Developing games

[Sockpuppet]

My mate works at a game company and another is a games tester.

The first loves it (not a programmer) so he just gets to play the latest games then do a non PC job as well.

The other hates it.

The pay is rubbish - better off learning another non IT skill imo. There is a shortage of truckers.

HTH.

[threaded]

My 14 year old wants to be a games developer when he grows up. How do you get into that? What should he be experimenting with now (other than girls ) to be able to get into that whan he leaves school? I'm going to have to buy it though, so nothing too expensive. I thank you all....

Tell him he is better off studying law or accountancy, those professions have the most impact on a games development, and will increasingly so in the future. He also has the best chance of getting 'somewhere'. The software part of a games development is just plugging stuff together and doesn't require too much skill. Such developers are nothing more than jumped up typists. Hence, and an explanation what carp and petals means, the pay is not good at all.

Now, the creative stuff, there can be money in that, but you have to not only be really good, but lucky too. As a side line I write music for fruit machines, and occasionally it pays really well. Yet for that your youngster is probably already too old to start training...

[Lucifer Box]

"salary is carp"

Strange method of payment - carp

Not if you are Polish and Christmas is coming. Then it would be a wonderful treat.

[Francko]

Not if you are Polish and Christmas is coming. Then it would be a wonderful treat.

Mr Lucifer, good to see you again. How is it going in the river Wandle? Not yet flooded?

[AtW]

Not if you are Polish and Christmas is coming. Then it would be a wonderful treat.

Looks like those legs broken by Lucy finally healed...

[NotAllThere]

Ahhh, nostalgia. I had a ZX81 with the rubber keyboard and the stupid little RAM pack that you had to wedge in place with a box of matches - it stayed in place just long enough for you to type in 400 lines of basic then it would move and wipe the lot - happy days.

The trick was to get your mum to catch the cable as she was hoovering, causing the machine to fall to the ground and land on the RAM pack. This bent the connectors in just the right way to really wedge the RAM pack in, and crashes became a thing of the past. My only confusion is what your mum was doing hoovering in my house.

[hugebrain]

My 14 year old wants to be a games developer when he grows up. How do you get into that? What should he be experimenting with now (other than girls ) to be able to get into that whan he leaves school? I'm going to have to buy it though, so nothing too expensive. I thank you all....

Encourage him to write some web games and put them up on a website. A couple of adsense links and he can earn some extra pocket money while learning about game design. Java or Flash would probably be the best. Keep meaning to add my own games to the web and get rich, although I'm a shade older than 14.

[Moscow Mule]

Encourage him to write some web games and put them up on a website. A couple of adsense links and he can earn some extra pocket money while learning about game design. Java or Flash would probably be the best. Keep meaning to add my own games to the web and get rich, although I'm a shade older than 14.

Good advice.

Game designer is the best job in the business.

Most people get into games through the "Games Tester" route - not as glamourous as it sounds (play the game report every error)

Competition is fierce, the primary requisite is that you absolutely live and breathe hardcore gaming.

IF you are lucky and show promise in your web game development then you might get picked up, but think 1/1000000 as your odds.

All of this info comes from a good mate of mine who left the business some years ago. He was an animator, and now makes reindeers fly having got peed off with the games industry.

[max]

My 14 year old wants to be a games developer when he grows up. How do you get into that? What should he be experimenting with now (other than girls ) to be able to get into that whan he leaves school? I'm going to have to buy it though, so nothing too expensive. I thank you all....

Does he programme? Bit late to start if he doesn't.

The good people at uSoft have a xbox dev kit...which may be worth checking out.

[Lucifer Box]

Mr Lucifer, good to see you again. How is it going in the river Wandle? Not yet flooded?

Greetings, young Franco. Funnily enough I did get trapped in Sainsbury's carpark when the Wandle burst ita banks. It was only for an hour or so but any longer and I feel the trapped shoppers would have started forming their own primitive society around the deli counter.

How are you, my friend? Still living in SW19? Settled down to the routine of married life now?