[SELVERGTR7]

was thinking of doing something with developing

but cant decide if its worth going to school or learning online

would love to take some advice from experienced ones

 

[Synergy]

Getting to be a pretty crowded space. I have a friend who runs a very successful iOS and Android app dev shop and he says that business is slowing down. He built the FedEx, Walmart and many other apps.

 

[biznaka]

I have been coding for about 12 years now... This is going to be long, but hopefully not too long.

If you want to start out coding, it's very important to have a good mentor. Although you can learn a lot from reading a book or taking classes, you should always have someone review the code that you wrote. For example, if I were someone wanting to learn how to code, I start out developing on my own and submit my applications, you will run into bugs or issues and will have no-one to review your code, which is very important. Not only is it important for bugs, but even more so, it's important to learn how to code efficiently. You may write 35000 lines of code and think your program is badass because it works! However, the guy next to you wrote the same thing in 300 lines -- quite a difference when it may take you time and effort to debug so many lines.

The second thing that you will want to do, is start out on the easy stuff that makes sense. For every programmer, this is very different -- but I always recommend java as a starter. It's multi-platform and makes more sense when you create logic. Stanford is great and offers free online classes for you to review: http://see.stanford.edu/see/courses.aspx

The third, and more obvious, you must practice quite often. This will help you down the line when you are caught in situations that require a lot of time and effort to diagnose.

-------

I'm currently writing a book on coding! Hopefully it will be worth reading someday...

Good luck!

 

[SELVERGTR7]

Getting to be a pretty crowded space. I have a friend who runs a very successful iOS and Android app dev shop and he says that business is slowing down. He built the FedEx, Walmart and many other apps.

yeah i bet it is since lots of people want to do it

 

[SELVERGTR7]

I have been coding for about 12 years now... This is going to be long, but hopefully not too long.

If you want to start out coding, it's very important to have a good mentor. Although you can learn a lot from reading a book or taking classes, you should always have someone review the code that you wrote. For example, if I were someone wanting to learn how to code, I start out developing on my own and submit my applications, you will run into bugs or issues and will have no-one to review your code, which is very important. Not only is it important for bugs, but even more so, it's important to learn how to code efficiently. You may write 35000 lines of code and think your program is badass because it works! However, the guy next to you wrote the same thing in 300 lines -- quite a difference when it may take you time and effort to debug so many lines.

The second thing that you will want to do, is start out on the easy stuff that makes sense. For every programmer, this is very different -- but I always recommend java as a starter. It's multi-platform and makes more sense when you create logic. Stanford is great and offers free online classes for you to review: http://see.stanford....ee/courses.aspx

The third, and more obvious, you must practice quite often. This will help you down the line when you are caught in situations that require a lot of time and effort to diagnose.

-------

I'm currently writing a book on coding! Hopefully it will be worth reading someday...

Good luck!

thanks man, this is great... im assuming you learned most online since it was different back then?

 

[SELVERGTR7]

couple other dudes gave me some advice.....

learn level design
learn gameplay design
learn texture design
learn sound recording
learn programming graphics engines
learn programming physics engines
learn programming artificial intelligence
learn a few more things

easy

 

[SELVERGTR7]

and this one...

Also the best way to not get hired if you want to be a programmer professionally. This isn't 10-15 years ago where you could get a job with a couple of cool demos. Unless you know somebody then you aren't even getting an interview without a degree. The market is completely saturated now. There are metric tonnes of kids out there with cool demos and degrees now. If you just want to make games on your own time and mess around then yes, going to school is a complete waste of time.

If you actually want to be a game programmer then don't waste your time with the "game design" schools. Get a traditional computer science degree instead. Its going to go a lot further and will be much more useful if you decide games aren't want you want to do. Even in the industry lots of companies won't even look at people from game design schools. Whether its right or wrong, I know our hiring manager lets out a big LOL when he sees somebody from FullSail and promptly throws it in the trash.

I'd suggest staying away from C++ if you don't have any previous experience. Something like Python will hide all the nasty details from you to let you to let you concentrate on making games instead of worry about system details. Once you get comfortable with that you can branch out to other things like C++. I use ActionScript and Java at work, so certainly don't get in the mindset that its C++ or nothing if you want to get a job.