I want to be a game developer?

[███ Nick ███]

Hey,

I am 14. I want to be a Game Developer for Social Networking Games like Facebook, Etc. I live near San Francisco. ( I heard, that's where most game developing Studio's are Located At .) Now the Questions. What School's should I go to? What grades do I need? Do I need to be good in Math? What Computer Languages shall I learn? Best **Free** ways to Learn It!

[Travis]

Do NOT start with C++ or Java! Start with Perl. It's easy to learn.

[Brood619]

I'm not sure which school, and grades depend on the school, but I'll answer the rest. For the math, it's a common misconception that programming is mainly/completely math, though it can play a pretty big role, depending. It really would be good to be pretty good at it though. For the languages, you should really start with easy ones to help you learn the basics first, such as Python, BASIC, or Lua. For doing the actual work as a dev, you should learn C, C#, or C++ as every one of those are widely used in game developing.

[carljupiter]

Start reading about adobe flash platform.

[gatakana]

You want to pick up languages that are used in the industry. For online games, you want to master everything related to Flash, and of course, dig up the bread and butter of HTML, Javascript, etc. You also want to learn the Facebook API. (This takes like, a day) Do not start off with Perl, Python, or anything unless you want to end up hating programming forever. Those are things you want to start with later, and are used server-side, and thus, you don't really need them at all.

If you choose to move to developing actual games for PC (which is where the money and fun is really at), then you want to learn C first. To pick up Object-Oriented Programming, go for C++ after learning C. Java is generally frowned down upon, and much less suited to game development than it seems. When you get into using engines, I'd recommend the Unity Engine, as it's totally free, and pretty nice to fiddle with (personal experience), or go for the UDK if you want to learn how the big boys play. Finally, when you want to learn about scripting, pick up Python and LUA -- they are used heavily in the industry.

Regardless, your school choice doesn't matter if you know your stuff, though colleges like DigiPen have a huge name in the industry. UCSC has a very strong game development program too. Grades are a factor, but not an issue, as many industry professionals are actual dropouts, or were highly angular students (good at few things, not at everything) You do need to be good at math, however. The most important math for the game industry is Linear Algebra. Calculus is also very important if you want to design awesome physics and graphics engines. But by far the biggest factor, no matter where you go, is the passion. You have to love games, and you have to love making them. Have that, and the path will open before you.

Here are some helpful sites for game development in general. You should consider browsing these forums -- users on Yahoo Answers are honestly not at all the best source of information for things like this:

http://nehe.gamedev.net/)
http://www.spacesimulator.net/tutorials.html

Best of luck.