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Does anyone have any idea how it would be possible to transition from business to game programming? How would anyone get a start in game programming? It seems much more exciting and rewarding (better paying too?). But it seems like most of the jobs out of school are for business programming. Any advice or insight on how to do it or if it can be done?
This is not a direct answer to your question, "How can I transition?" But instead I'd like to recommend you not go down that road or at least be realistic about what it is like. To back that up I'll quote some stats from the 2004 igda survey on quality of life for game developers:
34.3% of developers expect to leave the industry within 5 years, and
51.2% within 10 years.
Only 3.4% said that their coworkers averaged 10 or
more years of experience.
Crunch time
is omnipresent, during which
respondents work 65 to 80 hours a
week (35.2%). The average crunch work
week exceeds 80 hours (13%). Overtime
is often uncompensated (46.8%).
44%
of developers claim they could use
more people or special skills on
their projects.
Spouses are likely to
respond that "You work too much..."
(61.5%); "You are always stressed
out." (43.5%); "You don't make enough
money." (35.6%).
Contrary to
expectations, more people said that
games were only one of many career
options for them (34%) than said
games were their only choice (32%).
Many years ago I created a couple of game development websites on my own and then was one of the founders of GameDev.net. One of the reasons I did it was to make contacts and get into game development professionally. It definitely worked, a couple of the people who were co-founders have gone on to work in the industry and I'm sure I could have gone that way too but everything I learned about the industry taught me the following things:
There is an endless supply of developers out there who believe game development would be really cool. The people hiring for the industry know this and aren't going to pay you nearly as well because they rely on this basically inexhaustible pool of people.
Many of the developers within the industry may be good with 3D or sound or many other topics but often they are inexperienced with basic software practices that you or I might consider essential. In that category I would put things like source control, test first design, design patterns, etc. Even when they know better the time crunch to get stuff out the door often makes them toss good software practices in a foolish attempt to save time.
Working on a game for two years can quickly become no different than working on any other program for two years. That is, when you have to dig around in the guts of the program day after day and deal with its bugs and only with that one game it's not going to seem all that fun anymore. In fact, you may find yourself playing other games just to get away from it for a while.
What says you are going to be working on Half-Life X or one of the few dozen cool games that come out every year anyway? Remember, somebody is out there building the game that goes with the next Will Farrell movie and it's probably going to be you. Look around at most of the dreck that comes out. That stuff doesn't develop itself.
It's quite a transition! The biggest difference in mindset is moving away from the business world's reliance on abstraction to one where you're focused much more on the particular hardware you're targeting and getting things to run within strict budgets of time and memory. Game programming is a lot more like embedded programming than it is like web programming -- you have to think about the exact memory footprint of everything and CPU time is at a huge premium.
This is even true of being an MMO server programmer, because a) the server has to answer to each client command within 80 milliseconds to feel responsive, and b) the bigger the footprint of the game on the server, the more hardware you have to buy, and that costs real money.
First up you should learn C++ if you haven't already. Almost every game is written in C or C++ these days. Game consoles have strictly limited memory, and if you allocate one byte past 512mb it doesn't slow down, it crashes; at the same time, each trip through the main app loop has to complete in 33ms or less, so we can't rely on garbage collection and smart pointers. The game-development world is one of those special applications where you really need to do all those optimizations that people here say you never need to do any more.
Also, bone up on your math. Games are built out of linear algebra and kinematics -- not just the graphics, but the state of the world and the behavior of every character and object. I like Eric Lengyel's book for game math; it's been my bible for years (though there are many other good ones).
You could try to learn some graphics math and programming as well, but this is sort of a subspecialty now and typically only a couple of people on a game team are really working at the level of DirectX calls. I suspect you're more interested in game logic and server backend, which is less specialized.
Make games. There are many frameworks to help you get started. XNA has the advantage of being a real-world product that actual games are shipped with, unlike PyGame or SDL which are quick to get up and running but have vanishingly little commercial support.
A common route people take transitioning into the game industry is starting as a game development team's Tools Developer.
These tools are often written in higher level languages like C# and are used to aid in the development of the games. For example, you might help maintain or modify the teams in-house map level editor or help develop the tools that convert one media file format into their propriatary file format.
