Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit
When I went to college, I wanted to make games. Specifically, I wanted to do game graphics and/or movie special effects. Of course, I've never been much of an artist. I lack some 3d visualization gene, and I'm not real good at drawing a straight line, either. Then I kept hearing about how stressful the gaming industry is, and how bad they treat their employees, etc, etc. So I decided to take the smart route and just get my CS degree and get a programming grunt job doing...something. Never was really sure what. By the time I graduated, I was just happy to have done so. Since then, I've been doing pretty well - temp job at park services, work for a university, and my current job, where I've advanced significantly in 4 years and now have multiple systems to support and multiple people reporting to me. More big changes are coming in a few months, and I'll likely be working in a different area with even more responsibilities.
On the other hand, my job is really stressful. I'm busy all the time. Some weeks I am so burnt out I can hardly see straight by Wednesday. And while I enjoy most of the individual elements of my job, I really am not happy with the combination. Over the course of the past year or so, I've realized that I still want to make games.
So now I've begun the arduous process of learning how to do that. So far its just tedious, but its also starting to be fun, as well. I've completely worked through Beginning C++ Through Game Programming and I've worked about 1/3 of the way through C++ Primer Plus. After that, I'll be on to Introduction to Game Development. I'm also about halfway done reading Game Development Essentials: an Introduction, which is a game development theory book, discussing storyline, characters, etc.
In addition, I've been reading articles from all over discussing different ways to get into the industry, and weighing independent development against working in a corporate environment. I'm still up in the air on that one.
So, that's where I'm at. Motivated and upward bound.
On the other hand, my job is really stressful. I'm busy all the time. Some weeks I am so burnt out I can hardly see straight by Wednesday. And while I enjoy most of the individual elements of my job, I really am not happy with the combination. Over the course of the past year or so, I've realized that I still want to make games.
So now I've begun the arduous process of learning how to do that. So far its just tedious, but its also starting to be fun, as well. I've completely worked through Beginning C++ Through Game Programming and I've worked about 1/3 of the way through C++ Primer Plus. After that, I'll be on to Introduction to Game Development. I'm also about halfway done reading Game Development Essentials: an Introduction, which is a game development theory book, discussing storyline, characters, etc.
In addition, I've been reading articles from all over discussing different ways to get into the industry, and weighing independent development against working in a corporate environment. I'm still up in the air on that one.
So, that's where I'm at. Motivated and upward bound.