Hey
im 19, i like video games, i dont know what i want to do with my life
I have no idea how the aussie game industry works
can anyone throw some advice my way or some links in regards to anything at all
are there many companies employing people?
do you have to put in the financial backing and work yourself and then try and find a publisher who will take interest in one of your games?
absolutely anything that would basically explain the whole process to me
i realize its cutthroat and im not affraid of hard work, i just want to find something in life that will earn me money and ill enjoy
so far i have puzled out that there is
coding
or
the animation/level design side of things
the later is what im interested in
anyway enough of this ramble
hit me with the knowledge
Just be careful that this is what you want to do, if you are slightly unsure I would suggest getting a University degree in the relevant field, so if you want to do programming get a Computer Science Degree, or if you like art get a Multimedia or other Arts degree. I say this because if you go and get training (at a TAFE, QUATAM (sp?), or the AIE) and you don't really like the industry then you would have wasted at least a year doing very specific training, whereas if you went and did a University degree (granted it's longer) you would have the expertise to go into another similar field. Also during University you could really find out the other areas that you might want to do, rather than Games.
Although the best of luck to you regardless to what you do.
Ok thanks for the reply guys, i'll start some heavy reading of those sites mentioned when i get back from the doctor.
game testers actually get payed !?!
quote:Originally posted by JonathanKerr
PS - if you wanna work in games, you'd probably have to do more than just 'like' videogames. Every user on this site here - eat, lives and breathes them!
when i say like i mean... wake up around 1pm play games till about 3am repeat process five days a week, get pist on friday/saturday.
bah! whos sleeps. Thats not love.
Seriously.
1. Download Gmax or get a copy of Maya/Softimage learning edition modelling packages. model organic beings, not guns, not cars, not spaceships, not robots, organic has the hardest learning curve and you want to get used too (and enjoy)challenges in this biz, right guys. [P]
2. Get a map editor, Unreal tournement 2003 etc. Make a level or 100.
3. Try the lot too, illustrate, animate, model and texture, find which you have natural talent at and refine, refine refine. If you can do all your way more employable.
4. Check out tutorial and forum sites, Sumea, polycount.com, cgtalk.com etc.
5. Study if you have the cash, be it Tafe, Uni, AIE or QANTM.
6. Get use to rejection.
7. Believe in your ability, but be honest, do you have what it takes compared to others, find a really, really good industry idol/hero/god and try better them.
8. Make contacts.
9. Get use to rejection.
10. Ignore the rejection because you rock!!! [:P]
Hope that helps and good luck.
Malus.
what i usually say to anyone thats looking at being a coder is:
do u like maths, physics, science, maths, and maths.
because thats about all i ever do, coding is alot of maths
making the game work and all the physics...
theres not a second in the day im not thinking about code, some times even when i sleep i dream code.
be an artist you'll loose less hair and have a better chance of picking up chicks.
btw, i love code and couldnt live without it.
Sorry to semi-hijack this thread - Is there really that much math in the realm of computer games programming? I'm good for maths, but I kind of was under the impression it was starting to take a bit of a backseat in games programming (aside from the obvious physics applications).
Maths is no substitute for chicks, damn being a programmer!
I'm not sure that just loving games is enough...it's part of it for sure, but there are lots of other factors/desirable characteristics. Self-motivation is important, work ethic, things like that. Once you do this kind of job for so many years, although it's fun, it does degrade into essentially a "job". I'm not speaking from experience though, I'm just a Uni student :)
Maths is only less used in programming these days because it is all done for you. 3D (and 2D) graphics, sound, physics, AI, all have a LOT of math involved with them, however mostly you have it wrapped up enough that you won't have to worry about it much unless you're developing the engines that do the graphics/physics etc.
It's the same with sorting/searching etc. algorithms. You hardly touch them these days, because you already have something (eg. STL) that does it for you. However, once again, if you're working on the low level engine bits and pieces you will need to use these.
It's always good to know how these things (algorithms, maths) work, in case you ever do need to use them. Even if you can't remember them off the top of your head, at least you will know what you are looking for!
CYer, Blitz
No replies so far, so I'd better chip in.
Yes, there is coding and animation/level design and if you've played a few videogames in your time then you'll notice there's a bit more as well.
There are lots of general and specific jobs in the industry - art, music, sound fx, coding, animation, design, testing, administration, marketing. And each of these have their own subset ie: Art departments might consist of a concept artist, 3d modellers, animators, texture artists etc... and depending on the size of the company they might be broken into different areas like enemy artists, background artists, boss artists, character artists. But that's only at the really big ones - most Aussie companies are smaller in comparison to their overseas counterparts so often they expect you to be good at 2 or more categories - ie modelling and texturing...
Basically there's too much stuff to go into - we don't really have an idea of how much knowledge you have or where to start. So try these links and read everything you can on their sites that interest you:
www.gamasutra.com
www.gamedev.com
If you wanna know about game companies in Aussie click on the sumea link at the top of the page that says 'Developers'. Then go through all their sites at your leisure.
You sound unsure of what you want to do with yourself - but I would recommend one of the courses in Australia that can teach a bit about this sort of stuff.
PS - if you wanna work in games, you'd probably have to do more than just 'like' videogames. Every user on this site here - eat, lives and breathes them!