Thread: Writing an article

  1. #1
    Software Developer jverkoey's Avatar
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    Writing an article

    Hey everyone, I'm trying to start an article that will be both informative and fun to read.

    What my plan is, is to get as many people's input on whatever there is about programming that they've done, learned, to get where they are right now. This article is going to be aimed at people who have just recently decided to enter the game development world, and aren't sure where to start.

    Now, like I said above, don't flame me if there's already an article like this, I haven't seen one, so hopefully this one'll be unique.

    Ok, now the questions (I am going to be answering some of these questions myself, lol, but I need as much input as I can get):

    1) How did you start programming?
    2) How old were you when you started programming?
    3) How old are you now?
    4) What was your first programming language?
    5) How many games have you made and what types?
    6) What did you mainly study in High School/College?
    7) Which college did you go to, if any?
    8) Why did you start programming?
    9) Why do you program?
    10) How long does it take for an average game to be developed?
    11) How much money have you made, if any, off of your games?
    12) How much prior experience should you have if you want to start programming?

    I got most of those questions from non-programmers, so I tried to keep them as "un-biased" as I could, lol. If you feel like you want to contribute to this article/essay, just reply here and answer as many of the questions as you can.

    thanks in advance for the input

  2. #2
    Rambling Man
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    I'm only mentioning, not flaming, that there are already a good set of articles, that are aimed for beginners ni game programming, here.

  3. #3
    Software Developer jverkoey's Avatar
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    yah, i know, i'm a frequent gamedev visitor , thing is, I want to make an article that has other programmer's point of views, not just one single person, that way it'll be more diverse

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    I'm not professional, therefore I don't know if you care what I have to say. But I would like to answer these questions and post them, if anything to analyze myself.

    1) How did you start programming?
    2) How old were you when you started programming?
    3) How old are you now?
    4) What was your first programming language?
    5) How many games have you made and what types?
    6) What did you mainly study in High School/College?
    7) Which college did you go to, if any?
    8) Why did you start programming?
    9) Why do you program?
    10) How long does it take for an average game to be developed?
    11) How much money have you made, if any, off of your games?
    12) How much prior experience should you have if you want to start programming?
    1 - I started after talking to my cousin, who is an electrical engineer. He gave me borland 5.02
    2 - This is a bad question, I 'started' middle of freshman year (14) but I didn't start learning a damn thing until beginning of 10th grade
    3 - I'm 16 (feb 27) but I turn 17 tomorrow, so that's almost 3 years since I 'started'
    4 - C++
    5 - Never developed a full game so far. I made a ping pong ball that bounced around the screen with SDL. I never goofed around with text based games, my friend and I are developing a game in opengl and it's coming along awesome. It will be very fun to play and have a lot of functionality. (released by this summer).
    6 - As much math and science as I can, by the time I'm out of hs I will have 6 math courses under my belt (college integrated math I, col int math II, honors int math III, honors int math IV, college trig/precalc, college calculus) as well as college IPS, college biology, honors chemistry and honors physics as well as information systems technology (I use my class time to work on the game with my friend)
    7 - Not in college yet, applying to digipen, rochester institute of technology, wentworth IT, and the university of maine, in that order
    8 - I started programming because the hellish ambience of doom has affected me more than anything in my life; more than being in love with a girl or getting into a fight
    9 - I program because it's a fun, rewarding, intellectual pursuit that is never finished. That and OpenGL kicks ass!
    10 - 3 * 10^8 meters per second
    11 - -$2
    12 - No opinion. I was a complete dumbass when I started programming, and I would say today I am more competent than at least 50% of programmers my age, when I'm motivated.

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    Re: Writing an article

    Originally posted by jverkoey
    1) How did you start programming?
    2) How old were you when you started programming?
    3) How old are you now?
    4) What was your first programming language?
    5) How many games have you made and what types?
    6) What did you mainly study in High School/College?
    7) Which college did you go to, if any?
    8) Why did you start programming?
    9) Why do you program?
    10) How long does it take for an average game to be developed?
    11) How much money have you made, if any, off of your games?
    12) How much prior experience should you have if you want to start programming?
    1) I was always into building things (maps,models), I just felt
    like doing it on a lower level.
    2) 14
    3) 15
    4) A basic version of basic on my calculator
    5) 0, All my program where for learning purpose only
    6) Math,Physics
    7) None yet
    8) I got a very advanced calculator once, Wich was programmable
    9) Silly question, Isn't it magnificent to create your own programs?
    10) 2 years
    11) Didly sqoid
    12) A certain age like 12, Some math (1+1=2), Patience, Determenation, Motivation
    --

  6. #6
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    1+1=2
    in boolean algebra it's 1!

