Perfection
The Great Head.
If you could do your career over, would you still do games?
Ask a games programmer
- Thread starter ParadigmShifter
- Start date
Could you easily transfer your skills to writing apps for the Ipad?
ParadigmShifter
Random Nonsense Generator
Sure. EDIT: I've had to relearn lots of stuff for various consoles, we are used to it. I started out on the PS1, which didn't even have floating point numbers!
Other questions: Blizzard is just a cash cow I think
Games programming is more interesting than normal Windows programming. I like the maths part of it. When I did device drivers it was all about copying data from one buffer to another, boring.
Mise
isle of lucy
Are the days of one bloke sat at his computer in his mum's attic doing all the programming, AI, artwork and level design by themselves over?
Asking about you personally as well as the industry as a whole
EDIT: Also, what do you think of Chinese/Indian/other foreign country programmers? Do you fear that they'll take all your work and do it on the cheap? Do you ever use them in the company you work for?
Asking about you personally as well as the industry as a whole
EDIT: Also, what do you think of Chinese/Indian/other foreign country programmers? Do you fear that they'll take all your work and do it on the cheap? Do you ever use them in the company you work for?
How is the time (/money) investment during the production of a game divided over things suchs as:
AI, game engine, graphics, documentation, story etc.?
Do you think this division is good? Or should more time be spent on one of them?
AI, game engine, graphics, documentation, story etc.?
Do you think this division is good? Or should more time be spent on one of them?
ParadigmShifter
Random Nonsense Generator
It takes loads of man hours to make a game these days, so unless it's a flash game or something the days of the 1 man game coder is gone.
We are farming out some of the level building to China I think. Programmers tend to work better on site.
For our company:
AI: hardly any
Game Engine: 2 programmers spend most of their time doing this
Graphics: We have about 6 modellers and 3 animators, and the art boss does a few fonts (but spends most of his time thinking up new game ideas), and we have a guy who organises the art tasks who can also place objects in levels and tweak stuff.
Documentation: Hardly any, unfortunately.
Story: We have 3 designers now, which is new, usually we only have 1 (plus the art boss who thinks up ideas but doesn't do the minutiae of design), and a guy who does some story but mainly cuts up SFX samples, writes the text files for localisation, and gets the milk when we run out
I missed last nights all-nighter since I had to get up early for my passport this morning, here's a pic, I guess it was abut 3AM or later:
EDIT: I rotated that in paint!!! Dunno what happened there. Nice shot of the BAFTA though
EDIT2: Try rotating it in photobucket instead...
We are farming out some of the level building to China I think. Programmers tend to work better on site.
For our company:
AI: hardly any
Game Engine: 2 programmers spend most of their time doing this
Graphics: We have about 6 modellers and 3 animators, and the art boss does a few fonts (but spends most of his time thinking up new game ideas), and we have a guy who organises the art tasks who can also place objects in levels and tweak stuff.
Documentation: Hardly any, unfortunately.
Story: We have 3 designers now, which is new, usually we only have 1 (plus the art boss who thinks up ideas but doesn't do the minutiae of design), and a guy who does some story but mainly cuts up SFX samples, writes the text files for localisation, and gets the milk when we run out
I missed last nights all-nighter since I had to get up early for my passport this morning, here's a pic, I guess it was abut 3AM or later:
EDIT: I rotated that in paint!!! Dunno what happened there. Nice shot of the BAFTA though
EDIT2: Try rotating it in photobucket instead...
SS-18 ICBM
Oscillator
What are the main things done in order to optimize game code?
ParadigmShifter
Random Nonsense Generator
Djikstra's 3 rules of optimisation!
1) Don't optimise
2) Don't optimise - yet
3) Don't optimise unless a profiling utility shows a bottleneck
Best way to optimise is to pick a better algorithm.
It's mainly the graphics coders that need to optimise of course.
EDIT: The tools chain could do with some optimisation it can take up to 8 minutes to build a level with a clean build. But the code needs a massive rewrite for that and we haven't really got the time, unfortunately.
1) Don't optimise
2) Don't optimise - yet
3) Don't optimise unless a profiling utility shows a bottleneck
Best way to optimise is to pick a better algorithm.
