Hi, I'm 19, starting my second year at University (studying Physics With Computer Simulation, 4 year MPhys course) next week, and I'm "kind of" interested in going into game development on a more professional basis. I'm by far not sure if I'll eventually want to do that for a permanent living, but I'm thinking I should get my foot in the door while I'm still at uni and don't desperately need the momey just yet. My plan is to get work experience placements during the next few summer holidays (July-Sept 2004 and 2005). My professional experience in the game industry is nonexistant, other previous work experience is -SQL/ASP programming (internal as well as client) and server/network admin for a web development and publishing company. (3 months) -Off and-on setting up client networks for a small company in my home town -setting up the entire network of the school at which my mum teaches -writing a small to medium sized app for my dad's work (but I eventually never got paid so I open-sourced it; I still maintain it as it's been in use for the last 3 years by a number of people which work with my dad and at similar institutions) I have very positive references from all, but I'm assuming that the SQL/ASP job is the only one which will have any relevance whatsoever (if any). At least they're all techy. The web/publishing company also offered me to come back any time (even at short notice) for either temp or freelance work, so I have a financial fallback; plus it means they were happy with my performance, which has given me a considerable boost in confidence. Game-related stuff has all been self-study over the last 4 years, and I've been programming in my free time since I was 9. I pretty much know the ins and outs of VB (~8yr) C++ (4yr), and DirectX 7-9 (4yr). I've developed under i386 (Win32 and Linux) as well as (briefly) HP-PA RISC (Linux), old HP palmtops and TI calculators. I'm currently upping my SDL+OpenGL and cross-platform development skills. I also did assembly language programming for the last half year, with a focus on MMX, 3DNow and SSE/2, as I don't anticipate to ever write very much of it, and certainly not a complete project. I know plenty of irrelevant languages too (Fortran90, PHP, ASP, SQL, Pascal, etc.). My current plans are to tidy up my existing codebase, write a small engine with a demo, and then (time permitting) start a small game based on that, as a small portfolio, with which I can apply to game development studios for a work experience placement local to where I can live. (home, uni, girlfriend's place) Unfortunately, I've been too stupid/lazy to think about this for longer in advance, so my existing work is quite messy and I'm not very happy with it, plus I wasted my time believing in a project which was too big. All I'm interested in from this thread is (a) have holes picked in my plan for fundamental or minor flaws (b) finding out about any other steps I could take to improve chances of being accepted somewhere. (c) general comments or words of {en|dis}couragement. EDIT: (d) how long in advance should I apply? This is a trade-off between planning and the size of my portfolio; any ideas? (e) can I put stuff in my portfolio which has been a joint effort of myself and one other person [this would speed up development] or would that potentially cause more harm than it's worth? Finally, I'm in this primarily for experience, and secondly for money. I can't afford to work for free, unless it's some kind of 2-week trial period after which I do get paid - I've heard of people who successfully did this, no idea if it's true. - JQ Yes I do have holidays at the moment. And yes, that does explain the increased posting. [edited by - JonnyQuest on October 2, 2003 7:07:58 PM]

Make games for a living? DON''T DO IT! FLEE! FLEE!

Doesn''t sound like a bad plan. There are several articles on how to get into the games industry (I think Gamedev just published an excerpt by a book edited by Bob Bates that covers that very topic). If your university is in a town next to a game developer, maybe you can do some intern work there to help get your foot in the door.

Everybody''s story for getting into the games industry is a little different. I''m not sure what studios are looking for now, but it''s hard to beat experience. Someone who knows what it takes to make a game and get it out the door is invaluable. If nothing else, one good, complete, SOLID demo of your work is probably better than anything else.

There is one thing that all employers shall be more interested in than just demo that everybody supplies. Obviously it is a completed game .
The difference to playable demo is that a demo is playable with maybe 15% of whole work made. I know, when you make the demo you`ll feel that it`s just "few more things" and it is finished. But those "few more things" take up more than 75% of the time. Making menus, HUD, Load/Save, Config file, transition screens, more cool levels and especially debugging and making it work on other machines, all of this takes hell of a time compared to a first playable level.

Since you have TWO MORE years while you finish the school, I think that your best bet is to make _whole_ game by yourself from start to finish and publish it online on net. Since you already have some experience with gamedev, start with something smaller than you did previously.

During those 2 years many things shall change in industry, but a COMPLETED GAME shall count always because you did all by yourself. Of course, do just programming and outsource the music&sfx and some 3d modelling. Textures can be found free everywhere if you look hard enough, or if you spend some $100 for a good high quality texture pack.

Only problem then might be that you either realize that it`s not for you (especially after you realize that more than half of remaining work is spent on details and nothing major has changed for more than half year, and you still aren`t finished) or you realize after it gets to sale (Go with online distributors and make your download under 10 MB.) that you may have a living off it.


VladR
Avenger 3D game