TGE getting schooled
by Charles Voyles · 02/24/2006 (2:37 pm) · 5 comments
I just got back from an ACM meeting at my school and some members want to start a gaming committee. This was very interesting because one of the guys brought up TGE as a topic. I wasn't trying to grab the spotlight but ended up talking about TGE more than the other guy.
One of the ideas behind the committee was for us to collaborate in building a game. Instead of starting from the ground up, an existing engine is always appealing. One of my concerns is that if students were looking to join the game industry after they graduated, would modding an existing engine be as helpful in getting a job compared to showing something more specific in an area of programming such as AI, networking, or graphics. Another concern is that we were all going to school to be software engineers and not artists. So, we would have to go to the Art Club (if they have one) and try to see if anyone there is interesting in game development. Even if there were, I'm sure communication is going to be difficult among the two groups.
I'm not trying to discourage the idea of making a game to my group. Making a game does seem like fun to most people compared to coding a bunch of algorithms that others have already done before. I just want some advice from some veterans out there in what kind of skills is the game industry looking for in a programmer when they step out of school. What should we have in our portfolios?
There was a CS professor at the meeting and did seem interested in TGE. The instructors at my school do seem eager to encourage students by helping the students learn what they want to learn, such as gaming. I wouldn't be suprised if GG gets a call soon about an educational license.
One of the ideas behind the committee was for us to collaborate in building a game. Instead of starting from the ground up, an existing engine is always appealing. One of my concerns is that if students were looking to join the game industry after they graduated, would modding an existing engine be as helpful in getting a job compared to showing something more specific in an area of programming such as AI, networking, or graphics. Another concern is that we were all going to school to be software engineers and not artists. So, we would have to go to the Art Club (if they have one) and try to see if anyone there is interesting in game development. Even if there were, I'm sure communication is going to be difficult among the two groups.
I'm not trying to discourage the idea of making a game to my group. Making a game does seem like fun to most people compared to coding a bunch of algorithms that others have already done before. I just want some advice from some veterans out there in what kind of skills is the game industry looking for in a programmer when they step out of school. What should we have in our portfolios?
There was a CS professor at the meeting and did seem interested in TGE. The instructors at my school do seem eager to encourage students by helping the students learn what they want to learn, such as gaming. I wouldn't be suprised if GG gets a call soon about an educational license.
#2
I concur with Phil that smaller projects are good, because you can complete them. Good Luck.
-d
02/24/2006 (3:47 pm)
We are seeing a high demand from schools that are looking to "spice up" their computer science and art departments by adopting a games program. If your school is interested in adopting TGE or TGB have an advisor contact me about setting up licenses. Addtionally, if you have a group of 10 students who want to form a games club, we have resources for that as well.I concur with Phil that smaller projects are good, because you can complete them. Good Luck.
-d
#3
02/24/2006 (10:18 pm)
I know locally the Alamo Community College District is looking into a game development AAS. My brother in law is in Maya classes there at the moment so I had him tell the dept director to look into Torque. 
#4
This game committee is interesting, as its specifically very close to the setup we have for the Game society. As for your concern, from what our committe members, whom have been part of the society, have had in terms of experience, I know a lot of employers have been asking about their work in the society, such as IBM, MS, etc... The way you need to set it up is to work on small focused projects, as been suggested before, but provide specific tasks that can be shown to recruiters to show their potential. i.e: implement new physics for the vehicles in Torque, thus using starter.racing, plus new code for physics while artist work on the cars.
What you need to provide for students to get active is a website, mostly a wiki of some sort, that looks and works well, like TDN, but then provide things like SVN and make it into a strong infrastructure for everyone to stay easily up to date. So you need to sort of prepare a introduction pack to give to students which then fills them in on how things work in terms of the development, but also set specific tasks for submitting art or coding. Despite having students around you, you need to run this as if it was a virtual team, yet with a physical presence for meetings, etc... This obviously depends if you can have everyone working in the same room or not. Make sure you also do some introduction meetings to the engine, get them to clearly see how things work and what does what, I suppose there could be quizes or something of the sort to make sure this happens. Anyway, I'm sure it will all work out.
Toby.
02/25/2006 (5:20 am)
Charles,This game committee is interesting, as its specifically very close to the setup we have for the Game society. As for your concern, from what our committe members, whom have been part of the society, have had in terms of experience, I know a lot of employers have been asking about their work in the society, such as IBM, MS, etc... The way you need to set it up is to work on small focused projects, as been suggested before, but provide specific tasks that can be shown to recruiters to show their potential. i.e: implement new physics for the vehicles in Torque, thus using starter.racing, plus new code for physics while artist work on the cars.
What you need to provide for students to get active is a website, mostly a wiki of some sort, that looks and works well, like TDN, but then provide things like SVN and make it into a strong infrastructure for everyone to stay easily up to date. So you need to sort of prepare a introduction pack to give to students which then fills them in on how things work in terms of the development, but also set specific tasks for submitting art or coding. Despite having students around you, you need to run this as if it was a virtual team, yet with a physical presence for meetings, etc... This obviously depends if you can have everyone working in the same room or not. Make sure you also do some introduction meetings to the engine, get them to clearly see how things work and what does what, I suppose there could be quizes or something of the sort to make sure this happens. Anyway, I'm sure it will all work out.
Toby.
#5
Again thanks, and I'll try to keep you updated on the progress of our committee.
02/25/2006 (11:53 am)
Thank you everybody for your responses and advice. I still have other concerns, such as mixing first year CS students with Juniors and Seniors, but I'll hold these for another blog. I do like the idea of aiming for something like an inhouse studio for the school. Of course this would be a longer term goal and the team should produce something small first to warrant getting extra resources from the school, such as our own computer lab.Again thanks, and I'll try to keep you updated on the progress of our committee.
Torque 3D Owner Phil Carlisle
The main thing people look for in portfolio's is enthusiasm and talent. You can show enthusiasm by making games, you can show talent by making games. Basically they want to see games being made.
Either way, you should actually aim to finish something. I'd recommend making something small to start off with. You'll find that with any group of people who "want to make a game", you'll have 2 or 3 that might do some work, the rest will be useless. So shoot for something small. I like your idea of simply doing something like a bit of AI or a bit of networking or gameplay etc.
Start small and make progress is the best advice I can give.