well, maybe it´s not THAT easy to answer, as what goes for one type of character does not automatically have to apply to another, but in general, I think YOU are the one who´s got the right kind of idea ... especially in a trade like development of computer and video games, it´s like with love: you can´t study anything or apply a fast set of rules to assure success, or even worse, guarantee a lifetime of a set stage.
Now, I´ve been interviewing my brother in the last two days for a bit of information and advice for your friend (not that I wouldn´t know anything about my younger´s path of career, mind you, but some details are best when accounted first hand :)
My brother Jörg (29), who is the second of three (with me being the firstborn) actually started out programming about 15-odd years ago, when we both were spotty, long haired teenagers with metal shirts (well, the long hair and the metal shirts remain even today, but at least, the pimples are gone), and started out to feed our COMMODORE 64s we owned with basic and assembler code we initially learned from the books that came with this legendary computers, and then just experiment based on those reads, creating a bunch of crappy games like everyone did in those days.
There had been a point, then, when the world around us had evolved a bit, and my brother decided to go for the PC, and with it, Borland and Turbo Pascal that came alongside. MY career as an active programmer died in those days with the C64, but he continued on, steadily.
Well, he teamed up with some other guys that had the same background and tender experiences then as he did, and some day, they released their first ... ummm, "professional" game which was called "BZK - Halfway to Hell", and was basically a game like this ---> http://www.moorhuhn.de/index.php (don´t know how this kind of junk game is called in trade language) which took place at the school we both visited, where u had to shoot the whole bunch of teachers to win.
Well, after this he continued on and on (all by his own, mind you, and with a relentless energy which yours truly rather spent PLAYING games than making them), in the meantime also painting graphics, composing sounds and pieces of music, and generally getting absorbed deeper and deeper by the computerized world of tomorrow.
At the age of about 20 years, he finally stood at the brink to be the exact copy of your friend. Which way to go ? What direction to choose ? Of course, at some point, our parents started to butt in, too, going like "how do you wanna earn money", "do you really have a tangible future prospect" etc. etc., so he actually started to GO TO SCHOOL for a CS degree ... and folded it after several months, feeling that this was just getting him nowhere. So, a few months later, he started to work for a local computer enterprise as, you guessed it, an app programmer (hello Chris Kennedy :P), using his spare time to ever hone his skills in the art of coding, painting and composing.
Then, some day, his big, fat, once-in-a-lifetime chance loomed on the horizon: He had discovered a (nearly) local, independent developer of small games, tarred with the same brush as, let´s say the TONY AND FRIENDS promotional Kellogg´s game, and they were actually recruiting !
He spent some 3 or 4 years with them, coding the following titles which, alongside those he coded in his freelance period, which happened after his time at Spielkind (which was the name of the small company), u can see on his personal portfolio website here ---> http://www.joerg-winterstein.de/
Having mentioned his work as a freelance coder, as well as the times before that, he finally teamed up with some of the countless dudes he became acquainted with in the last eight or so years, and founded, well, Rough Sea Games, after zillions upon zillions of hours and lines of code, thousands of games played, hundreds of dudes met, umpteen books and guides read, as well as endless fairs visited and 15 years spent, with ups, downs, and everything in between.
T´was nearly your kind of "Self-Made-Man" career, when in days of yore he himself looked up to paragons like John Romero, John Carmack, Chris Roberts, Richard Gariott etc., and, after 15 years, having evolved HIMSELF into the one looked up to by others who follow in the footsteps, like for example some teenage dudes sending in stuff like musical compositions from his games they covered on their electric guitar and stuff every other day.
I think by now your friend should´ve gotten the idea to pick up his virtual armor, weapons and spell ... umm, C++ Book rather, and just go for it. By no means do I say he will have immediate success or even a chance warranted to ever "be somebody", but if he is really serious about getting into the industry, he should start right here using his leisure time learning a bit of the business, and not killing himself listening to endless theoretical advice at school from teachers who themselves possibly have absolutely no idea about the postmodern art and beauty of computer games.
I hope I could answer some of the questions that might have arisen, for further information feel free to contact my bro via the e-Mail addresses found on the sites mentioned in my first post (he stated in an explicit way that u should feel free to do this :).
I, personally, have subscribed to your youTube account, and look forward to further digs into the highly classical soil that are (and ever will be) computer role playing games ... and don´t forget about EoB II ;)
Finally, let me do a bit of promotion: In case u are equally nuts about the classic, old DooM game as me and my brothers are (and I could well imagine u are), have a look at www.zdaemon.org ... it´s a free online client for the best video game there ever was, with a community of about 25.000 ppl at the point of this writing, and ever growing. Join for free, and either revisit classic DooM maps (i.e. DooM and DooM II) with up to 16 players in Deathmatch, Coop or Capture the Flag games, or play on one of countless servers with fan made WADs, some of them exceeding the quality of the original material BY FAR !
