Wanna dev for MMOs? Nick Parkinson tells how |
Ó
Looks like everyone wants to break into the business. In Part II of MMORPG's getting-to-know the Vanguard devs at Sigil Games, Nick Parkinson decides to share his thoughts on how YOU can code for an MMO dev like Sigil. Luckily he gives concrete tips, which means we can summarize concrete tips, short and sweet. Luckily, there's always a demand for good programmers in the industry, he says. Fired up to play with the big boys? Read on.Category A: 1337 hax - er, programming skills. Nick says that studios mainly work with C++ and maybe some C#, so build up some experience there. You've got high school, and as we've found, you've got homebrew, too. But "if you find yourself not liking it at all, itÂ’s probably best to focus on some other area of development as itÂ’s only going to get more intense."
Another program to get acquainted with is Maya, especially since you'll be bumping skulls with the artists quite often. And one last thing to become intimately familiar with: caffeine. Whether coffee, tea Earl Gray hot, soda, or directly IV'd into your circulatory system (God help you), get used to the idea of sleepless nights.
Second is location, location, location - when it comes to education. Fine, there's that spiel that "it's not the school, but what you make of it", even Nick admits this. There are some good schools he has in mind that focus on games programming, though. Time to break out the directories:
- DeVry University (various)
- Full Sail (Winter Park, Florida)
- Guildhall at SMU (Plano, Texas)
- Westwood College Online (Online)
- Universities with game design/programming as part of CIS degrees, such as Univ. of Delaware, Michigan Tech, or UC-Irvine - check your school's curriculum for more details.
Prepare for intense grunt-work not only getting to become a programmer, but being a programmer, too. Long hours, gotta meet with bosses and artists and other programming teams, and they're all "wanting you to do things that are going to take up a lot of your time." Worst-case, prepare for burnout. But if you're into the payoff - which is the pleasure of creating games - then the price is well worth it.
2 Jumps Play World of Warcraft Offline
Contact Us:
The QJ.net Network |
 |
| Site | Feed |
| QJ.NET | RSS |
| Nintendo DS | RSS |
| PlayStation 3 | RSS |
| PSP Updates | RSS |
| Wii | RSS |
| Xbox 360 | RSS |
| MMORPG | RSS |
| Personal Computer Games | RSS |
| iPhone - iPod Touch | RSS |
| QJ.NET Forums | RSS |
Add QJ.NET
User Favorites - December
User Favorites - December
Categories
Archives
December 2009
November 2009
October 2009
September 2009
August 2009
July 2009
June 2009
May 2009
April 2009
March 2009
February 2009
January 2009
December 2008
November 2008
October 2008
September 2008
August 2008
July 2008
June 2008
May 2008
April 2008
March 2008
February 2008
January 2008
December 2007
November 2007
October 2007
September 2007
August 2007
July 2007
June 2007
May 2007
April 2007
March 2007
February 2007
January 2007
December 2006
November 2006
October 2006
September 2006
August 2006
July 2006
June 2006
May 2006
April 2006
March 2006
February 2006
January 2006
Comments
No Comments, be the first to Comment
Add New Comment