It's mainly the graphics coders that need to optimise of course.
EDIT: The tools chain could do with some optimisation it can take up to 8 minutes to build a level with a clean build. But the code needs a massive rewrite for that and we haven't really got the time, unfortunately.
ParadigmShifter
Random Nonsense Generator
Probably not, Ralphy.
Give it away free and sell new cool body popping moves for 5 euros, that could work.
Give it away free and sell new cool body popping moves for 5 euros, that could work.
GoodGame
Red, White, & Blue, baby!
- Joined
- Dec 17, 2004
- Messages
- 13,725
Or sell it on Steam with freemium hats for TF2?
AI should optimize shouldn't it? Haven't we seen lots of Turn-based games with ridiculously high turn times due to lack of optimization?
EDIT: are you allowed to free-lance while working for your company? Meaning would you be fired if you released 1-man indie projects on your own?
ParadigmShifter
Random Nonsense Generator
Well you profile before you optimise anything. If you optimise something which is fast anyway, the gain is negligible.
I think there is probably inefficiency in the AI scripts in some games, but they made a design decision to allow the AI to be scripted to add flexibility for modders etc. As a console programmer we mainly hard-code the AI state machines for each enemy or whatever, since it isn't moddable.
I'm contracting at the moment So I can probably do what I want (could be laid off though). I don't program for fun in my spare time though... too much drinking time wasted.
EDIT: Another problem with Civ IV AI is that it doesn't store any state information, so each turn it has to reevaluate what it wants to do (hence build a farm over a cottage idiocy). It should have had a layered AI where it picks a general strategy and remembers what its plan is.
I think there is probably inefficiency in the AI scripts in some games, but they made a design decision to allow the AI to be scripted to add flexibility for modders etc. As a console programmer we mainly hard-code the AI state machines for each enemy or whatever, since it isn't moddable.
I'm contracting at the moment
So I can probably do what I want (could be laid off though). I don't program for fun in my spare time though... too much drinking time wasted.EDIT: Another problem with Civ IV AI is that it doesn't store any state information, so each turn it has to reevaluate what it wants to do (hence build a farm over a cottage idiocy). It should have had a layered AI where it picks a general strategy and remembers what its plan is.
aelf
Ashen One
Do games programmers drink more than the average in your experience? Did you drink as much before you were a games programmer? What's your favourite drink? If it's beer, which?
ParadigmShifter
Random Nonsense Generator
We drink quite a lot! I used to smoke enormous amounts of pot though, but gave up in 2001.
I drink cheap beer usually. Bitter or Guinness in the pub though, I'm northern.
@The_J: What is the Free2Play model?
ParadigmShifter
Random Nonsense Generator
Dunno. I probably wouldn't play a game like that though They can't make a lot of money, unless they are really popular.
EDIT: When I worked doing hardware device drivers, those were given away free with the hardware. The problem was the standard drivers were just as good if not better. When the boss wrote all the drivers and designed the hardware, it was like a labour of love for him. When he started employing people, standards slipped and the software quality became very poor.
They can't make a lot of money, unless they are really popular.EDIT: When I worked doing hardware device drivers, those were given away free with the hardware. The problem was the standard drivers were just as good if not better. When the boss wrote all the drivers and designed the hardware, it was like a labour of love for him. When he started employing people, standards slipped and the software quality became very poor.
Luckymoose
The World is Mine
Why do you think the era of the one man development team is over? Have you not paid attention to most of the popular indie games popping up over the years? How about people like Tarn Adams? Making Dwarf Fortress is better than 98% of what the major studios pump out and he does it all himself. I don't want to be negative about your work here, but after seeing that pic and looking at that Jungle game, I'm fairly sure you're just working with a really crappy company.
ParadigmShifter
Random Nonsense Generator
Dwarf Fortress is never going to pay the rent though. It's a niche game and a labour of love. Most people aren't going to touch it with a bargepole. I love NetHack, so I can see where you are coming from. But it's a hobby, that kind of thing, these days.
aelf
Ashen One
How many pints of beer do you have to drink to get drunk?
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