In case u should sign up, be sure to drop me a line so we can meet up on Phobos, Deimos or the nearest UAC Spaceport :)
Hey Matt,
well, maybe it´s not THAT easy to answer, as what goes for one type of character does not automatically have to apply to another, but in general, I think YOU are the one who´s got the right kind of idea ... especially in a trade like development of computer and video games, it´s like with love: you can´t study anything or apply a fast set of rules to assure success, or even worse, guarantee a lifetime of a set stage.
Now, I´ve been interviewing my brother in the last two days for a bit of information and advice for your friend (not that I wouldn´t know anything about my younger´s path of career, mind you, but some details are best when accounted first hand :)
My brother Jörg (29), who is the second of three (with me being the firstborn) actually started out programming about 15-odd years ago, when we both were spotty, long haired teenagers with metal shirts (well, the long hair and the metal shirts remain even today, but at least, the pimples are gone), and started out to feed our COMMODORE 64s we owned with basic and assembler code we initially learned from the books that came with this legendary computers, and then just experiment based on those reads, creating a bunch of crappy games like everyone did in those days.
There had been a point, then, when the world around us had evolved a bit, and my brother decided to go for the PC, and with it, Borland and Turbo Pascal that came alongside. MY career as an active programmer died in those days with the C64, but he continued on, steadily.
Well, he teamed up with some other guys that had the same background and tender experiences then as he did, and some day, they released their first ... ummm, "professional" game which was called "BZK - Halfway to Hell", and was basically a game like this ---> http://www.moorhuhn.de/index.php (don´t know how this kind of junk game is called in trade language) which took place at the school we both visited, where u had to shoot the whole bunch of teachers to win.
Well, after this he continued on and on (all by his own, mind you, and with a relentless energy which yours truly rather spent PLAYING games than making them), in the meantime also painting graphics, composing sounds and pieces of music, and generally getting absorbed deeper and deeper by the computerized world of tomorrow.
At the age of about 20 years, he finally stood at the brink to be the exact copy of your friend. Which way to go ? What direction to choose ? Of course, at some point, our parents started to butt in, too, going like "how do you wanna earn money", "do you really have a tangible future prospect" etc. etc., so he actually started to GO TO SCHOOL for a CS degree ... and folded it after several months, feeling that this was just getting him nowhere. So, a few months later, he started to work for a local computer enterprise as, you guessed it, an app programmer (hello Chris Kennedy :P), using his spare time to ever hone his skills in the art of coding, painting and composing.
Then, some day, his big, fat, once-in-a-lifetime chance loomed on the horizon: He had discovered a (nearly) local, independent developer of small games, tarred with the same brush as, let´s say the TONY AND FRIENDS promotional Kellogg´s game, and they were actually recruiting !
He spent some 3 or 4 years with them, coding the following titles which, alongside those he coded in his freelance period, which happened after his time at Spielkind (which was the name of the small company), u can see on his personal portfolio website here ---> http://www.joerg-winterstein.de/
Having mentioned his work as a freelance coder, as well as the times before that, he finally teamed up with some of the countless dudes he became acquainted with in the last eight or so years, and founded, well, Rough Sea Games, after zillions upon zillions of hours and lines of code, thousands of games played, hundreds of dudes met, umpteen books and guides read, as well as endless fairs visited and 15 years spent, with ups, downs, and everything in between.
T´was nearly your kind of "Self-Made-Man" career, when in days of yore he himself looked up to paragons like John Romero, John Carmack, Chris Roberts, Richard Gariott etc., and, after 15 years, having evolved HIMSELF into the one looked up to by others who follow in the footsteps, like for example some teenage dudes sending in stuff like musical compositions from his games they covered on their electric guitar and stuff every other day.
I think by now your friend should´ve gotten the idea to pick up his virtual armor, weapons and spell ... umm, C++ Book rather, and just go for it. By no means do I say he will have immediate success or even a chance warranted to ever "be somebody", but if he is really serious about getting into the industry, he should start right here using his leisure time learning a bit of the business, and not killing himself listening to endless theoretical advice at school from teachers who themselves possibly have absolutely no idea about the postmodern art and beauty of computer games.
I hope I could answer some of the questions that might have arisen, for further information feel free to contact my bro via the e-Mail addresses found on the sites mentioned in my first post (he stated in an explicit way that u should feel free to do this :).
I, personally, have subscribed to your youTube account, and look forward to further digs into the highly classical soil that are (and ever will be) computer role playing games ... and don´t forget about EoB II ;)
Finally, let me do a bit of promotion: In case u are equally nuts about the classic, old DooM game as me and my brothers are (and I could well imagine u are), have a look at www.zdaemon.org ... it´s a free online client for the best video game there ever was, with a community of about 25.000 ppl at the point of this writing, and ever growing. Join for free, and either revisit classic DooM maps (i.e. DooM and DooM II) with up to 16 players in Deathmatch, Coop or Capture the Flag games, or play on one of countless servers with fan made WADs, some of them exceeding the quality of the original material BY FAR !
In case u should sign up, be sure to drop me a line so we can meet up on Phobos, Deimos or the nearest UAC Spaceport :)
Cheerz from Germany,
Thor