After you have spent some time as a tools developer you can start picking up domain knowledge on the side and naturally transition into one of the many types of game programmers:
Game physics programmer
Artificial intelligence programmer
Graphics programmer
Sound programmer
Gameplay programmer
Scripter
UI programmer
Input programmer
Network programmer
Game tools programmer
Porting programmer
Technology programmer
Lead game programmer
Modern games are often made by huge and highly fractionated teams in terms of roles. So, it might be worth it to pick one of the above specialities and begin studying right away as you attempt to get your foot in the door. It almost goes without saying that you should be proficient in C++ and one of the major graphics libraries (OpenGL, DirectX, etc). Don't stress about learning both, just pick one and learn it. Generally people who know one very well can transition to the other if they need to.
If you're a good programmer you can do it, game programming requires much better understanding of the platforms and tools you use to develop the games.
I think it's much harder to get into the game programming industry than just the regular industry.
The best alternative is to create your own games, get exposure, if you're good enough you'll find your way.
There are many really good competitors though, just check out the many sites that offer free flash games, you can start posting your work to those sites.
The general story is that the way to get into game programming is to start doing it. There's no point in even showing up on a game company's doorstep without a demo of whatever you want them to pay you to do.
If you're coming out of business programming, that'll count against you and be a culture shock besides. The game industry runs on single 20-something males who can be taught that 120-hour work weeks are just how things are done.
I'd recommend keeping your current job for a while and finding a mod team or open source game that could use help. Try to find one that looks likely to create a playable game rather than vanish, at a guess I'd say it will look better on your resume than some test demos both because you'll probably be working on something more advanced than you would at home and it shows you can work in a games team.
I was wondering the same thing!
I've noticed there are a number of good game-programming books at Barnes & Nobles, probably not a bad place to start.
In general though, I'd start looking at books, maybe coding some prototypes, and start looking at what companies are in your area, what tools they use, how you could basically make yourself valuable to them!
By the way, does anyone happen to know if there are particular engines similar to what WOW / Guild Wars are using for MMORPG game development in particular (my main interest)?
I think it is not an easy switch. Game programming is not something you can learn overnight. I suspect an entry level will be quite high if you want more than a graduate salary.
A long time ago I worked in a company that worked in the online gambling field. I then decided I wanted to be engaged in more serious activities.
You really need to answer one question - is that what you want because you like it or just because it seems to be rewarding right now. In the latter case you'll need to understand you'll be plating catch-up and noone can promise the salaries will be as high as you wish by the time you get your skills high.
Maybe consider some certifications/training so that you can step-up your current career position in business programming?
If however it is what you really want then just follow you heart. Show your interest and commitment, potential employers will notice it and hopefully prefer you over a guy who has applied just because the salary was looking attractive.
On the other hand, businees developers/consultants (for example in SAP world) earn quite a generous ransom.
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I’m thinking of all type of game categories. My experience is that there aren’t any open source games that really challenge the commercial ones, considered game value, graphics, sounds etc.
Apart from the obvious answer of law-suits (remember the Aliens mod that received cease-and-desist letters), the other answer is cost. It takes hundreds of people to create a game like Civ 5 (artists, managers, programmers) and the cost is immense. These people are working on it for 5 days a week, 7.4 hours per day (more towards milestones) and open source alternatives are done in spare time around real jobs (not that game coding isn't a real job).
For a good open source game take a look at FreeCiv.
Several reasons come to mind:
It takes dozens if not hundreds of contributors over several years to create a major game title. An open source project of this magnitude would need lots of followers who are prepared to stick with it for a very long time. It would also require some people who are willing to coordinate the other developers (producers).
The replay value of a game is limited. Most people just play it through once and then move on to the next title. This differs it from an open source application or library which is always useful as long as you depend on it. This probably makes it much more difficult to find long-term commited developers.
I can't think of any business model related to open source games. Nobody would pay for support or much needed changes in the source code. Nor is there any agenda that bigger companies might be able to fulfill by funding an open source game project.
Contrary to popular belief, making games is not per se more fun than making applications (At least not for me, I've tried both).
It takes about eighty people working more than full time for two years to make a major game. (Some take more -- Assassin's Creed 2 was about 130, I think -- some take less.) These people must be real experts at what they do, and you need a lot of diverse skills: programmers, artists, writers, actors, sound designers, level designers, producers, QA.
Let's say you want to make a world-class game that competes with the chart-toppers on graphics, art, sound, design, the whole deal. You need world-class people doing this work: for example, animators who would otherwise be working full-time at Pixar or Weta. To get someone to work for you full-time instead of going to Pixar, you're going to need to pay them, a lot.
