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So you want to be a video game programmer? - The Specs
61–70 of 84 posts
Re: So you want to be a video game programmer? - The Specs
#62I wish people would stop glorifying how many hours they work and how little sleep they get, "You need to live without sleep (4 hours a night every day for years baby!)." Sounds juvenile to me.
It's likely bravado from college days. I remember overhearing many conversations at school where students would brag about pulling their second all-nighter in a particular week. I could only think that they were doing something wrong. If your work load is requiring you to stay up for more than 16-18 hours a day, then you're either doing too much or you're really inefficient.
A metric of success, to me, is being able to make money while you're asleep. You'll never escape the chains of the cubicle if you don't work smart.
Re: So you want to be a video game programmer? - The Specs
#63Video games are an interesting phenomenon. They manage to pack many of the most interesting problems of computer science into one of the most superficial, yet profitable, applications. They're kind of like the warping of space time, an anomaly of extremes that manages to relentlessly suck brilliant minds away due to its siren call. And yes, I love video games, and considered working in the field. But, stepping back y…
But, stepping back you realize there are more important things to work on, and more useful ways to spend your time
Such as lecturing people on Hacker News?
Re: So you want to be a video game programmer? - The Specs
#64Video games are an interesting phenomenon. They manage to pack many of the most interesting problems of computer science into one of the most superficial, yet profitable, applications. They're kind of like the warping of space time, an anomaly of extremes that manages to relentlessly suck brilliant minds away due to its siren call. And yes, I love video games, and considered working in the field. But, stepping back y…
One game. Dwarf Fortress.
It is a game totally worth consuming your life. It have too much depth and there's so much to learn. Designing your own defense system, figuring out how to satisfy and juggle the requirement of your fortress, and so on. It's mind expanding. Other than that, I like killing and skewing globins.
Someday, I'll be able to handle trapping globins and use them to automate my fortress.
Re: So you want to be a video game programmer? - The Specs
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
Read the last sentence before taking quotes out of context - "being a lead is all about responsibility". If you're the lead and things start going south on your project then you'd better be prepared to start leading and taking on whatever is needed to get your game shipped. I know it's cool to preach about working smarter instead of harder, but getting a game out of the door and into a box usually requires large dose…
The game industry puts this type of workload on more than just leads and managers - the rank and file toil for long hours with miserable pay (compared to the rest of the industry). There are a few exceptions to the rule - studios where life resembles something like normal, and crunch time is an anomaly, not year-round. They are few and far between though. I grew up in Vancouver where EA has its largest studio presenc…
Games are the worst type of time waste, a dopamine inducing addiction that is extremely difficult to get rid of. Fortunately, it's mostly kids that are hooked on it and they have plenty of time to waste. The whole lot of them outgrow it (as I did).
Video games serve no purpose whatsoever other than to line someone's pockets with money.
Re: So you want to be a video game programmer? - The Specs
#66Video games are an interesting phenomenon. They manage to pack many of the most interesting problems of computer science into one of the most superficial, yet profitable, applications. They're kind of like the warping of space time, an anomaly of extremes that manages to relentlessly suck brilliant minds away due to its siren call. And yes, I love video games, and considered working in the field. But, stepping back y…
One game. Dwarf Fortress. It is a game totally worth consuming your life. It have too much depth and there's so much to learn. Designing your own defense system, figuring out how to satisfy and juggle the requirement of your fortress, and so on. It's mind expanding. Other than that, I like killing and skewing globins. Someday, I'll be able to handle trapping globins and use them to automate my fortress.
Right on!
A game like dwarf-fortress is a 6+ year labour of love from its creators (and its players!), and screw anyone who says dedication like that is wasting your life.
And more broadly, a game is as artistic & life-changing as the developer is able or willing to make it.
Re: So you want to be a video game programmer? - The Specs
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'd have to content that my own games (Crash + Jak) are far far less buggy than the typical web or desktop application. We had a VERY low tolerance for bugs. I NEVER EVER shipped with a known crash bug (there were some I didn't know about of course). As entertainment we always felt that the consumer had zero tolerance for bugs. Something like MS Word is riddled with serious bugs that don't get fixed major release aft…
Well, FWIW, I'm glad someone is still making games with some eye on quality. Personally I basically gave up AAA games around four years ago, after three big disappointments. Crysis should have been great but had all kinds of problems even on high-end hardware. Supreme Commander should have been great, except that a major selling point was its world-scale maps but if you actually played a full on game on such a map yo…
I play only a small number of games and these were very good:
Mass effect 1 & 2 on xbox360. Starcraft 2 on mac. Halo series was alright.
Try playing on a console, it'll be more stable.
Re: So you want to be a video game programmer? - The Specs
#68Video games are an interesting phenomenon. They manage to pack many of the most interesting problems of computer science into one of the most superficial, yet profitable, applications. They're kind of like the warping of space time, an anomaly of extremes that manages to relentlessly suck brilliant minds away due to its siren call. And yes, I love video games, and considered working in the field. But, stepping back y…
People like this creep me out. Thank god we live in a society that has free choice of work.
Oh, come on now. There's a bit of a difference here.
We can all agree that getting regular exercise and eating well is a good idea, and stuffing your face with junk food every day a bad one, without thinking either should be something enforced by society upon people.
Re: So you want to be a video game programmer? - The Specs
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
Read the last sentence before taking quotes out of context - "being a lead is all about responsibility". If you're the lead and things start going south on your project then you'd better be prepared to start leading and taking on whatever is needed to get your game shipped. I know it's cool to preach about working smarter instead of harder, but getting a game out of the door and into a box usually requires large dose…
I agree somewhat. Yes, a lead has more responsibility, and will work as hard as the other team members. Sometimes they may have to push to get the product shipped. That is a completely different thing than four hours of sleep a night for years.
It's all of the above. As lead you have to fill in, to do what no one else wants to do, to keep try of all the things that need to be done in the say 48 hours to the next deadline and sort them by priority. But you often have to work just as long as the longest worker on the team if only out of solidarity. It's important that no one can ever say to you: "You took it easy, while I did the work."
This principle is why Caesar, Alexander, and Napoleon were all beloved by their men. They dug in there with everyone else. Slept on the ground. Rode first into battle. All that. It seems silly, but don't underrate it. I can't tell you how many times someone would come to me at 4 in the morning before a deadline and say how much they appreciated that I was there. No one wants to feel used.
Re: So you want to be a video game programmer? - The Specs
#70Should be re-titled to "so you want to be a video game programmer at a large studio".
Why? I'm very NOT large studio oriented. I don't think anything stated in my post (which is just part of a larger series I'm writing) is even about studio size. In this particular post I'm just broadly breaking down some of the sub-specialities inherent in the process of programming video games. In a web app you need more network and database programmers, in a video game you need graphics and sound programmers. It's just practical sense. The same guys might do these tasks, but if you like advanced 3D graphics and get a kick out of it -- get a programming job that involves graphics!