Blog for Sam Bacsa at GarageGames.com

A future in the game industry - Needing your advice

Sam Bacsa — 2008-04-04T06:03:53+00:00

Hey guys,

One of my best friends is at an impasse in his education: what should I major in? He's getting ready to transfer into university, and he needs to pick a major. He's considering majoring in something that would help him make a career in the game industry, but he has some questions and concerns.

He's asked me to ask all of you, especially those of you who have made game development a career, for any advice you can give. I asked him to write a letter to all of you with his questions. I would very much appreciate it if you would spend a few minutes and give any experiences, anecdotes, insights, or anything like that, in order to help him make one of the most important decisions of his career.

Thank you!

Best,
Sam

_______

Hi, I'm a college student considering pursuing a career in the video game industry, as I love a good game, but also love the potential for interaction and storytelling through it as a medium. I'm an artist influenced by Japanese comic book styles, medieval and Chinese fantasy and science fiction. I'm also a musician, and love the epic music scores common in Hollywood today.

I imagine that the game industry is a great potential ground for breeding imagination, and really exploring the possibilities of engaging entertainment.

However, I'm worried about how well working in the industry can support a living, and how much time must be dedicated to it. I think as great the possibilities of being in the industry may be, it would be a shame if working there meant taking time away from family, friends or time to be alone, away from work.

So, what's it like working in the industry?

I'd really like to know... thanks for sharing your thoughts, guys.

PGP in your Facebook

Sam Bacsa — 2008-03-14T15:12:12+00:00

Just a quick announcement: I've recently started to use PGP, as I had purchased an Aladdin eToken to store my private key (it's a USB smart-card for secure key storage; pretty neat). I've published my key on my website, but I also wanted to publish it on my Facebook, similar to how you can publish ICQ/AIM/etc. I found no application on FB that can support this, so I made one.

If you're a Facebook user and want to publish your PGP public key in your profile, add this app and spread it around. I hope to add more features down the line.

- Sam

Long time no speak! And a bit of personal introspection

Sam Bacsa — 2007-10-30T11:09:53+00:00

Hey everyone,

It's been a while, for sure. My last post was in August, so I guess it's not been that long... but being away from all of you just made it seem like an eternity :P

I'm coming up on the 3 1/2 year anniversary of Codeweaver. It'll be a celebration for sure... me and the code will have some quality time together, as I use my one free weekend to go at it with a round of updates. So, I'll have pizza, some Pepsi, The West Wing in the background to create some background noise, and my keyboard. Assuming all goes according to plan, you should be getting an update in a couple of weeks.

I still read the bug reports, and I'm making a list of fixes, so don't assume the project is abandoned :)

BTW - If you don't have Codeweaver yet, get it here!

As for me, I've been busy with school. My IT consulting company is currently being handled by my business partner as I spend almost every waking moment in the school building.

I'm going to reflect on a few things now. If you're not interested in anything non-techish, you're safe to leave now. Nothing interesting will be coming your way from that end :)

I've been programming for over ten years. I've done networking for over half a decade, too. Besides being somewhat good at the two of them, and running two businesses over the past 5 years, I realized that it's not actually what I want.

I started my work in the IT industry working as a technician intern for a datacenter. Over the course of my employment at 3 different companies in the span of four years, I ended up as senior network engineer. I then moved on. I wanted to be an entrepreneur and make my mark in the tech industry, so I opened up a web hosting and dedicated server company, but I got bored of that in a couple of years. There's only so much I can be excited by shared hosting, HSPHERE control panels, and Linux installations. When the web hosting market started to get over-saturated by providers, I closed my business. I moved on to contract programming. The money was good, but the work was tedious -- same thing, day in and day out, just different ways of putting it (build database, write web application to communicate with database; store, retrieve, archive, report). Last year I got fed up with that and started an IT company with a partner. The money was even better, and the work was easy. It was fun going to customers on-site and configure their networks, build servers, maintain infrastructure, etc. I went back to school last year to finish my CS degree. I always wanted to be a teacher, and I figured that with my IT company on the side, I can make pretty decent money teaching and doing networking work. It was a solid plan, and I was committed.

Then, one night, I sat down and thought about it. I'm almost 23 years old; my acceptable days-as-a-student are coming to an end. I have to decide now, what I want to do, because this is the last decision I am allowed to make now. My time meandering around the various walks of life has come to an end.

