When you are talking about working 40-45 hour weeks as average in the US are you including lunch breaks in that?

I'm contracted to do 37 hour weeks, but obviously I take lunch breaks in my own time and I always do a little more but to do 45 hour weeks every week not including lunch breaks, travel time, making dinner in the evenings, house work when would I ever have any time to game? seriously ^^

I'd blame free-market & human ingenuity for this. Not that, the best (or latest gimmicks) can't ever be outwit for the good of all.

I really miss the days of good'ol Borland's Pascal when slick coding mattered rather than the latest Intel (etc) invention(s). If someone were to define a coherent approach to an entirely independant soft processing from hard support (and vice-versa, if that's any possible - one may or can always dream aloud), i know of a few many people who'd jump into the innovative rush -- if only, to blast false conceptions of proper design where it belongs; the past.

What is common understanding today, may be just be perceived as a terrible flaw in any given future. It's just like economic inflation - there HAS to be a rational limit, somehow.

As I was telling people at Dragon*Con over Labor Day weekend, it's ok to have big ideas, just start with something manageable, like the first level of a game, and make that level feature complete.  But before you start that level, break it down into smaller pieces and determine what HAS to go in and what you would LIKE to get in if you have time, can do it, etc. 

No. I actually encourage the other developers to make sure that they try to go home on time when we're not in a crunch period.  We are all workaholics, though, and we all have a very high degree of professional pride in our work, and since our work is more like a hobby, it can make it hard for us to leave.  "I've ALMOST got this working!"  is a constant refrain around here when someone is working late.   Passion does not need to equate with workaholism, and that's not what I was implying. 

Let's say I have two applications for an entry level game developer position, both applicants fresh out of college, each with a BS in Computer Science.  Let's say that neither of their schools offered game design/game programming classes.  One of them made games in his spare time and made a game for his senior project.  The other talks about how much he loves games and how much he wants to make them and how many great ideas he has for games, but he's never actually tried to make a game, never gotten a book on DirectX or OpenGL, etc. and he made a website or something like that for his senior project.  Applicant #2 is probably not going to even get an interview, even if he got better grades than Applicant #1.  Why? Because Applicant #1 is obviously a self-starter, driven, and probably will need less direction than Applicant #2. 

Now, if I have two applicants who both have game projects listed, that makes the choice harder for me.  Applicants need to do everything that they can to make their application stand out above all the rest in the game industry because there is that much competition to get in, particularly at the entry level.  If you want to make games and you can't find someone to hire you (even if you're willing to move), don't let that stop you from making games.   Enter the Independent Games Festival and other contests.  Submit your games to us to try and get them on Impulse.  Submit to XBox Live or Garage games.  You will learn so much more in making a game than you will in any college class, and having a resume with 2-3 really good games on them (even if they're casual) puts you ahead of other people.

I didn't find it very helpful either when I was in high school trying to pick up C++ on my own.  I liked the book that we had in college by Deitel and Deitel, and some of my friends liked C++ in 24 hours or C++ in 21 days. 

Hyeah, I know that one... "I've allmost got this working..." Next thing you know its 5AM.

Anyway, I can definitely understand why hands-on experience is preferred. Although my main area of interest is game art and design and not programming, I can say that since I started serious modding I learned a whole lot more about game-specific stuff than I knew before. It's way easier to make cool visuals when you don't have to worry about polygon counts,  texture sizes, particle density...

One other possible venue for those enthusiastic to get into the game industry is - modding. Particularly for those not gravitating towards actual coding but other areas such as game art, level design etc. since you get a finished high-quality engine to work with and you can let loose and show off your mad skillz. I know of several cases of skilled modders turning developer and it seems that, as people take modding more and more seriously, that trend is on the rise.

Is Demigod the MMORTS mentioned in the ad?

The position does sound very tempting but the requirement for relo to Plymouth (which is completely understandable) is not currently appealing.  I live around South Bend, Indiana.

I do worry that the last 3 years of C# development have ruined my C/C++ abilities and was very interested to see Cari's response to the questions about managed code and games.  I'm currently trying to set aside more time to pursue my own hobby games in C# and XNA (since that is what I am now used to).  Unfortunately, as another poster mentioned, game ideas tend to oustrip the time and resources available to an individual.

No, that'd be Society, which is currently on hiatus until we have the manpower and resources to do it justice.

Back when I studied computer science, the book to get was A Book on C, by Kelley and Pohl.  For some reason it didn't seem to help back then but these days it's a handy resource to have at arm's reach, for C coding anyway.  I think that when I found a practical use for C coding it was easier to get into.

Back when I was messing about with mouse support and windows-like interface (when Windows 3.11 was all the latest hype) in Pascal programming, I didn't read books. Pah! You just went in, cracked it open like a piñata and had fun.

Then a few years later came college, and  C++ and I broke my proverbial fingers trying to pull the same thing there.

Kinda miss the old days when all you needed is an inquisitive mind and the built-in help file.

What does Stardock use in terms of an SDM? XP?

lol. I know exactly how that feels. 16 and the most advanced computer thing I know how to do is messagbox.popup in visual basic. heh.

But I am working on learning more because I do want a job someplace like Stardock. Its my dream. so... i'm dedicated.

Fell for you Thrawn. Check out Visual Studio Express. Do a google search and then search for programming tutorials on MSDN. Believe me, it is really easy to learn from. Plus when we get to college we get the pro version for free! wahoo!

  za fafon

Will you guys be hiring in three years? >.>

You'll get to work on Sins of a Solar Empire II.

Not so much. Sins is IC's baby

VS Express and a beginner's C++ book would definitely be a good way to start. The biggest challenge in programming is not the language itself, syntax is easy enough to learn. It's thinking in computer terms. A lot of things that are natural to us are not natural for the computer. As powerful as they have become, they are incredibly stupid and (especially with unmanaged code) you pretty much need to hold their hand through everything. Problem solving is the biggest obstacle to learning programming because you have to start thinking in terms you aren't used to.

Myself, I haven't coded for a good 6-7 years. I've recently picked up a Visual Studio book that so far has been a good refresher on the basic C++, and eventually will get into Win32/.NET coding because I don't want to only know how to make console apps. Finding the time is more difficult