A game isn't the sort of thing where you can take what would be 40 hours of work for one person and spread it across one hour of work for forty people. It takes a lot of arduous, unfun work. It's not just programming the graphics engine -- it's testing the same broken thing over and over and over again, fixing a bug that appears only on a Windows Vista machine running a particular ATI card, painting bumpmaps onto fifty slightly different kinds of crate. Volunteer hobbyists tend to "scratch their own itch", do the thing that's interesting to them and leave it to someone else to polish.
It takes a lot of capital to make a game. You need a high-end workstation for each dev, sometimes two. Big screens. Fancy tablets for the artists. Maya licenses (there's no open source tool even remotely comparable). Are you making a console game? The development kits are $10k apiece. Doing motion capture? $500 an hour to rent the studio. Hiring voice actors? SAG scale starts at $800 per day. Having Some Guy From The Forums perform the roles just won't get a professional result. Plus electricity for all this, a building to put it in.
It's expensive, and it takes a lot of very specialized expertise, working for a long time even when they're tired and stressed and don't really agree with the Creative Vision, but need to finish the job anyway. You're going to have a hard time convincing really talented people to do that for free.
In addition to the other answers, a vital factor might be the requirement of expertise. Open source contains people mostly from developer/programmer/sysadmin realm. But only developer is not sufficient to build a game. You also need artist, sound engineer etc. For example, as a developer you can spend your free time to code game, but you can not create 3D models, as that is not your part of expertise.
Some possible reasons
The market is to fast. Graphics which is now good is in 2 years old and boring. So you have to finish a game very fast.
Its easier to make a mod to a game and there is already a community, so people do that more often (and its way easier to do).
The costs are huge. Its hard to find qualified people. Good game engines license costs a lot.
The organization is very hard.
There are a lot of project which are from people who don't know how to do it. So its hard to find a good project which could have success.
There are some, but they are rare: OpenTTD and early ID games come to mind.
But, seeing as the biggest investment is in the content and tools there's no reason the code couldn't be open source without affecting revenue. In fact, as OpenTTD has shown, it can extend the life of product with patches and improvements created by the community. Of course, you need a good game to start with.
While I generally agree with the sentiment, which is basically until you see open source movies, you are unlikely to see open source games with that production quality comparable to some of the major ones.
However, that said, there are some beautiful open source games. OpenTTD and Simutrans are mentioned - which are quite retro. For some more modern gameplay, check out stuff like Tremulous and Nexiuz.
Now that EA are cannibalizing and dumbing down the Simcity franchise, I'd love an open source offering to mop up and dominate the genre. SC4 was brilliant and unique, but needs some modernization in graphics, stability fixes, and easier community interaction for updating/extending the building types or city ordinances. LinCity does not yet have anything on SC4, and sadly SC5 plays more like the bad bits of LinCity than SC4.
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I just played a game of RBI Baseball in a browser window.
That in and of itself strikes me as simply amazing. When I was young, the NES was a magical box, capable of providing hours of enjoyment to young kids throughout the world.
Now, decades later, I'm a programmer. And I can appreciate the programming that went into games that were developed with more primitive hardware just a couple of decades ago. In fact someday, I fully expect that code from some of these games will be enshrined in the Smithsonian.
My Programming Question:
Have any classic NES games (like RBI
Baseball) been open-sourced, and if so, where can I find code to study?
Failing that, are there any NES games for which source code is available to study?
I think it would be worthwhile to learn from their example.
For instance:
Did they use object-oriented programming?
Did they use design-patterns to keep the code maintainable?
No. At least none that I know of (and I've been searching).
NES appeared right after the 1983 video-game crash, the main reason why the market crashed was the flood of bad games, triggering the customers to not buy a single game, because there was no way to know what game was good.
So Nintendo when introducing NES (and all other consoles from the time, like Master System from SEGA), decided that only approved games would ever get released, AND making anything open source ever being a breach of contract with heavy fines, the reason for that is that by not releasing a public API, it would make "homebrews" harder to flood the market.
Today Nintendo is much more easy on the part of allowing the games, see the flood of crappy games on the Wii, but still no console allow you to use their "true" API, to avoid the flooding, there are even a issue when someone used a GPL engine (ScummVM) on Wii, causing trouble, because releasing the source of a game for a Nintendo system is a breach of contract, and GPL demands the source to be released, in that particular case the games were pulled of the shelves.
