Game Jobs Megathread: Wear clean underwear to avoid the smellz.

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Game Jobs Megathread: Wear clean underwear to avoid the smellz.

Sam.: Jan 1, 2009; "I thought we had something, Shepard. Something real."

Hughlander posted:

That's no secret. It's Quizzno's platter subs. 6 nights a week. For 13 months.

It took the team YEARS to even look at a Quizno's without turning 4 shades of green.

Not Chinese food?

# ¿ Jun 4, 2011 01:32

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# ¿ May 17, 2024 00:07

Sam.: Jan 1, 2009; "I thought we had something, Shepard. Something real."

Is C# worth learning, or does most of the industry still use C++?

# ¿ Jun 6, 2011 01:21

Sam.: Jan 1, 2009; "I thought we had something, Shepard. Something real."

Does whether it's a Bachelors or Masters matter much, and what kind of portfolio should a programmer have?

# ¿ Jun 22, 2011 21:08

Sam.: Jan 1, 2009; "I thought we had something, Shepard. Something real."

Nagna Zul posted:

Well, I've been working as a Gameplay Programmer for 6 months now.

I initially wanted to get a design job, and I spent months sending out applications and going to interviews for entry level design jobs. I ended up taking a programmer job thinking I'd eventually move sideways into a design job after a while.

But at this point I'm starting to think that might not be the best idea. I'm starting to get used to working as a programmer, and I actually quite like it. I'm beginning to think I should just forget about making the switch and just stay as a programmer.

I have a programming background, meaning five years of studying computer science. I have no formal game design training, and while I have designed games and read a lot about game design, I'm a lot less confident in my design skill than in my programming skill.

Plus, after seeing what designers have to do on a daily basis, I'm not sure I could handle it. It seems like a lot of arguing and running around. My current job can be pretty stressful at times, and I don't know if I really want a more stressful daily life.

I don't know. Play it safe as a programmer, or ask for a design job and possibly regret it?

What kind of portfolio did you have when you got hired?

# ¿ Jul 22, 2011 19:44

Sam.: Jan 1, 2009; "I thought we had something, Shepard. Something real."

Black Eagle posted:

I did not know Nikola Tesla was a game designer.

# ¿ Sep 12, 2011 01:32

Sam.: Jan 1, 2009; "I thought we had something, Shepard. Something real."

mutata posted:

I'm gonna ask this question again as the answer to the last time it was asked is buried under a huge pile of fashion.

I'm an artist who isn't satisfied in his personal work with just stopping at static assets, and I'd like to get into making little games and dabbling with functionality and such on my own time. As such, I need to start learning to program.

As far as past experience, I've done the usual html/css junk which is hardly considered any kind of programming at this point, as well as extremely limited actionscript (like making a thing move, linking buttons, looping animations, that kind of stuff). In other words, not much experience at all.

I'm wondering if there's a programming book or website that people would recommend to someone like me? I'm not the type of artist who's adverse to learning to code, and back when I used to do math, I wasn't bad at it, though I'm planning on starting up on Khan Academy to start to relearn all the stuff I've forgotten.

I would like to eventually use UDK and/or Unity to start with and go from there, but I'm also looking for more general programming knowledge as well (in otherwords, I'm more concerned with learning the concepts as opposed to specializing in a specific engine over another).

Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie's "The C Programming Language". It's very well written, concise and to the point (a lot of modern programming books are bloated, just like modern programs). Sure, the latest edition is from 1989, but C hasn't changed since then, and since it's old it's cheap. Learning C first is probably better then jumping straight into C++.

# ¿ Sep 13, 2011 23:41

Sam.: Jan 1, 2009; "I thought we had something, Shepard. Something real."

Doesn't Source still use some code from Quake?

GetWellGamers posted:

Oh, wait, I've got one. I saw a similar incident once with a rigger talking about "boning a model" in the presence of a waitress and getting shot a dirty look.

That one's even better.

# ¿ Sep 26, 2011 01:31

Sam.: Jan 1, 2009; "I thought we had something, Shepard. Something real."

devilmouse posted:

One of my go-to interview moves for content and narrative designers is to steer the conversation towards one of their favorite pieces of fiction, be it books, tv, or film. We'll talk a bit about it, what attracted them to it, what works and what didn't, and so forth until the big reveal when I ask them to make it into a Facebook game. Brothers K as a FB game?! Oh such fun there would be!

My favorite was when a guy started was gushing about Dexter. Trying to make Dexter aspirational for middle-aged women? Good times!

Gravity's Rainbow as a Facebook game.

# ¿ Dec 10, 2011 21:55

Sam.: Jan 1, 2009; "I thought we had something, Shepard. Something real."

Jan posted:

There were so many conditionals which had 2-3 side effects, cryptic one-letter variables and, of course, absolutely no comments through it all. I'm really not trying to be dramatic when I say it was traumatizing.

In other words, it's an accurate reproduction of real-life physics.

# ¿ Jan 16, 2012 22:48

Sam.: Jan 1, 2009; "I thought we had something, Shepard. Something real."

mutata posted:

I think it's interesting to see SOE switching to more action - oriented games. Is the age of the MMO over? Is there any new MMO that's doing really well anymore? I wonder how Titan will adapt to what's happened to the MMO scene since WoW came out.

The people who make World of Tanks are rolling in dough right now.

# ¿ May 25, 2012 00:42

Sam.: Jan 1, 2009; "I thought we had something, Shepard. Something real."

Shalinor posted:

If there's more than 3 dogs sleeping under your office's porch, you might be an indie.

If you've got to flatten from trunk to find working code, you might be an indie.

If you own 3 development devices that work and 4 that don't, you might be an indie.

Indies even have their words. Like "sensuous." They were all "Hey Anita Sarkeesian, sensuous up on Kickstarter, get ma' a beer!"

If you're spending your own money on a project, you might be an indie.

# ¿ Jun 23, 2012 03:01

Sam.: Jan 1, 2009; "I thought we had something, Shepard. Something real."

Is it possible to move sideways between programming software and games, or does the experience not translate over very well?

# ¿ Sep 3, 2014 22:10

Sam.: Jan 1, 2009; "I thought we had something, Shepard. Something real."

Is it better to specialize or to have a broad skillset?

I'm working on a CS degree now, and I'm pretty sure I want to be a programmer. But I'm also interested in writing and design. Is there such a thing as a programmer who also does that? Would I be better off using my electives to study writing or more CS (though some of the hours have to be non-CS - if I decide to go with pure programming, what would be the most useful field for those)? And within CS, are my chances of getting a job better if I specialize or not?

# ¿ Dec 29, 2014 18:16

Sam.: Jan 1, 2009; "I thought we had something, Shepard. Something real."

Thanks for all the advice!

What's the best way to build up my resume over the summer? It seems like gaming doesn't have internships as much as other fields (at my school's CS job fair there were hundreds of companies and only one game studio). Should I get a software internship (any particular field?), work on mods and stuff (which is what I've been doing so far, but a little extra money would be nice), or am I just not looking hard enough for game internships?

# ¿ Dec 30, 2014 22:53

Sam.: Jan 1, 2009; "I thought we had something, Shepard. Something real."

I'm in Austin. What good studios are there in that area?

# ¿ Dec 31, 2014 05:17

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# ¿ May 17, 2024 00:07

Sam.: Jan 1, 2009; "I thought we had something, Shepard. Something real."

What's the best way to put mod work on your resume? How do you convey the work that went into it and the skills you've learned to a recruiter who's probably never done any modding themselves (I'm looking for any programming internship I can get, games or software, and this is really the only project I've done)?

# ¿ Feb 4, 2015 23:25

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