Tyler
What's the best way to start off a game development career?
Hi! My life long dream has been being a game developer, but don't know the steps to take.
#video-game-design #video-games #computer-games #game-design
3 answers
Bryon Ross
Bryon’s Answer
A lot of people are involved in developing a game: artists, game designers, programmers, testers, marketers, etc. A good first step is to figure out what you'd like your first role to be. Once you figure that out, a good second step is to attend college if you can. If you're looking to become an engineer, a degree in computer science or mathematics can be valuable. If you're looking to become an artist, an art degree can help get you in the door. If you can't attend college, consider joining a smaller gaming company in an entry-level non-technical role (like QA or customer support) from which you can gain skills and grow your career. It's definitely possible to laterally transfer from customer support and QA to product management in a smaller company.
I worked as a software engineer in the gaming industry for about 4 years. A word of warning: the gaming industry can be rough. There can be a constant sprint to meet deadlines . Wages can be lower due to a large supply of willing employees. Job security can evaporate as soon as a game ships or is cancelled. However, it also can be fun and exciting.
Bryon recommends the following next steps:
I figured it was a tough industry to get into and stay in especially with the amount of people who are willing to do it for little pay. Thank you for your answer, it's helped!
Tyler
Omar Yussry
Omar’s Answer
Hi Tyler. I already looked into some useful resources and I think this video you might really need to look into: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZOxxpdbsAo
Thank you!
Tyler
Shubham Singh
Shubham’s Answer
I would recommend C++ for both 2D or 3D, it’s a little harder to grasp at first but once you get started you’ll be on a roll and your body of works will make you someone that will be ready to hire, there are other languages you can learn but it all depends on the answer to the above question.
C++ is probably one of the wider used and most useful languages both inside and outside of game development.
Javascript is useful for making web based, mobile compatible and generally cross platform developments and is not too hard to learn, you’ll be able to release on virtually anything but depending on whether or not you want to target 2D or 3D developments you might notice a significant step in difficulty or issues with devices not supporting things unless you use a well supported 3D framework or html5 engine.
If you want the above with Javascript, look into the Phaser framework, it’s the most useful framework for developing html5 games with JS that I have come across yet, and it’s completely free. If that is the type of development you want to be doing then you’ll absoloutely love the Phaser framework.
C# is a popular choice almost solely because of Unity, there are very few engines that utilise C# for game programming but Unity also supports another language too.
There is another language that is pretty easy to get into, well supported and capable of 2D and 3D developments with a handful of frameworks and engines to choose from… Python.
Alternatively there is Lua with the LÓVE 2D framework.
LUA and Python have to be the easier languages to grasp, but if you want to develop a career not just dabble with game development, then I’d suggest looking into C++ as you’re more likely to get a job after you learn your stuff with C++ than the others, but it all depends on your longer term career goals as well as your personal goals!
Have a little read over the websites for things I’ve mentioned here and SFML which is a C++ framework with a handful of useful learning materials and books, or Unreal Engine 4, which also has an amazing set of resources and a budding community, capable of real 2d and 3d developments.
I hope that helps… Good luck!