College:

[TokenHerbz]

I was wondering if its possible to take a programming course in college?

I took VB in gr.9/java in 10, and turing on my own after 12...


I was thinking of taking a C++ course in college next year..
i like programming, i was wondering what you need? anyone know??

[[Gandalf]]

You mean just a course, or making that your 'study'? I am sure there are plenty programming courses in college, it just matters on availability and on which college you plan on going to.

[Dan]

Almost all collaoges have them and they are great for learning how to progame but they will not get you any where if you are whonthing to get a job progaraming.

[codemage]

I disagree: I have several friends who took programming in college and have programming jobs.

I'll qualify that and say that it's very difficult to get a job at a career level above "junior programmer" without a degree.

In other words, you'll learn the languages quite well, but not enough of the overall theory to lead a project or do a lot of design work - you'll be coding for someone else (with a degree) that can see the big picture.

[TokenHerbz]

say i wanted a job making games?? for big companies?

How would one do this?

[md]

Probably not. Infact studying anything that focuses on "game programming" is generally a bad idea. Any CS degree from any univeristy is far superior to anything you'd get from a college, especially those that advertise game programming degrees.

[Mazer]

At the very least, you'll want to stay away from "Westwood College" or whatever it was they named it. Your best bet is to learn to program, and then learn game programming in your free time. Then when it comes time to get a job, realise that you're better off writing games as a hobby than getting chewed up and spit out by EA.

GamesIndustry.Fun--; //

EDIT:
But if you've decided that game development is what you want, definitely start reading up on it now. For example,
Gamedev.net
Gamasutra.com

[Dan]

codemage wrote:

I disagree: I have several friends who took programming in college and have programming jobs.

I'll qualify that and say that it's very difficult to get a job at a career level above "junior programmer" without a degree.

I was refuring to just talking some corses in progaming at collage, taking a collage progame about progaming that invales many corses tho could get you a job. BUT i whould not readly consider this a true progaming job and finding work that pays anything resanable or just find a job whould be hard.

Quote:

say i wanted a job making games?? for big companies?

How would one do this?

step 1. get a high school dimpoama

step 2. get in a univeirsty that has a reansable CS progame (almost any uni in ontraio that aucatly has CS will do)

step 3. take as many co-op opreationes as u can get during your stay in the CS progame at uni

step 4. gradute with a BScCompsci (may be batcherlers of math at difrent unis same thing in the end tho). HBScCompsci Co-Op is best if u can get in to thos progames.

step 5. look for job postings at a game devlopment place, like blizard, ect. Uhsely you will not be proagming the game right away but somthing like the CMS for there site or the tools for the peoleop making the game at 1st.

step 6. slowly climb up the latter and u will get more in to the making of the game and such and become more of a devloper then a progamer with the experices you gain.

step 7. give money and free stuff to compsci.ca

And thats how you do it

[lyam_kaskade]

Or take out steps 5 and 6, take a few business courses and start your own gaming company. This assumes you're very good at programming and you don't mind starting small. There's also no guarantee of success.

If you're keen, you might try basing your company on an open source model (does anyone know if this has been done succesfully?).
And of course, Step 7. Free stuff for compsci.ca (and it's members).

[Martin]

Step 1 doesn't really matter either.

[Martin]

Co-op's a good idea, but not necissary. A year of work now or a year of work later ammounts to the same thing.

You don't need a CS degree either. A math or a physics degree are just as good. Now, you still have to know how to program.

Build up a portfolio during university or college. This matters much more than your resume.

If you go to college, you can still get into the industry. The lead engine designer of 3d Realms in the Duke Nukem 3d era had only a highschool diploma (I met him). Be aware though that a college diploma means a lot less than a university degree, so focus on building up a portfolio.

A degree is just a piece of paper saying that you know how to learn. 95% of what you learn in university is going to be redundant and forgotten about in 20 years.

[Tony]

Martin's right. A University degree just shows that you could learn more, better, than if you had a collage diploma.

Also you don't neccessary need it to be CS. Math or Physics might actually land you into engine development faster.. depends what the company is looking for at the moment really.

Portfolio is the most important aspect of your application. Participate in some SourceForge projects to get your name in the credits, develop a fun game in flash that will get posted on various game sites.. Keep the code that you write, and be prepared to show a sample when you go into an interview. I was actually asked that once, and it got me totally off guard.

[codemage]

Quote:

Portfolio is the most important aspect of your application

Absolutely. Game companies will look for work on finished products, especially anything that has been published. (Open source coding or freelancing for smaller companies is a fantastic start).

[Dan]

lyam_kaskade wrote:

Or take out steps 5 and 6, take a few business courses and start your own gaming company. This assumes you're very good at programming and you don't mind starting small. There's also no guarantee of success.

If you're keen, you might try basing your company on an open source model (does anyone know if this has been done succesfully?).
And of course, Step 7. Free stuff for compsci.ca (and it's members).

I was aucatly thinking of puting an or in for steps 5 an 6 about making your own company but i thought that was to much work and making your own comapy is alot more risky. My setps where just the fastests and easys method to get in to the industry in my option. They are not the only way by far.

Also to martin, do you realsize how much harder it whould be to get a job with out a highschool dimpoleam never mind a collage or uni one?

[Tony]

Hacker Dan wrote:

Also to martin, do you realsize how much harder it whould be to get a job with out a highschool dimpoleam never mind a collage or uni one?

I'm sure that if you have a good enough portfolio, such a fact will be overlooked The problem is putting together such a portfolio without the diploma/degree