Skills of device driver writer for GPU vs Game Developer

I would assume that most of the skills required in both jobs are the same. When I say game Developer, I mean software engineer, not artist. Anyway, both jobs would require:
-excellent programming skills (usually C/C++, but also assembly and for GPU device drivers new releases such as Cg).
-excellent math skills, especially including an excellent understanding of trig as well as calculus and geometry
-communication skills to explain updates and algorithms to others.

Is there anything I've missed? I'm doing this for a class presentation in IST, and I don't want to leave anything out. Thanks.

EDIT: I'm also going to include excellent organization skills, although that is not peculiar to any single type of career

I take it when u say software engineer you are talking about all steps in the development.. planning, development, testing, coding, etc..

perhaps:

- Problem solving skills.
- Teamwork skills.
- Organization skills.
- Planning skills.

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I take it when u say software engineer you are talking about all steps in the development.. planning, development, testing, coding, etc..

perhaps:

- Problem solving skills.
- Teamwork skills.
- Organization skills.
- Planning skills.

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Of course, but in this course they are already implied because almost everyone is doing software engineering or game development for their presentations, and I want to do a different type of software engineer (GPU driver writer) and I want to be able to explain how it is different.

Though my opinion is hardly professional, I would say that game development requires a certain je ne sais quoi that's distinct from other forms of programming. You say "software engineer, not artist", but is it really possible to separate any level of game development completely from art?

To a certain degree game programming skills can only be assessed in their own terms, not in terms of some other stand-alone skill, such as mathematics. While it's doubful that any good game programmer would be crap at maths, I don't think you have to be a mathematics wizard first and then you can become a game programmer. Game programming is an intense art, and as such you can't predict whether a person will be good at it based on a list of abstract criteria.

>> I don't think you have to be a mathematics wizard first and then you can become a game programmer.

i would disagree, you do need to have strong math skills, yeah, you dont have to be an einstein at math but you have to have a good knowledge of math and physics.

TEAMWORK
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all software programming, games or otherwise revolve around a team effort

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you have to have a good knowledge of math and physics.

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all software programming, games or otherwise revolve around a team effort

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But you can't just assess these skills in the abstract outside of game programming. I would say "aptitude" rather than "knowledge". The thing is that game programming might be the first thing that brings out a person's aptitude for maths, physics, teamwork or anything else, because game programming inspires so much passion and is, after all, an art.

>> game programming inspires so much passion and is, after all, an art.

i agree with you, but to think that having a good math base isnt important or that you only need to know game specific math is kinda obsurd....the more you know the better you'll be and the easier it will be to learn

Yeah, okay, you're right about the maths ... although I would specify physics and an aptitude for translating programming/mathmatical concepts into something that's entertaining.

Personally I find the programming part of game programming more of a challenge than the maths, but maybe that's just because I'm new at it...

... on the topic of which, I have a problem with my program right now, maybe you can help out: see my new thread...

I kinda disagree about game programming being an art. I'm going to probably get a lot of flaq from this, but I dont' see how you have to be artistic to program a game. First of all you have to decide what programming a game really means. If you are working on a very small project you aren't just the programmer, but you are making the game itself. When you work as a team, as is the case with professional development, the programmers do not make the game, they make the engine that loads and displays the animated models, but they do not make the models themselves. I think there's a clear distinction there.

I believe that the artistic side of game development is less demanding that the programming stages. On top of that, game design is the key component that leads to successes.