I thought about it, and I realized I was bored with programming and networking. I was burnt out; 50% of the days I've pulled in the past three years were 18 - 20 hour days; some of them even surpassed the 36 hour mark. Not to mention, I wasn't excited about it anymore, and a lot of the work was just done by myself. Even as a hobby, the times when I had an idea for a cool program (like TorqueDev), and I would jump at the chance to sit down and start programming, were over. I didn't feel that drive -- that excitement -- any longer. Additionally, I had no great people to work with, and BS with during Windows XP installation times; all I did was stare at a slowly-moving progress bar while eating a sandwich. It was my last chance to actually do what I've dreamed of doing since before I started programming computers in 1995.

So, I made the jump. Despite the fear of facing looks of "WTF" from my friends and family, I decided to shift gears and start a life in the film industry. Since before I touched a keyboard, I've been excited about films... not so much watching them, but making them. My substitute for this during high school was technical theater. I crewed at least a dozen shows over the course of three years, several of the shows for community theater. I did sound, lights, stage crew; I even stage managed for one show. I loved it, and secretly wished I could continue doing it... but, I just continued with my pre-determined path that I had solidified in not only my mind, but the minds of everyone else who knew me. I was destined to be a computer guy.

This weekend I finished my first eight weeks at a prestigious film school here in Los Angeles. It was intense. It was almost as bad as being a NOC engineer at a datacenter -- 12 - 14 hour days were like every other day. But I found that these past eight weeks I've been more happy than I had been over the course of the last six years. These next three weeks are what are called the "production cycle", where we crew on professional shoots and learn, hands-on, all the aspects of working on a film shoot. Last week we had to choose our majors, so I chose cinematography and producing. I love working with a camera and telling stories visually, and while it may not be my strongpoint yet, I think that as I continue to work at it, it will become much better. I like the idea of producing too... my business background certainly helps in this field, so I look forward to working in it.

People have told me that it's a crazy decision. "How the hell do you expect to get a job?" they asked. Well, I don't know, but I do know one thing -- while I'm actually quite shy, I am a "people person". I thrive off of connections and the people that I know. That's how I got 90% of the jobs when I worked as an IT consultant and contract programmer. I have a feeling that won't fail me as I enter a new industry. I know I love working with people. Teamwork is a really strong connection for me, and I like developing it as much as possible.

And yes, the money is good. But it's not about the money; it never has been. If it was, I would have stayed doing contract programming or IT consulting. Not to say that I wont continue to do IT consulting and run by business; I have to, if I want to continue to live while I'm in school... but the point is, that's not why I'm here. And that's not why my classmates are here, either, which is very refreshing. We all love what we do; that's what counts. And it's not tedious at all.

People say the honeymoon will end eventually. Maybe, but I know this industry is more dynamic than IT and programming can ever be, and I think that even that slight bit of dynamics is enough to keep me occupied and not bored.

So, that's where I am. If you've read this far, then thanks for listening. And please, wish me luck. My school is a one year program, and I end next September. After that, I begin a whole new chapter in my life, one that will be much more difficult than anything I've experienced up to this point... so I will need all the luck I can get.

Now, this doesn't mean I'm giving up computing or programming. I will always love technology, and will do everything I can to stay on top of it and know what's going on. I will most likely be doing far less programming, and networking I have to do on occasion to pay the bills. I'm not bidding farewell forever.

Before I sign off, I want to invite anyone who's interested to take a look at my blog. I'll be documenting my journey through school and the industry there, as well as occasionally post articles about programming and network administration -- stuff I encounter on the job and need answers to, but never found, and figured out by myself -- that sort of thing. You also can subscribe to the RSS feed here if you're interested.

Thanks for listening, and see you all around!

PS - I'm going to be reposting this article on my blog as well... but I wrote it here first! So don't think I'm replicating this stuff everywhere :)

Site Back Up - Sorry!

Sam Bacsa — 2007-08-27T08:54:35+00:00

Hi everyone,

The CW/TD site is back up. The domain registration lapsed since I did not see the reminder e-mail (must have gotten deleted with all the spam >.<), and I didn't notice until today (to be fair, it was only down for a week or so... which, I guess, is technically a long time).

