Thursday, March 29, 2007

Games Programmer Visits Games & Gaming SIG

Melbourne Games Programmer Sam Sauvage had plenty of expert advice for would-be games developers today.

Sam, from IR Gurus Australia’s leading multi-platform game development studio, visited the Games & Gaming SIG - and stayed on for the Games Programming C class.

Sam talked about career pathways for game developers such as:

  • University Maths and Computing - particularly C++ and maths of polygons
  • Academy of Interactive Entertainment - a one year course (Melbourne) almost guaranteeing employment in the industry - probably at IR Gurus Smile
  • Getting together a young multi-skilled team of passionate gamers

All options led to jobs in a very hardworking industry which Sam describes as becoming a lot like the film industry where teams of 50-100 people covering a wide range of skills work on multi-million dollar projects with tight deadlines.

Sam described the difference between developing games for PCs and consoles and talked about the huge demand for games programmers working on PlayStation 3 titles. He showed some sites related to games developed by IR Gurus and the games industry in general:

Game demos and modding were also good areas for students to get involved in because you learn basic skills and terminology for the industry.

Sam stayed and chatted with the Games Programming class and looked at some of the flash and GameMaker work being done. He hopes to come back - possibly to work with students on projects.

Thanks Sam - your time was greatly appreciated! Smile

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