And no, XNA and PS3 Linux are not really console APIs, both impose severe limitations on what you can do with the console.
Maybe you can find homebrew, or reverse engineered games. But I guess that this is not what you asked.
Also the source of remakes and ports sometimes can be found, but these don't use the console API.
Maybe you have since found this, but Metroid (the original, for NES/Famicom) has been disassembled and the code (in beautiful ASM) posted on Romhacking.net.
Direct link.
If you're interested in NES programming you should check out Episode 91 - Tengen Reunion Roundtable of Retronauts. (Note this is episode 91 of the original run of the podcast, newer episodes can be found # http://www.retronauts.com/)
It's basically a bunch of former NES programmers reminiscing about game development on the system (and other retro systems). They occasionally dip into the technical stuff, which is all really fascinating.
I've never worked in the videogames industry, but I've read quite a bit about it and I talk from time to time with friends that do, so I'll try to explain a more or less what's the difference between a game and other application, regarding programming methodologies.
The first thing to understand is that a game is a one-off product. It's not like a spreadsheet or a word processor, where you can release new versions improving and extending the previous codebase.
The second thing, is that you need to release the game as soon as possible. Usually, the more time you spend in a game, the worse will it be in comparison with the other games of the time. This is mostly true for PC games, where hardware evolves much faster than in the console world, but still applies to a large extent (games continue to get better even with the same hardware as better tools and algorithms are developed).
The third thing is that usually games need to push the hardware to the limit. So screw all the elegant patterns that would make your code more beautiful and maintainable if they make it to run slower.
So what I would expect after dissecting an old NES game source code is just spaghetti code, most of it written in assembly with plenty of low level hacks tightly tied to the architecture of the machine.
I hope my answer is useful for you.
I would recommend looking at nesdev.com if you are interested in NES game development. They have detailed documentation.
You won't likely find source for the original games, but there is plenty of homebrew out there and a relatively mature toolchain. As is the favorite answer, google is your friend. But to get you started, here is relatively decent tutorial:
http://www.bestdamnpodcastever.com/millerblog/?p=72 via "The Wayback Machine"
NES Games were developed only (as far as I know) in assembler, and I guess the source code is long lost, after those many years.
Anyway, having assembler source code is not so far from machine code, so it may not be too much revealing as it would C or Java code.
About object orientation and desgin patterns, again, it was assembler and the 80's, don't expect any of that.
I realize this comes at an enormous risk of being branded "subjective" and "discussion-based", but you don't have to argue with anyone, or me. I'd just like honest answers to the question. So first, the question:
In your experience, is it feasible to say I could find a job as a java or other "non-web" language/system developer without a CS degree?
A little background : I am a LAMP(PP) Developer, and have been working with the web world for the past two years or so, and am about 90% self-taught. [edit] I have been working part-time/freelance in html/css/javascript for about 7 years, and full-time salary doing php/perl for the past 2 years, for clarification. [/edit] A friend of mine who does a lot of Java has convinced me to start learning it, and I'm starting to be curious about my potential employability in a "non-web" environment. So far I've worked for marketing firms and doing application development for a web-based system, so having a Bachelor's degree in a non-related field (music) hasn't held me back yet.
Acceptable format for non-subjective answers :
"Our company does not require a specific degree, if you have a few years of employment history and can prove you know programming you can get a job"
-or-
"With the economy being the way it is, the only way to ensure you'll get past the first level of screening is to have an extensive relevant education"
Yes you can (otherwise I would not have a job). If you can show that you know the stuff, many companies will not bother too much about formal degrees. After all, they (should) hire people because they have certain skills, not because they acquired those skills in a specific manner. Studying at a university is one way, working with programming in practice is another.
Now, I think (guessing here, given my background) that you would learn things in the university that you will not typically pickup from being an autodidact, and that might still be useful when working as a programmer, but I would believe that the more time you have spent working on actual software that has been delivered to (hopefully happy) customers, the less the lack of formal degrees will matter.
In my experience, it pretty much depends on where you want to work, and in some cases, how far up the management ladder you want to go.
Some places I've worked don't really care if you have a degree or not. In fact, in one place I worked it was almost a detriment to have a degree, since much of management didn't have degrees.
