Transition from business to game programming

Question

Does anyone have any idea how it would be possible to transition from business to game programming? How would anyone get a start in game programming? It seems much more exciting and rewarding (better paying too?). But it seems like most of the jobs out of school are for business programming. Any advice or insight on how to do it or if it can be done?

Answer 1

I was wondering the same thing!

I've noticed there are a number of good game-programming books at Barnes & Nobles, probably not a bad place to start.

In general though, I'd start looking at books, maybe coding some prototypes, and start looking at what companies are in your area, what tools they use, how you could basically make yourself valuable to them!

By the way, does anyone happen to know if there are particular engines similar to what WOW / Guild Wars are using for MMORPG game development in particular (my main interest)?

Answer 2

The general story is that the way to get into game programming is to start doing it. There's no point in even showing up on a game company's doorstep without a demo of whatever you want them to pay you to do.

If you're coming out of business programming, that'll count against you and be a culture shock besides. The game industry runs on single 20-something males who can be taught that 120-hour work weeks are just how things are done.

Answer 3

If you're a good programmer you can do it, game programming requires much better understanding of the platforms and tools you use to develop the games.

I think it's much harder to get into the game programming industry than just the regular industry.

The best alternative is to create your own games, get exposure, if you're good enough you'll find your way.

There are many really good competitors though, just check out the many sites that offer free flash games, you can start posting your work to those sites.

Answer 4

I think it is not an easy switch. Game programming is not something you can learn overnight. I suspect an entry level will be quite high if you want more than a graduate salary.

A long time ago I worked in a company that worked in the online gambling field. I then decided I wanted to be engaged in more serious activities.

You really need to answer one question - is that what you want because you like it or just because it seems to be rewarding right now. In the latter case you'll need to understand you'll be plating catch-up and noone can promise the salaries will be as high as you wish by the time you get your skills high.

Maybe consider some certifications/training so that you can step-up your current career position in business programming?

If however it is what you really want then just follow you heart. Show your interest and commitment, potential employers will notice it and hopefully prefer you over a guy who has applied just because the salary was looking attractive.

On the other hand, businees developers/consultants (for example in SAP world) earn quite a generous ransom.

Answer 5

It's quite a transition! The biggest difference in mindset is moving away from the business world's reliance on abstraction to one where you're focused much more on the particular hardware you're targeting and getting things to run within strict budgets of time and memory. Game programming is a lot more like embedded programming than it is like web programming -- you have to think about the exact memory footprint of everything and CPU time is at a huge premium.

This is even true of being an MMO server programmer, because a) the server has to answer to each client command within 80 milliseconds to feel responsive, and b) the bigger the footprint of the game on the server, the more hardware you have to buy, and that costs real money.

First up you should learn C++ if you haven't already. Almost every game is written in C or C++ these days. Game consoles have strictly limited memory, and if you allocate one byte past 512mb it doesn't slow down, it crashes; at the same time, each trip through the main app loop has to complete in 33ms or less, so we can't rely on garbage collection and smart pointers. The game-development world is one of those special applications where you really need to do all those optimizations that people here say you never need to do any more.

Also, bone up on your math. Games are built out of linear algebra and kinematics -- not just the graphics, but the state of the world and the behavior of every character and object. I like Eric Lengyel's book for game math; it's been my bible for years (though there are many other good ones).

You could try to learn some graphics math and programming as well, but this is sort of a subspecialty now and typically only a couple of people on a game team are really working at the level of DirectX calls. I suspect you're more interested in game logic and server backend, which is less specialized.

Make games. There are many frameworks to help you get started. XNA has the advantage of being a real-world product that actual games are shipped with, unlike PyGame or SDL which are quick to get up and running but have vanishingly little commercial support.

Answer 6

I'd recommend keeping your current job for a while and finding a mod team or open source game that could use help. Try to find one that looks likely to create a playable game rather than vanish, at a guess I'd say it will look better on your resume than some test demos both because you'll probably be working on something more advanced than you would at home and it shows you can work in a games team.

Answer 7

A common route people take transitioning into the game industry is starting as a game development team's Tools Developer.

These tools are often written in higher level languages like C# and are used to aid in the development of the games. For example, you might help maintain or modify the teams in-house map level editor or help develop the tools that convert one media file format into their propriatary file format.

After you have spent some time as a tools developer you can start picking up domain knowledge on the side and naturally transition into one of the many types of game programmers:

• Game physics programmer
• Artificial intelligence programmer
• Graphics programmer
• Sound programmer
• Gameplay programmer
• Scripter
• UI programmer
• Input programmer
• Network programmer
• Game tools programmer
• Porting programmer
• Technology programmer
• Lead game programmer

Modern games are often made by huge and highly fractionated teams in terms of roles. So, it might be worth it to pick one of the above specialities and begin studying right away as you attempt to get your foot in the door. It almost goes without saying that you should be proficient in C++ and one of the major graphics libraries (OpenGL, DirectX, etc). Don't stress about learning both, just pick one and learn it. Generally people who know one very well can transition to the other if they need to.

Answer 8

This is not a direct answer to your question, "How can I transition?" But instead I'd like to recommend you not go down that road or at least be realistic about what it is like. To back that up I'll quote some stats from the 2004 igda survey on quality of life for game developers:

• 34.3% of developers expect to leave the industry within 5 years, and 51.2% within 10 years.
• Only 3.4% said that their coworkers averaged 10 or more years of experience.
• Crunch time is omnipresent, during which respondents work 65 to 80 hours a week (35.2%). The average crunch work week exceeds 80 hours (13%). Overtime is often uncompensated (46.8%).
• 44% of developers claim they could use more people or special skills on their projects.
• Spouses are likely to respond that "You work too much..." (61.5%); "You are always stressed out." (43.5%); "You don't make enough money." (35.6%).
• Contrary to expectations, more people said that games were only one of many career options for them (34%) than said games were their only choice (32%).

Many years ago I created a couple of game development websites on my own and then was one of the founders of GameDev.net. One of the reasons I did it was to make contacts and get into game development professionally. It definitely worked, a couple of the people who were co-founders have gone on to work in the industry and I'm sure I could have gone that way too but everything I learned about the industry taught me the following things:

• There is an endless supply of developers out there who believe game development would be really cool. The people hiring for the industry know this and aren't going to pay you nearly as well because they rely on this basically inexhaustible pool of people.
• Many of the developers within the industry may be good with 3D or sound or many other topics but often they are inexperienced with basic software practices that you or I might consider essential. In that category I would put things like source control, test first design, design patterns, etc. Even when they know better the time crunch to get stuff out the door often makes them toss good software practices in a foolish attempt to save time.
• Working on a game for two years can quickly become no different than working on any other program for two years. That is, when you have to dig around in the guts of the program day after day and deal with its bugs and only with that one game it's not going to seem all that fun anymore. In fact, you may find yourself playing other games just to get away from it for a while.
• What says you are going to be working on Half-Life X or one of the few dozen cool games that come out every year anyway? Remember, somebody is out there building the game that goes with the next Will Farrell movie and it's probably going to be you. Look around at most of the dreck that comes out. That stuff doesn't develop itself.