how to get into game dev(part time)?

Question

I am doing CS undergrad, with the intention of pursuing a masters and maybe later a phd in neural networks, so that is certainly my main area of interest, but I am also good in fine arts and enjoy gaming so I want to start a little bit of 3d artwork and game dev in my free time. Problem is I don't know where to start.can anyone in the field of game dev list step by step how I should progress down this road? thanks

ps: not sure if this is something that matters but I have a copy of xna gaming studio so I'd prefer to use that instead of buying something else

Answer 1

There are some open source games that are currently in progress (and some completed) on sourceforge. When I first started looking at game programming, I looked at working games and their source. It'll be more informative in the long run to look at these kinds of things rather than trying to start from scratch.

Some of them are even looking for contributors if you wanted to try to help out.

Answer 2

http://www.sloperama.com
http://www.igda.org

• get as much 3d math as you can
• make what games you can in your spare time, as many as you can finish.

Learn by doing, and show that you can see something through to completion

Edit:

Some good starters are Ogre and XNA, or make your own

Also, I notice now you said part time. Other than hobby work or volunteer work there's not much in the way of "part time" game dev work other than maybe QA testers.

Answer 3

• Don't pay for a framework (well, not for a while). You can get a great start for free with XNA, like you mentioned, or Ogre (to name another free option). Torque is cool and all, but you should start small.
• Build Tetris. Seriously. Think of it as stretching before the real game. It's impossible to get everything right the first time, so start out with a simple, bite-sized target.
• Mod the existing starter kits XNA provides. Once you've worked with someone else's "engine," you'll have a better sense of what you do and do not want in your code.
• Look around for other tutorials. One of my favorites for XNA is here. It's a 3D engine, with a solid object-oriented design.

Answer 4

There are plenty of XNA resources at Ziggyware, and there are many ways to do 3D art like the XSI Mod Tool and others. You can find many free engines at Codeplex which will help you get started and you can use things like the FlatRedBall engine to help you along. Don't forget the Creators Club which has plenty of samples and info on making XNA games.

Look on those sites, get some samples and games and try them out, and then select a simple game to clone (say asteroids or tetris or something). Then if you get that done pretty well you can move onto 3D. Honestly, i wouldn't recommend jumping right into 3D as it involves a lot of messy dealing with effects and such (although there may be frameworks out there that alleviate that). As others have said, learning a lot of 3D math is a good idea even though the framework can handle most of the stuff like matrix math and things like that.

Answer 5

As one of two programmers of the Threewave Capture the Flag mod for Quake 3, I can attest to working on (and shipping) a mod as being an incredibly rewarding introduction to gaming.

Working on a mod situates you next to production code, with all of its conventions and warts. It also introduces you to an already-working codebase that is, at a minimum, a few hundred thousand lines of code. This teaches you to be able to search and read code and primes you for working on a team.

You also get to work with quality art assets and ship a product that garners attention for you and your small group.

Working with XNA or downloading libraries and hanging out in forums is alright, but neither of them give you the starting point of a defined product, already commercially successful.

These days, Half-Life 2 seems like a great starting point. Lots of C++ code, community support and a history of Valve and other studios hiring top talent from their own community.

Best of luck!