Other places I've worked have required a "related" degree. In at least one case I was personally involved with, that was to their detriment, because a friend of mine was much better and more knowledgeable than any of the developers there, and looking for a new job, but they wouldn't even talk to her since she didn't have a degree.
Finally, for some employers, it's just whether you have a degree or not, and your major is not important. I know one guy doing Java development, and his degree is in history. Also, I work in a science facility, and lots of people here have degrees in a relevant science, and have little or no formal software development education.
It's a mindshift for sure, but I don't see any reason why you can't make the transition. A good programmer is a good programmer regardless of the language they're using. I've known guys that write excellent java code and easily make the transition to javascript or ruby. Where you might come unstuck is the fundamentals of computer science which is what you really get from the formal education. Things like pointers, memory management, threading etc are things that I tend to find "self taught" developers are usually not so strong in, but there's no reason you can't learn these things and if you're able to prove to prospective employers that you have a good grasp of the concepts and can prove you know how to use them then I don't think you'll have too much trouble.
In your case you should use your music degree as an advantage and look to land your first application programming job in a company doing music-related application development. Your music degree coupled with programming experience of any kind will certainly open some doors.
You may need to take an initial cut in pay to make the transition, though.
Speaking for my own experience and my country Switzerland: I started with an internal education in a big company and do not have a degree in CS up to now, some 23 years later. I had difficulties finding a job in the 2 years following the burst of the internet bubble, which I was able to breach being self-employed and with some unemployment money from the government.
Most big companies here do not care about degrees, unless you want to pursue a carrier. But then you need an MBA, not CS.
There is one exception, though, which are the consulting companies. They sell their services proportionally to the numbers of Doctors they have in the team, so no chance - unless you have connections.
Small companies here know that they have to invest for somebody to know the tools and languages they use - so if they are in need, they will hire you even with little experience in the exact field.
It might not harm to get some stuff done with the tools you would prefer to work with, but
good employers know that learning yet another language is not the hard part
work experience outweighs private experience
Go for it. Don't quit your dayjob and start looking around. After a few years experience will for sure outweigh education on the job market.
If you have the chance to visit some classes on the side, you can only benefit though. Personally.
My experience has always led me to evaluate past evidence. This means what is there to show what you have achieved. If you are entering a new technology, it will be a while before you will achieve this which means you may have to re-start at the bottom. Do you want to do that? If you are prepared to offer all your skills to a new job (including learning new languages), that would be better. In this way you become incrementally more valuable, irrespective of whether you have a degree or not.
I'm mostly self-taught, and in my career, I have transitioned from VB to C++/MFC to "classic" ASP to Java, and that doesn't even scratch the surface of all the ancillary technologies I had to learn to get my job done. I think all developers should expect to pick up new skills. It just comes with the job.
I think you're making an odd distinction between "Web" and "Application" development. Practically all of my Java work has involved building web sites, and the same is probably true for C#/.NET developers as well. As a LAMP guy, you already have a few key employable skills -- you know Linux, you understand (or should understand) the TCP/IP stack, how HTTP works, etc. And you know how to put together an attractive-looking interface, which is a rarer skill than you might think. You can leverage all these skills as you make the transition to Java/.NET/Whatever.
As for the music degree, don't sweat it. Some of the best programmers I've ever worked with have been musicians. I don't have a CS degree, and it hasn't slowed me down much. A certification might help get you in the door at some companies, but before that try a pet project or two in Java and see where it takes you.
Does attempting to develop some sort of game, even just as a hobby during leisure time provide useful (professional) experience or is it a childish waste of time?
I have pursued small personal game projects on and off throughout my programming career. I've found the (often) strict performance requirements and escalating design complexity have taught me some of my most useful programming lessons.
In these projects to name just a few, I very quickly came face to face with: "Everything is fast for small N". I also discovered the hard way about using basic object oriented design principles to manage complexity.
In a field where many technologies and topics can be quite dry/dull, I think hobby game development is important in motivating new (and not so new) developers to brush up on essential skills while having fun at the same time.
This question talks about hobby projects in general, however here I am more interested in game projects specially and how valuable they are to professional programmers.
You can learn a lot from game development. Game development requires a discipline that you can't find in other programming projects.
Here are just a small set of things game development has taught me:
Optimization for speed
Sacrificing computational depth for speed
Developing under small constraints of memory
Building a system that works like an operating system but is geared toward speed.
