma-X posted:A couple of things: Hey man, the last time I tried to learn an instrument the groupies got in the way. This is all good advice, and I'll add if you don't do (cool) enough side projects and also keep your grades up, you'll end up at a third rate company instead of a second rate company. Like I did. 
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Nov 14, 2014 15:33
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Diametunim posted:...It's funny the more I read this post and what I've written the more I realize that I should be creating stuff for myself and my own enjoyment, not creating pieces for the sole goal of building a portfolio. Well, yeah, I mean, the two are certainly not mutually exclusive. If you're good at what you do, I would probably argue that most things you want to do will be good examples of your skill. Because as your skill expands, so does your idea of what cool stuff to make would be. Build some stuff you want, if you have stuff you want but you don't know how to do it, that's a good thing to learn how to do. Doing level design, apart from the occasional googling of something weird I don't get, I watched a few video tutorials on Hammer, then spent christ knows how many hundreds or thousands of hours loving around in the program making stuff. Bought a copy of Raising the Bar, and some picture books on architecture because environment art is fun, and that lead to me being able to make coherent levels suitable for a game. Also turned out to be a fairly dab hand at particle systems when they released that update to the Source engine because I wanted some neat smoke and fire effects for a level I was making. Time spent fiddling with stuff you find interesting in your discipline is useful time, you get better at it by doing that and it's also a quite good way of producing cool stuff.
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Nov 14, 2014 16:53
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Diametunim posted:My next question though is how? or specifically what should I focus my time on creating? Winter break is coming up and I plan to pick up a C++ book and really try to nail this stuff into my head so I can learn to code from my own brain and not google, and then moving on to creating stuff I care about. Beyond that what else should I work on? Should I work on projects in something like Unity or UE4, or concentrate on building pieces from the ground up myself? I prescribe... game jams! No, seriously, game jams. Do onegameamonth. Also plan on finding the location for Global Game Jam in your area next january, going in blind, and doing that with whatever team you can find onsite. Alonside onegameamonth, you can be doing LD48 entries - I think something like every other month there's an LD48, or a 7DFPS, or whatever else, and your entry for that then becomes your game for the month.
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Nov 14, 2014 17:10
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There are a lot of high paying engineering jobs in the field that don't believe in work-life balance. They just don't pretend it's for the love of the job, but they don't spell it out in the interview every time. It's just assumed you want lots of money and will do what it takes. Ask anyone in oil why they do it and you will get a predictable answer. Sales Engineers drive ungodly numbers of miles for their bonus. Startup engineers work in the middle of nowhere for months on end for serious cash. I think the NASA example is probably the best analogy.
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Nov 14, 2014 17:56
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Shalinor posted:<Scrooge McDuck Doctor Voice> http://www.indiegamejams.com/ There are more jams than grandma's pantry could ever hold. Keep an eye out for local jams too, at least if you live in/near a city of a decent size.
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Nov 14, 2014 18:55
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No second-round interview for Riot  Oh well. Back to work, I guess.
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Nov 14, 2014 20:59
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Diametunim posted:Winter break is coming up and I plan to pick up a C++ book and really try to nail this stuff into my head so I can learn to code from my own brain and not google, and then moving on to creating stuff I care about. Beyond that what else should I work on? Should I work on projects in something like Unity or UE4, or concentrate on building pieces from the ground up myself? This part really stood out to me - I work at a medium sized studio ( > 10, < 50 people ) and the most valuable programmers we have aren't guys who can "code from their brain", but guys who are interested and motivated to go get poo poo done, even if they look it all up online. We would 100% of the time hire a guy with a couple cool UE4 games over a guy who could recite C++ trivia in an interview. I don't mean complex poo poo, I mean (like someone else said) Breakout level stuff. It's an easy interview - we can ask you about what challenges you ran into and how you solved problems, it demonstrates your ability to get poo poo done(TM), and it demonstrates an ability to make a "game" and not just software.
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Nov 14, 2014 21:02
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None of our engineers even knew (and in some cases, hadn't even heard of) our main language before being hired (Haxe)!
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Nov 14, 2014 21:05
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icking fudiot posted:we can ask you about what challenges you ran into and how you solved problems, Yeah I stopped doing knowledge questions a long time ago and started just having idle chats about their work experience and getting them to explain what they did, how they did it, what they were proud of, etc. It really works well at exposing what type of programmer they are and if they can program at all.
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Nov 14, 2014 21:34
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What do you find is your greatest weakness? *writes down some notes
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Nov 14, 2014 22:15
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Buckwheat Sings posted:What do you find is your greatest weakness?