    HEHEHEHAHAHAHAHEHEHAHAAHHEHEHEHAHAHAEHEHAHAHEHAHEH AHAHEHAEHEHAHEHAHEHAEAHEHAEHEHAEHEYAYILLSTFU

  7. #7
    cereal killer dP munky's Avatar
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    Re: Writing an article

    Originally posted by jverkoey

    1) How did you start programming?
    2) How old were you when you started programming?
    3) How old are you now?
    4) What was your first programming language?
    5) How many games have you made and what types?
    6) What did you mainly study in High School/College?
    7) Which college did you go to, if any?
    8) Why did you start programming?
    9) Why do you program?
    10) How long does it take for an average game to be developed?
    11) How much money have you made, if any, off of your games?
    12) How much prior experience should you have if you want to start programming?
    1.)Took a Computer Technology corse at vocational school
    2.)16
    3.)19
    4.)VB, then COBOL, but now c/c++
    5.)3, 1."pick a number and the computer will guess" 2.ASCII based trivial/boxing game, 3.catch falling tiles off of roof
    6.)the stuff you study in high school 'zzzzzzzz'
    7.)@ digipen now
    8.)wanted to get into game programming
    9.)i wont say its fun, but its fun to be a part of a project, knowing that when your product is done, you did this lil part ("sweet, you see that life bar, i made that biaaatch")
    10.)now about 4 months, in "the real world" 18-24 months
    11.)-$16000(student loans)
    12.)none, just have to have an open mind and be a logical thinker...or want to be (math/science will help you)
    guns dont kill people, abortion clinics kill people.

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    11.)-$16000(student loans)
    ahahahahaha lol

  9. #9
    Software Developer jverkoey's Avatar
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    Re: Writing an article

    Originally posted by jverkoey

    1) How did you start programming?
    2) How old were you when you started programming?
    3) How old are you now?
    4) What was your first programming language?
    5) How many games have you made and what types?
    6) What did you mainly study in High School/College?
    7) Which college did you go to, if any?
    8) Why did you start programming?
    9) Why do you program?
    10) How long does it take for an average game to be developed?
    11) How much money have you made, if any, off of your games?
    12) How much prior experience should you have if you want to start programming?
    I'm going to answer my own question, just for sake of argument

    1) I got a ti83+ calculator and wanted to figure out how one of the games on there worked (it was some weird racing game where you have to avoid the walls)
    2) I was 13 I think
    3) 15
    4) TIBASIC
    5) .........wow, I can't count that many off the top of my head....on the calculator: 100's, on the computer: (opengL) about 5 that are decent (Dos) 3 text based games (many different types)
    6) Still in High School, but I'm trying to focus on Math and physics stuff, right now I'm in Accelerated Algebra II, and am going in to Accelerated Pre-calc next year (odd name, eh?), took a C++ programming class, but I had already taught myself the language, so it was an easy 100%
    7) not in college yet, plannin' on going to MIT, then DigiPen
    8) I started programming because I love the thrill of being able to create your own world and have complete control over it, and I think I kinda have a natural flair for it
    9) Answered that above ^^
    10) Well, for me, I can develop a basic "demo" of a game in about one weekend at minimum (my quickest full game I made was in about 2 weeks, and that was my first opengl game, Asteridiaz)
    11) well, haven't made any off my games, but I did make a dollar the other day for one of my math programs, lol (you could type in an equation and it would type out all the possible answers, with work shown)
    12) I'd say....at least some background in computers, and you HAVE to be decent at math if you want to do game programming, unless you're just making........pong.......or something

  10. #10
    cereal killer dP munky's Avatar
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    Originally posted by Silvercord
    ahahahahaha lol
    ::looks around:: dont see YOU at digipen
    guns dont kill people, abortion clinics kill people.

  11. #11
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    ::looks around:: dont see YOU at digipen
    Umm...this is true, I just thought it was funny. My second choice school costs more than twice as much as digipen.

  12. #12
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    Originally posted by dP munky
    ::looks around:: dont see YOU at digipen
    Pah, Don't need DigiPen to write me a game
    --

  13. #13
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    just to be fair though digipen offers a lot of really cool courses. I can guarantee I wouldn't be able to obtain a deep understanding of a lot of the math oriented subjects without working with someone who knows what they're doing.

  14. #14
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    Yes, But i think people are taking this DigiPen a little too serious,
    Like you MUST go there to be a good game programmer. I din't
    see carmack going there in his student days...
    --

  15. #15
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    carmack didn't going anywhere. Carmack is an exceptional case.

    he was doing a lot of things before anyone else actually implemented them, when there werent' tutorials on the web to read or loads of resources to reach out to when he was stuck.

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