So, I just wanted to post that everything is up and running, and I'm still here :D

These past few weeks I've been looking for housing in the Hollywood area, as my school starts pretty soon. I've finally found a place and will be moving into it this coming week... but it's been really stressful/busy these past few months.

If anyone has any bug reports they want to submit, please e-mail them to me (the bug reports site is acting funny and I don't have time to fix it at the moment). I will still try to roll out fixes when I can.

www.torquedev.com - If you don't already have the IDE and are wondering wtf this post is all about ;)

Take care... hope to check in with all of you later.

- Sam

Codeweaver x64 Bug Fixed

Sam Bacsa — 2007-05-09T05:25:59+00:00

Hi all,

I've gotten a lot of e-mail from people, and I apologize for it taking so long (I was out of town).

I have fixed the x64 licensing error that everyone has previously encountered. Please run CWUpdater.exe to grab the latest version of the program if you have it installed. If not, download the latest version from the website, and then run CWUpdater.exe.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Take care,
Sam

Codeweaver Update - Major Bug Fix, Auto Updater, and SDK

Sam Bacsa — 2007-02-07T11:00:23+00:00

(If you haven't read my previous .plan announcing CW Final, please make sure you do so you can get the full scoop on what's new in CW)

Hey all!

I've just deployed another update for CW. This one has a built-in auto-updater, so you won't have to keep downloading releases off the website.

I've fixed the issue with adding files to a project crashing the IDE. I've also enhanced the SDK support.

As per this thread on the Codeweaver forums:

You can now get the sample project for creating plugins for CW.

The sample is a clip manager. Basically what it does is it sits in the context menu of the code editor, and you can highlight stuff and click "Add to Clip Manager" for quick pasting.

The sample demonstrates the following:

- Constructing a plugin class with proper interface and attributes;
- Initialization of icon resources;
- Adding and destroying a workspace tab;
- Adding and controling a context menu item to the editor;
- Adding a context menu item in the Window -> Plugins menu;
- Adding a custom configuration page;
- Interacting with the code editor;
- Saving and loading configuration values from the global user configuration.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

NOTE: If you use the ConfigGetValue or ConfigSetValue, your class must pass back a valid GUID via the exposed PluginGuid property (required by the interface).

Testing/Deployment: Copy your plugin over to the \Plugins directory of the CW install folder. If it doesn't exist, create it. Make sure your DLL starts with "tdp_" (for example, "tdp_testing.dll") and it will load on startup.

I'm interested in hearing from people who are using the plugins architecture to implement things. Do let me know how you find a use for it. You can also expect updates to the plugins system with more events and hooks, down the line.

- Sam

Codeweaver Final Released!

Sam Bacsa — 2007-02-06T11:37:13+00:00

Hey everyone,

As promised, the final version of CW has been released. From now on, only bug fixes will be released occasionally. No new features are planned.

The plugins architecture is basically fully-functional, and it provides a pretty powerful medium to customize the IDE. I'll be including a sample project soon, but for now, if you want to start poking around:

- Create a new .Net class library project (C# or VB.Net, etc)
- Reference PluginRes.dll from the Codeweaver install folder (now in "netMercs Group", and not just "netMercs")
- Create a new class and derive it from ICodeweaverPlugin
- Add the CodeweaverPluginAttribute attribute to your class and fill out the parameters.
- You can use the IDEControl static class to send the IDE information. Please DO NOT assign anything to the delegates with underscores, or it will break everything. Only access the functions.
- When you're done, place the compiled DLL in the \Plugins folder with a name prefixed with tdp_ (for example, "tdp_myplugin.dll") and it will be loaded on startup.

That should be it. Poke around the DLL and take a look at stuff.

Okay, so here are some highlights with this update (which also fixes a LOT of major bugs, like the syntax checker tripping up on "return" statements, crashing with finding stuff, and the find dialog focus):

Files that have been modified now display this yellow "information bar", IE style, instead of popping up a dozen Yes/No message boxes.

Closed workspace windows can now be re-opened via this Workspace menu. Custom workspace windows added via the SDK will also be enumerated here.

Assigning menu shortcuts is much more intuitive with this new assignment interface.

Context menu has been "iconified" and works much better than the previous version.

Declarations have changed from //__decl format to this new format: //# DECLARE %variable AS object. This can still be automatically inserted via the F4 menu.

