13th September 2005, 2:54 PM
Programming is easy. Any first semester can write hello world. Any CS grad should be able to write a compiler (with proper training and time). Writing a game is a tad bit different. It's not like C++ comes with a bunch of libraries you can call to simulate physics. C++ doesn't even come with graphics code.
You can use Open GL or DirectX, but both of these are extremely gigantic graphics libraries that use completely different programming concepts from anything you'll learn in school. Once you understand the syntax of how these libraries work, you need to understand how the computer does graphics. If you are doing 3D, get ready for a bunch of linear algebra with matrix operations.
After you master graphics, we gotta start talking about algorithms. Even the simplest games require you to make good algorithm decisions. For example, Tetris uses collision detection. How will you figure out which blocks are touching and when you have filled a line? It's not as easy as it sounds.
And even for the people who are really good at all this stuff, it still takes a whole lot of time. Like years for a team of 5-6 programmers working 50-60 hours a week. So yeah, writing code is easy. The hard part is figuring out wha tyou actually want to write. Programming a game is an advanced form of software engineering, and it's not easy.
You can use Open GL or DirectX, but both of these are extremely gigantic graphics libraries that use completely different programming concepts from anything you'll learn in school. Once you understand the syntax of how these libraries work, you need to understand how the computer does graphics. If you are doing 3D, get ready for a bunch of linear algebra with matrix operations.
After you master graphics, we gotta start talking about algorithms. Even the simplest games require you to make good algorithm decisions. For example, Tetris uses collision detection. How will you figure out which blocks are touching and when you have filled a line? It's not as easy as it sounds.
And even for the people who are really good at all this stuff, it still takes a whole lot of time. Like years for a team of 5-6 programmers working 50-60 hours a week. So yeah, writing code is easy. The hard part is figuring out wha tyou actually want to write. Programming a game is an advanced form of software engineering, and it's not easy.