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Vita sine Ieso est mors.
Life without Jesus is death.

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Jeff McArthur. Creating Nak'Urij
BlueGill Studios Games

You can't really just start a game developer though, just because you can program. That makes you a programmer. You need to know business stuff. Plus you need $many thousands to set up, which you won't get straight out of Uni when most game developers fail. I'd recommend asking at www.gamedev.net in the 'The Business of Game Development' forum about setting up a company and so forth before basing your university on it. You're probably better off getting a job in the industry. University doesn't teach you to be any good as a programmer by the way, unfortunately.

Start building up a code base, for input, creating windows, particle effects and things like that. Then start working on a small 2d project, you can then build your way up. It will cost a fair bit to start with, unless you have some willing volunteers. You will need to support yourself for the first 18 months until you have a game thats good enough to sell (18 months being around the average development time), so think about that as well.

Hope this helps.

--D-SIPL

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If at first you don't succeed, destroy all evidence that suggests you tried

And I don't think you need to know a lot of business stuff or need thousands of dollars to get going on a small business. I have been running a small software business in my spare time, with $0 start-up capital and less than that in business knowledge. Initially I spent $100 of my own money on a Microsoft compiler (you can get them cheaper on Ebay, or use a freeware one like Dev-C++, etc.). Once I had a sellable product, I set up a domain and website ($18/year). I eventually incorporated my company (a few hundred $$ in legal fees to setup, plus $10/month in bank charges), but that isn't necessary unless you are getting very serious. It doesn't take much cash at all, most of what you need is very cheap or even free (even stuff like 3D game engines) if you do some digging.

But that comes later. Just continue learning and coding for now. And ask questions here.

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Brian

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Vita sine Ieso est mors.
Life without Jesus is death.

quote:

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and cross platform isn't real important as far as sales go.

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Small game development dose better on Mac and Unix for your information. We have less games coming out all the time and we are a tighter nit community so word spreads.

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You need to know business stuff. Plus you need $many thousands to set up, which you won't get straight out of Uni

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Some business knowledge will be useful I'm sure, but you can always learn that along the way. As for the $ aspect you don't need that much. Sure the big games use 10 of thousands, but all you need is to get a bit of hardware and software and your ready to go.

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You'll be primarily targeting a christian audience.

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Really? Wow that came as a shock. So you guys are targeting a Christian audience, thats interesting. I mean sure its good to have games that can help people grow in there faith. But thats not my main interest, other things can do that so much better like disciple ship groups. I see gaming as an incredible medium for getting the truth to people that do not know it, and thats the way I want to use it.

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To be honest i don't know of a lot of christians that use Linux or have even heard of it. The Mac some remember from the old days, so i would stick to windows for game dev.

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Sure I'm one of the few Mac guys in this forum. But to make a generalization like that is kind of lame in my opinion. You know your group of people, so if your a PC user you know a lot of PC users. I'm a Mac user, I know a ton of Mac users, and most of them are christians. I'm an MK and an incredible amount of missionaries use Macs. Plus Cross platform is the way to go and all the big guys are going that way. Check out Blizzard, Destiner, Wide Load, and others. Jeff

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Jeff McArthur. Creating Nak'Urij
BlueGill Studios Games

[This message has been edited by outcast (edited January 07, 2005).]

God bless,

Dan

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7 days without prayer makes one weak.

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Vita sine Ieso est mors.
Life without Jesus is death.
Enter The Circle

You'll learn the same base skills whether you go with DirectX or OpenGl. The specifics will be different, but once you know one you can pick up the other very easily.

Mac sales are suprisingly good.

There are a lot of free tools out there to create 3D content.

I am about to cry...I don't know what anything the book is talking about means...even when I look up I can't see it, that is how far over my head it is...okay, so I'm not about to cry, but I am really confused.

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Vita sine Ieso est mors.
Life without Jesus is death.
Enter The Circle

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"The very idea of freedom presupposes some objective moral law which overarches rulers and ruled alike." -- C. S. Lewis (1898 - 1963), "The Poison of Subjectivism" (from Christian Reflections; p. 108)

Switch Mayhem now available! Get it here
Codename: Roler - hoping to get more done over the holidays . . .

Brian

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Brian

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Kevin Ryan
Marble Blast
Minigolf Blast

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proverbs 17:28
Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise: and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding.

www.gfa.org - Gospel for Asia

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