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Nov 14, 2014 22:25
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Buckwheat Sings posted:What do you find is your greatest weakness? My chitin exoskeleton doesn't heal between molting.
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Nov 14, 2014 22:47
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Buckwheat Sings posted:What do you find is your greatest weakness? The container of tootsie rolls I will keep at my desk. I have also discovered it is the weakness of our QA Lead, the programmer who sits next to me, and our Build Engineer. Legit, I had a 280 ct tootsie roll (the cigarette sized ones, not the bite sized ones) that vanished over the course of two weeks. Unfortunately the Chick O Stick replacements have not moved so quickly, which means I'm eating about a million Chick O Sticks.
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Nov 14, 2014 23:16
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"I talk too much" followed by a long silence
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Nov 14, 2014 23:19
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Buckwheat Sings posted:What do you find is your greatest weakness? Sugar. #diabetic
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Nov 14, 2014 23:36
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Buckwheat Sings posted:What do you find is your greatest weakness? I can't not defile a blank whiteboard with weird art. (Corndogs with faces and wildly chubby animals, lately)
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Nov 14, 2014 23:40
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Buckwheat Sings posted:What do you find is your greatest weakness? I think last time I got asked that I said something along the lines of 'I get pissy when people I work with aren't doing their jobs properly' Weirdly, I got offered the job. I guess that's a good answer?
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Nov 14, 2014 23:53
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OwlFancier posted:I think last time I got asked that I said something along the lines of 'I get pissy when people I work with aren't doing their jobs properly'
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Nov 14, 2014 23:56
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Buckwheat Sings posted:What do you find is your greatest weakness? I'm not Goku.
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Nov 15, 2014 00:27
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Shalinor posted:<Scrooge McDuck Doctor Voice> This. This is also my best advice for building a portfolio. Pseudoscorpion posted:No second-round interview for Riot Sorry dude. Riot interviews are a fickle beast. The interview process for one of my friends literally took a year to complete. Studio posted:I'm not Goku.
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Nov 15, 2014 00:46
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devilmouse posted:None of our engineers even knew (and in some cases, hadn't even heard of) our main language before being hired (Haxe)! Hi five Haxe bud!
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Nov 15, 2014 01:10
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superh posted:Hi five Haxe bud!  We've actually talked about become fancy foundation members and paying out for core language features. Now if only the game does well enough to allow that...
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Nov 15, 2014 02:31
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Buckwheat Sings posted:What do you find is your greatest weakness? 
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Nov 15, 2014 05:35
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Buckwheat Sings posted:What do you find is your greatest weakness? I'll preface this by saying that I like this question despite knowing how annoying it is to answer, but I always follow it with 'what steps do you take to address this weakness?' which is equally revealing in other interesting ways. Answers I've generally been impressed with (in conjunction with the more private answers to the second question):
Answers I've been unimpressed with:
This has been late night beer-fueled pontifications with a blowhard designer who hasn't slept much this week, so YMMV.
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Nov 15, 2014 07:12
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Ultimate smugdogmillionaire answer: I try to think of it not as what's my weakness, just what I haven't learnt yet. Because with the right training and right environment I think can I can do anything 
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Nov 15, 2014 09:08
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I can tell that I've leveled up as a producer because I read "what is your greatest weakness" and I'm already reframing it as "I approach the challenge of X by" so that I'm not weak, I'm facing things that are challenging, and I already have an attack plan in place
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Nov 19, 2014 00:04
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I can tell that I'm an engineer because my greatest weakness is my engineering background. "Please implement a weapon that can stab enemies." "Okay... let's see... What if later on we want to slash enemies? Throw the weapon? Use it as ammo for a rocket launcher!? Which software design patterns do I need to apply?" *wastes five hours overengineering poo poo*
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Nov 19, 2014 00:17
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Jan posted:I can tell that I'm an engineer because my greatest weakness is my engineering background. 
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Nov 19, 2014 01:15
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If you click Pro-Mode, does it quadruple the options?
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Nov 19, 2014 01:23
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My real answer, as an artist who occasionally works on UI/UX: -I trust no one, and suspect everyone is lying to me from day one (because they are, they just don't know it yet). -I have trouble reaching a point where I call something 100% final, but it's helped me to frame things in the context of a 'first pass,' 'second pass,' etc. Iteration is a necessary thing, and we rarely every get things right on the first pass. You just end up discovering a bunch of things through playthroughs, usability testing, etc, that may make your initial spec look completely silly. Also: GIT is my kryptonite, please don't make me suffer. Frown Town fucked around with this message at 01:28 on Nov 19, 2014 |
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Nov 19, 2014 01:24
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My answer is to go  and say: "Do you want a real answer or a weakness that is actually a strength?"
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