Wednesday, March 21, 2007

What are the minimum requirements to be a Game Programmer/Developer?

To begin with, you need to know how to program in some language. Thepreferred languages for game programmers are C and C++. I have no opinion on which is better, either one will take you far. If you are just getting started, and you haven’t learned C or C++ yet, you can write games in another language. Lots of perfectly good games have been written in BASIC, Pascal, and Delphi. Years ago I wrote some pretty games in Fortran. It doesn’t matter that much what language you use, as long as you have mastered it.

Some knowledge of assembly language programming is important if you are planning on writing your own low-level graphics routines. If you not ready to tackle assembly language yet, don’t worry about it. You can use a commercial graphics library, such as Fastgraph to accomplish the desired result.

You will need a (legal, not borrowed copy of a) compiler. If you don’t have a compiler, click here for some suggestions.

You will need some way to generate artwork for your program. A paint program is good. A rendering program is better. A talented artist is better yet. Whether you create your pictures yourself, scan them, use clip art, or pay big bucks to a professional artist, plan on having some source of artwork.

That’s it! That’s all you really need to get started. If you are reading this online, then I will assume you also have a good, fast computer, a modem, and some form of online communication. These are valuable and will help you a lot.

Of course, there is one other element which I haven’t discussed, and that is talent. You have to be a good programmer, with creative problem-solving skills. I assume you think you have that, becauseotherwise you wouldn’t still be reading.

Check out some interesting Questions related to Game Development in the Forthcoming Posts…

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