Keeping hundreds to thousands of objects in a tree, each with their own unique characteristics
Some areas of game development have great academic value (like Artificial Intelligence, Procedural Algorithms, etc)
It doesn't matter how much of a hack the code is, as long as the gameplay is there. Translating this to other disciplines, the objective of programming is to make the customers happy, regardless of how clever or ugly your code is.
Because game programmers are forced to use less resources, they become better programmers.
I think extra-curricular development is a good thing whether it is games or not. For a start you can try different technologies and development platforms and it is a great way of keeping your skills up to date. I prefer mathematical algorithms to games, but that's just a preference which doesn;t speak to the value of doing it at all.
If you bring any of this back to your employer then they are getting the benefit of your broadening knowledge which you are gaining on your own time. That is good for them too.
I say code away to your heart's content!
Games have some of the most complicated processing that's "agreeable" to a layman, hobbyist programmer. In high school, all I wrote were games. Want to explore physics? Write a game. 3D graphics? Write a game. High performance computing? Write a game. AI? Economics? Military Strategy? Natural Language Processing? Theorem Proving? Write a game.
You don't have to publish it, you don't have to document it, you don't even have to PLAY it, you just need to fiddle with it, and you'll learn any algorithm you find interesting as you try to apply it -- in a game.
Games are interesting because of the wide domain they can cover. Everything else is just data processing, and you can do that at work!
Game development (or any other sort of personal programming) is a good way to:
learn new languages
learn new concepts (TDD, OO, etc..)
Use and evaluate different tools/technologies (CI, automated tests, etc...)
These sorts of projects give you the freedom to explore different aspects of the programming world that you are not able to do at work. If you are stuck doing line of business applications at work, you probably won't deal with a physics engine, or spacial rendering. But you could explore these subjects in your game.
This would also provide you with a good portfolio of code you can bring if/when you interview for new positions. Assuming the code you write is in decent shape...
If you are looking to get a job in game development, you should absolutely be doing some hobby development on the side while you look. Being able to send a more-or-less complete game along with your resume makes it stand out from the crowd. When we list a game programming job we get a ton of resumes, and while I'm thrilled to hire people with no industry experience to fill them, it's kind of hard to pick between all the options.
Sitting down at a problem and solving it with the tools at hand (whatever the problem is, fixing a database, programming an interface or making chess in ascii) is helping you becoming a better programmer.
Hands down.
I think more importantly, is the hobby game development making you happy?
Many areas of game development can absolutely be applicable on a more professional level, but if that's the only reason why you're developing games as a hobby then you may want to re-evaluate the situation and perhaps put your efforts toward various open source projects that could proudly be displayed on a resume (not that hobby game developing couldn't) or discuss at an interview.
Your hobbies should be something you love doing and if you love game development, then absolutely stick with it and hey, maybe you'll find yourself doing it professionally which ultimately seems like the ideal situation for your scenario.
I don't see how anything that enables you learn, practise and experiment could be considered 'childish'.
Besides, if you are aiming to produce a decent (even 'professional') game, it will almost certainly require learning and mastering skills that are directly transferable to may 'conventional' roles. Optimisation, testing, cross platform working, UI design and usability... the list goes on.
YES
I taught myself C (and Psion's proprietary OO extensions) using the Psion Series 3 TopSpeed C SDK and wrote several games which I released under the GNU license. (Previously I had quite a bit of experience in Turbo Pascal and Pascal on the Amiga and Borland C++ 3.1 on Window 3.1 in a financial analysis internship doing signal processing, but when I got the Psion, I have to go back to C and I used K & R to get a good solid basis for that code.)
Then I parlayed the expertise I learned about the Psion platform into a 3 year gig doing mobile development using their industrial handhelds where I gained experience in databases, too. It was a huge turnaround for them, the product was in disarray and I had a ton more experience in the platform than anyone else - just from that year writing games.
I parlayed that into a Windows development gig where I eventually became IT director and got massive experience with SQL Server, Windows, ASP, data centers, DR, you name it.
Then I moved into data warehouse consultancy.
I owe a lot of it back to that first foot in the door where I really was able to make a massive difference to that first company because of the platform experience in C and that particular C-based library system.
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Courses for people who are being introduced to programming very often include a code project, which I think is a nice way to learn. However, such projects often feel too artificial, and are thus not very rewarding to work on.