File templates for creating new files are now available. They're nicely categorized too... just add whatever you want to the \file_templates folder, and it will appear in the list. The first line of the file must be ####Template name####Template description####Template group. The extension of the file is what CW uses to determine the icon it gets, and the default extension appearing in the save dialog.

Here's a more extensive changelog:

- TGB support added
- Plugin architecture complete
- Files can now be opened without having them added to the project
- Added file templates for new files. They're located in the file_templates folder of the install directory.
- "Snipetter" has been removed
- Menu shortcut assignment now more intuitive
- Fixed internal web browser issues
- Find / Replace window now focuses properly
- Search in project no longer crashes due to non-existent line
- Adjusted declaration format: // #DECLARE %variable AS class
- One-click debug wizard no longer crashes under certain circumstances
- Ctrl+Tab now keeps focus on editor
- Highlighting and trying to use Find / Replace no longer crashes the program
- Syntax checker now properly recognizes return %var @ %var and its variants
- Added "Clear All Bookmarks"
- Rescan Project no longer improperly nests your project
- Hidden directories no longer added to project
- Configuration now unique to each particular user
- Removed EULA popup dialog on first run
- Removed mandatory "activtation" when running installer
- Closed workspace windows can now be reopened from the Window menu.
- Modified files are now indicated by a yellow information bar with options, instead of poping up a dozen dialog boxes.
- Fixed several small bugs and performance problems

The latest version can be downloaded here! Enjoy!

Just checking in

Sam Bacsa — 2007-01-27T09:01:36+00:00

Hey all,

It's been over 5 months since I've last posted here. Things have been really busy. First school ended, then the holidays. Trips to Arizona and Tahoe left me without energy as the new year rolled around. Then school started back up. So much for mercy from the hands of time.

I've partnered with a friend of mine to form netMercs Group, LLC -- an IT consulting company here in LA and Orange counties. Money's been good, and we've got a decent pool of customers to do business with. That, combined with school, has kept free time at a distance. Recently I've been able to hook myself up with a bit more relaxation, though it came largely from the fact that I had to drop one of my classes, bringing be just to the bring of 12 units (enough for full-time status, for insurance purposes). I figured the drop was worth it, as I was exhausting myself more than necessary.

Anyway, all of this busy-ness and business has left no time for working on any spare projects. That, coupled with my waning interest in the field, also with recent developments in the Torque community (like Torque X), leaves me no choice but to announce the retirement of the TorqueDev/Codeweaver IDE. I've had a version here sitting on my drive with most, if not all, the bugs fixed from the currently-deployed build... I've just been waiting to finish what would have become the "pro" features (source code control, etc). I've decided to just deploy it as-is and make it the last version of the software. I'll support it in limited amounts, with occasional bug fixes if necessary, but no new features are planned. I'll be stripping the obligatory registration requirement to install it, as well as the auto-bug-report feature. It should be available in the next couple of weeks.

In other news, a couple of friends and I have gotten together and started working on a game concept that will actually be a plausible project for us in our spare time. Though it does not utilize the Torque engine (or any engine for that matter, as it's written purely in C#), I'm mentioning it here, since I know most of you would be interested in stuff pertaining to the Indie scene.

As the concept (which is working fairly great on paper) evolves into something substantive, I'll be posting more info.

So, if you like military games with a heavy amount of strategy, with a great focus on gameplay (it's strictly a strategy game, with no fancy particle effects or 3D graphics) in the multiplayer environment, keep an eye out for my future posts. As of right now, it's un-named, and I don't want to reveal too much about it, for the fear of implanting the wrong idea into everyone's minds. The genre's been done, but not well. This is my way of improving upon it a hundredfold.

And, of course, the obligatory blog image:

My friend's cat, Chilly.

'til next time!

- Sam

Hey it's that one guy again...

Sam Bacsa — 2006-08-01T20:43:49+00:00

What's up GG people!

Yes, it's been a while. The past two months my parents and I played hosts to a family from Hungary. It was their first time in America, so we ended up taking them on a trip across the western states to see a bunch of stuff (San Francisco, Grand Canyon, Lake Tahoe, Yosemite, Las Vegas, etc), as well as back here in LA (Disneyland, Hollywood, Six Flags, and so on). Most of my time was spent driving hundreds of miles, and less time sitting in front of a computer.

