4 ms·

Games are some of the most complex and challenging kinds of software to write. They are also fun to work on. _ Do you want to work for people who are too to sm

Games are some of the most complex and challenging kinds of software to write. They are also fun to work on. _ Do you want to work for people who are too to small-minded to realise the benefits of game programming? _ Personally I would be honest, and try and find a job with pragmatic people, that I would enjoy and find rewarding. _ What if you get a job with a 'serious' company only to discover that they are idiots and you quit after a few months? _ In short, be yourself. You'll be happier.

galacticpony2 9y ago
I think this is less true today with all the game engines doing 90% of the hard technical work for you, otherwise I would agree. However, the question isn't whether it can show skill (it definitely can), but whether that results in a payoff (i.e. is being recognized). > Do you want to work for people who are too to small-minded to realise the benefits of game programming? Some people can't judge the merits of game programming, that doesn't make them small minded. Depending on where you want to work, you may not have much of a choice in those terms anyway.
- gumoro 9y ago
  > Some people can't judge the merits of game programming, that doesn't make them small minded. Right, but the problem is those that do judge it in a systematically negative way.
  - galacticpony2 9y ago
    I'm not sure that's really much of a problem, this guy may have just encountered some self-important pricks (and it's good he found that out early). On the other hand, if the position is about <X> and the applicant has half his experience in <Y> instead, that's going to be a negative (not necessarily a deal breaker) no matter what.
- everyone 9y ago
  I think you might share a common misconception on what the hard part of game programming is. Rendering and shaders and 'technical' stuff are all, as I put it, solved, problems. You can read a book that will show you how to suitably implement them. Managing the interactions between a dozen different and novel systems, however, is the part and where most seem to fail and what I'd consider the hard part.
babuskov 9y ago
> Games are some of the most complex and challenging kinds of software to write. Used to be. For many small devs/hobbyists, it's a matter of clicking in Unity and not actually "writing" anything. Writing your own game engine (esp. 3D engine) is complex and challenging. Building a game in Unity is like putting Lego pieces together in comparison. Agree with your other points though.
- krapp 9y ago
  You have to know C# (or the other BS languages that don't matter) to do anything worth doing in Unity. It's not as complex as writing an engine from scratch (which almost no one actually does to the point of having an actual game running on it) but it's not "putting Lego pieces together" either.
  - Away2017 9y ago
    They dropped other languages recently, so now it's just a very outdated version of C#.
    - galacticpony2 9y ago
      They haven't dropped any language yet. They're planning to update to a newer version of C# and they will drop the other languages as a part of that update.
- everyone 9y ago
  Unity happens to be my area of expertise. :) _ You could get lots of pre-made assets from the Unity store and cobble them together into some kind of 'game', but you'd be very limited in what you could do. Also more crucially you'd have diminishing returns as your project snowballs into a spaghettian nightmare, eventually becoming impossible to work on and unplayable for the bugs. _ The whole writing a rendering engine in C++ and so on, isnt that big of a deal imo, its a solved problem say. The bane of any poorly composed software project is complexity, no matter what framework or engine you use, even Unity, you need clean code and a suitable architecture to make something complex and/or maintainable.

galacticpony2 9y ago

I think this is less true today with all the game engines doing 90% of the hard technical work for you, otherwise I would agree. However, the question isn't whether it can show skill (it definitely can), but whether that results in a payoff (i.e. is being recognized). > Do you want to work for people who are too to small-minded to realise the benefits of game programming? Some people can't judge the merits of game programming, that doesn't make them small minded. Depending on where you want to work, you may not have much of a choice in those terms anyway.

gumoro 9y ago
> Some people can't judge the merits of game programming, that doesn't make them small minded. Right, but the problem is those that do judge it in a systematically negative way.
- galacticpony2 9y ago
  I'm not sure that's really much of a problem, this guy may have just encountered some self-important pricks (and it's good he found that out early). On the other hand, if the position is about <X> and the applicant has half his experience in <Y> instead, that's going to be a negative (not necessarily a deal breaker) no matter what.
everyone 9y ago
I think you might share a common misconception on what the hard part of game programming is. Rendering and shaders and 'technical' stuff are all, as I put it, solved, problems. You can read a book that will show you how to suitably implement them. Managing the interactions between a dozen different and novel systems, however, is the part and where most seem to fail and what I'd consider the hard part.

babuskov 9y ago

> Games are some of the most complex and challenging kinds of software to write. Used to be. For many small devs/hobbyists, it's a matter of clicking in Unity and not actually "writing" anything. Writing your own game engine (esp. 3D engine) is complex and challenging. Building a game in Unity is like putting Lego pieces together in comparison. Agree with your other points though.

krapp 9y ago
You have to know C# (or the other BS languages that don't matter) to do anything worth doing in Unity. It's not as complex as writing an engine from scratch (which almost no one actually does to the point of having an actual game running on it) but it's not "putting Lego pieces together" either.
- Away2017 9y ago
  They dropped other languages recently, so now it's just a very outdated version of C#.
  - galacticpony2 9y ago
    They haven't dropped any language yet. They're planning to update to a newer version of C# and they will drop the other languages as a part of that update.
everyone 9y ago
Unity happens to be my area of expertise. :) _ You could get lots of pre-made assets from the Unity store and cobble them together into some kind of 'game', but you'd be very limited in what you could do. Also more crucially you'd have diminishing returns as your project snowballs into a spaghettian nightmare, eventually becoming impossible to work on and unplayable for the bugs. _ The whole writing a rendering engine in C++ and so on, isnt that big of a deal imo, its a solved problem say. The bane of any poorly composed software project is complexity, no matter what framework or engine you use, even Unity, you need clean code and a suitable architecture to make something complex and/or maintainable.