What are your ideas of rewarding code projects? (Preferably easy to begin, and extendable at will for the more advanced!).
Edit:
#Mark: thanks for the link, though I'm more interested in projects for people who are completely new to programming (the link seems to refer more to people who are already proficient in at least one language, and trying to learn a new one -the typical SO audience I'd say :) -).
#Kevin, Vaibhav, gary: I was thinking of people who are learning programming through one language, so at the beginning of the course some don't know anything about control structures (and even less about any kind of syntax). However, I was thinking in quite a large project (typically in the 1k-10k lines of code range, possibly in groups of 2 or 3 students). This is what was done at my school for the complete beginners, and it sure seemed to work for them... except that most of them found their projects quite boring to work on!
As has been stated a few times, what you are trying to teach the beginner is very important to the project.
My advice to you for planning something like this:
1) Avoid making a computer game
A computer game, while fun to build, doesn't reward the programmer with results early on (it's very complex). You want to concentrate on small but useful application programs, such as a Port Scanner. The example there is a little complex, but it's one of the best learning projects I've seen on the web.
2) Teach graphics early
It's rewarding to see the fruits of your labors early on, and it motivates you to go further. Whether you're using WinForms, MFC or the Win32 API, OpenGL or DirectX, teach it early.
3) Many small lessons with in depth information
This principle is followed by the above linked Port Scanner project, and it works well. Teach each part thoroughly, and give time for the beginner to absorb the lesson. I think that ZophusX had a good format for giving the information. It's too bad he's mostly abandoned his site.
4) It takes time
Don't rush things. Nobody becomes a stellar programmer in a few weeks. Try and make the lessons simple, but engaging, and keep building from your previous lessons.
5) Get feedback early and often
You might think a project is incredibly interesting, or a particular lesson or such, but you aren't the one learning. Your student(s) will greatly appreciate it when you ask them early on how things are going, and what they'd like to know more about. Be flexible enough that you can accomodate some of those requests.
6) Have fun teaching
Have fun. Passion is contagious, and if your student(s) see how much you enjoy the subject matter, some of that enthusiasm will rub off on them as well.
I hope that helps!
Some good rewarding projects, in terms of what you can learn and which are quite scalable in terms of complexity, features are:
Games
A travel and transportation reservation/booking system
Encyclopedia or a Dictionary of terms, articles
Conversion Calculators (Currency, Units, etc.)
The key is to pick a project simple enough, so that some of its features are immediately apparent, when you look at the project title. And when really given a thought, will reveal more features that you can add to it.
The project should have enough difficulty to so that its features seem just beyond the beginner's reach, thereby motivating him to learn something new all the time.
If you are training new people in your company, then attaching them as intern resources on a live project is very rewarding.
This increases the work load of the main developers a little (because they have to review all the work that the intern does), but goes a long way in terms of training and development of the person.
I do think that games and puzzles are a good place to start as they can give great scope for developing more complex versions. For example a tic-tac-toe program can be built as a simple command line program initially that lets two players play the game.
This step can be used to show how a simple data structure or array can represent the game board, simple input to get user commands/moves, simple output to display the game board and prompts etc. Then you can start showing how an algorithm can be used to allow player vs computer mode. I like the simple magic square math algorithm for tic-tac-toe as it's based on very simple math. After this the sky's the limit, UI improvements, using file I/O to load and save games, more advanced algorithms to get the computer to play better etc. More complex and satisfying games can still be produced using text mode or simple graphics.
I've used the Sokoban game as a means of showing lots of techniques over the years.
The simplest game I've used is a number list reversing game. This involves a mixed up list of numbers from 1-9. The player can specify a number of digits to reverse on the left of the list. The aim is to get the list sorted. This is great for absolute beginners. Each little part of the game can be written and tested separately.
It really depends on what you're trying to teach the beginner. If you're trying to teach syntax, then simple "Hello World" programs and ones that spit out every odd number between 1 and 100 are fine to get them started. If you're trying to teach data structures, then maybe something like a 20 questions game or some simple sorting program. If you're trying to teach recursion, then maybe a breadth first search program. If you're trying to teach database manipulation, then something like a order tracking system would be appropriate.
Take a look at code examples in the book Python Programming for the Absolute Beginner
Text Adventure.
It's a console app
You'll need to do some useful things, hold inventory, map and room state and parse input
It's fun and you can give it to others to play! :D