Thankfully that all came to an end yesterday when they hit LAX to head back home. It's a much-needed break for me, thank God.

Despite being gone, I still checked e-mails, answered questions, and replied to forum posts back at TorqueDev, so anyone using CW wasn't without support :)

As Tom is nearing 1.0 of Torsion, and thus being the official GG IDE for Torque, I'm going to be rolling out my final release soon as well. I finally had a chance to sit down last night and this morning and start fixing up the last bits of what was keeping me from releasing it earlier: syntax checking and making it compatible with TGB.

I've modularized the syntax checker, for which I'm going to release the source code to, in case anyone makes changes to the Torque syntax. I'll also include the COCO/R files that I used to generate the parser and the scanner.

Most of the bugs that have been annoying in the current release have been fixed (I'll be going through Mantis pretty soon to clear out all the bugs). Anyone who submitted bug reports at the fatal exception screen really helped me out; thank you very much for your assistance.

I'll have a full changelog pretty soon, but just as a highlight:

- Optimized project system, making it more intuitive both behind the scenes and in the IDE;
- Completed plugins system for both source code control and regular plugins;
- Modularized syntax checker;
- Fixed support for T2D (which is now TGB);
- Fixed the issues in the syntax checker that marked good code as bad;
- Added custom file and project templates;
- Fixed type-as-you-go issues which didn't enumerate all classes, functions, and properties of classes;
- Changed the variable type declaration syntax to mesh with Tom's plans for Torsion, so as to keep things consistent;
- Fixed the bazillion "file has changed" message boxes issues;
- Fixed the crash on highlighting in reverse;
- Fixed a bunch of stuff in search/replace;
- Fixed some debugging issues;
- More which I will enumerate eventually...

Depending on how interest keeps with CW after Torsion's release, I'll continue to add features and work on it. If it turns out people prefer Torsion to CW, I'll retire the project in favor of Torsion... so do let me know if CW is something you want to see continued to be supported and developed. Your e-mails and forum posts are much appreciated.

... and because no blog post is complete without pictures, I will now hotlink to a picture of a Domoku:

Also, in terms of linkage, if you're a Star Trek fan and have been looking for something to fill the void of no Trek, here's something you can take a look at in the meantime. It's good stuff.

Here's a great article from 2003. I won't say what it's about, but it's worth reading, even if you tend to disagree. Props to MacHall.

Oh, and before I forget... I also wanted to thank Jay for his contributions to GG and its community over the years.

- Sam

I swear I'm still here

Sam Bacsa — 2006-05-06T10:11:00+00:00

Hey all!

How's it going? Yep, it's been awhile. I've been busy with school and working part-time for an IT company down here in Los Angeles. They've staffed me in as a senior systems engineer, although since I work part-time, and it's a relatively new company (almost a year), the pay's not that great. They took over the old Verio datacenter in downtown LA, so we've got quite a bit of equipment left over to have fun with... not to mention moving customers from the west LA datacenter.

Other than that, I've been working on CW in my spare time. The plugin architecture is completely finished, as are the source code control interfaces. I'm in the process of implementing CVS and SVN support (about half-way there), and patching up the bugs that have been accruing in Mantis.

To relax, I've picked up Oblivion, which after about a month I'm still only level 3 (I really don't have time, I'm telling you!)... but it's turned out to be a seriously fun game, and I'm looking forward to the summer when I'll have more time to play it (just three more weeks of school, yay!).

I'm a bit bummed because I couldn't get tickets for E3 this year. Last year I had a contact who registered me for cheap, but it looks like next year looks pretty solid, so I look forward to it. I'm a bit disappointed that I don't get to see Revolution (erm, I mean, Wii) in action. Speaking of Wii, what were they thinking? Okay, maybe that's a discussion for another blog post, because I can fill a few pages with my rant.

Anyway, just wanted to let everyone know I was still here. In terms of those of you who have e-mailed asking for progress (thanks for your interest!), and those of you who have reported bugs (thanks as well!), I'd like to get a release out very soon... as in, within this month. I think that's a pretty doable goal.

Again, if you have any suggestions to improve CW, do let me know. I know a lot of the bugs in Mantis are still red, but I have read them and as soon as I get to addressing them, I'll change their status.

Also, if you're reading this and have no idea what CW is, I strongly encourage you to check it out.

Later,
Sam