Where should I start Game Dev now?

So, I have CS degree, MMO dev experience in a native language (think WoW and its scripting language (LUA?), except standalone,) and a lot of 2D games developed in C# XNA.

I want to move to C++ but I'm not sure where to start. At the moment I'm looking at GameDev.net.

>>40
Hmm. But the problem is that there are no straight up education programs or credentials I know of that are solely for teaching you how to create/design games. So I don't know what else to do other than comp sci or programming

>>41
Well, you should do Computer Science at school. You might also want to take some multimedia or design or whatever classes.

You should also get some experience working in teams e.g. modding or OS games or something.

But once you finish with school, if all you want to do is make games, your best choice is to learn the middleware and make games with it.

If you're an engine programmer, you're an engine programmer. You won't be involved in the design process at all other than to say ``that can't be done in x months''.

Very few games are made without middleware these days, and your role as a programmer on such teams is pushing the boundaries in some very narrow sense.

I for example find the latter work very rewarding, but if you want to be involved in game design, you simply won't be in today's world as an engine programmer working at a very low level.

>>42
or you can just take directx and write something from scratch, like they did in 90ies

>>43
If you do that, most of your work won't be designing a game, it will be implementing a slow, bug-ridden implementation of 1/100th of Unity3D.

It will impress employers, but for an engine programming role, not a game design or scripting role.

>>42
god dammit i need to rethink my life

>>1

How To Make A Game In 2013 : http://motherboard.vice.com/en_ca/blog/how-to-make-a-game-in-2013-part-1

Programmers use C++ in this industry because of its better-than-C-abstractions and its performance, which is on par with C. The truth is that most decent and above-average C++ developers don't like it, but it's currently the best choice they have. (Although, Rust may change that.)

The typical OO approach is best suited for the certain IO parts of your game. Those implementations should be short and straight forward because it hides away the details of whatever platform.

The core logic (and majority) of your game should aspire towards goals similar to FP. You can disregard this if you're an exceptional memory savant. (Hint: You're not.)

Creating large maintainable systems is done by breaking ideas down into deterministic, simple (referential transparency), and composable parts. C++ and many libraries, such as stl and boost, help you with tools. In the end, it's for you to know how and where to cross-over whatever FP ideas into C++ land.
Reading over other people's code and writing throw away code can help you with insight.

>>44

But Unity3D itself is an overkill engine for small budget games and also it kills all the performance with its entity-component oo model. I see no harm of developing a small engine for a small team with an average game project. The team and the engine shall expand in time if you are successful.

Encouraging unity3d and its variances just kill the industry, making everything very fast doesn't imply quality, it is just fabrication.

>>48
>>44
What technologies are typically used in the small studio/indie scene nowadays? Do they develop their own in house engines a lot?

>>47
Terrible advice.

>>48
PRFFT.

>>50
Enlighten me?

What about D or F# ?

>>52
F# with something like XNA would have been fun. Did MS ever replace XNA with something?

>>53
I don't recall any - but I'm sure MS can still claim that things have worked out in their interests: instead of subjecting a small team working on a hobby to a withering stack-ranking, why not instead get other companies to work on your ecosystem - and simultaneously hitch up an upgrade in impression from hobbyist-grade to startup-grade Quality?

>>35
Shalom!

>>54
I'm sure you're referring to something, but I'm not quite sure what.

Could you please be clearer?

>>50
>>51
It's been a week and no response.

>>35
If a piece of hardware does not have a C compiler then it is irrelevant to what you are trying to do.
A human brain doesn't have C compiler, yet it is the fastest device used for image processing.

If you want to _MAKE_ games you should learn Unity or UDK
If you want to _LEARN_ how games work then you should indeed learn C++.
Good goy