Programming experience

#1 Novice - you've never programmed a game before, but know at least one programming language

Beginner - you've programmed a game similar to Pacman, Tetris, etc.

Intermediate - you've programmed at least one game that is good enough to be entertaining but wasn't necessarily played by alot of people. Most people will have to program alot of "beginner" quality games before being able to reach this point.

Skilled - You programmed games that alot of people (other than friends and relatives) play - it's better if you sold them for money, but popular freeware is ok too. You have all the skills necessary to program a game and sell it.

Advanced - you make a living programming games

I suppose that the categories work about the same for artists, musicians, etc.

[Edit: clarified "Intermediate" and "Skilled" in such a way that I am no longer skilled.}

#2 Hmmm.

Have to downgrade myself from an advanced programmer to beginner then.

I work daily with C++ programming and have done so for 20 years. BUT
not with gameprogramming.

I have not programmed any game in fact so the most correctly would be Novice,
but I have made some code for a 3d engine so perhaps Beginner will be most accurate.

Feels kind of strange to be a Beginner after 20 years of programming though ;)

Thanks for the clarification

#3 It isn't hard to become accustomed to the syntax of a language. But being able to make a game with it is a completely different story. Most people would either find themselves in the Novice-Beginner phase according to this chart. ;)

#4 By that chart, I'm an intermediate. :-/

(But Mark and Pat are Advanced!)

#5 After reading some of the posts, I realized that my original chart was misleading.

Although I've sold a game I programmed for money, I only sold it to people I knew. So I downgraded myself from Skilled to Intermediate. I don't think I've really earned the Skilled title yet.

I really believe that Skilled and Advanced should be reserved for people who make games that are actually played. Otherwise, what's the point in having a skill division?

Maybe garagegames could enforce this in some way. It could be required that people who are Skilled or Advanced link to a game (or an engine or something) they've made.

@Roland: I sympathize with you, but look at it from the other direction. I know how to program games moderately well, but my only knowledge of programming databases is from a single college class. I didn't even do that well in the class, and I assure I can't program databases. If I dusted off the old database book, I could probably make some sort of database. And I do have to do some data storage for other programs, but that's not the same.

So, what I'm saying is that I can't just say that I'm an Intermediate database, compiler, or operating system programmer just because I'm an Intermediate game programmer.

I think this classification makes sense.

I guess you'd be a Beginner by my list, but I have the suspicion that you could plop down some Pacman/Tetris/whatever games pretty fast and move right on up to Intermediate. The 3D project you are working on now would certainly move you up to Intermediate.

I've slightly reworded "Intermediate" to make it more sensible.

#6 Yes, that does make more sense. Either way, if you have never made a game before, you can't say you are really great at it. I could read a thousand books on the topic, and it wouldn't change a thing. Practical experience is the best experience you can get.