[ENGINES & SHADERS] ~ Where to start, when you want to make a career out of games?
triangle
I've just realized that a game engine and a shader system are like pencils: learning to draw rarely depends on how fancy your tools are.
In my quest to make a career out of video games development I've learnt a lot, especially how much I "didnt know that I dont know".
If I want to be able to craft my own shaders and blueprints, and ultimately my own game worlds (open ones, that is), I need to start learning from the basics, which means technical concepts, math and engine-specific objects/methods.
I need directions.
Where to start? What courses? What tutorials? What doors should I knock on to get all the knowledge I need?
I'm willing to pay for my education, as long as it doesnt include travelling abroad (I could never ever afford that much).
My budget is undisclosed, but also relatively limited.
If you have some advice for me, please also give it a price tag, even just a guessed one.
Thank you.
In my quest to make a career out of video games development I've learnt a lot, especially how much I "didnt know that I dont know".
If I want to be able to craft my own shaders and blueprints, and ultimately my own game worlds (open ones, that is), I need to start learning from the basics, which means technical concepts, math and engine-specific objects/methods.
I need directions.
Where to start? What courses? What tutorials? What doors should I knock on to get all the knowledge I need?
I'm willing to pay for my education, as long as it doesnt include travelling abroad (I could never ever afford that much).
My budget is undisclosed, but also relatively limited.
If you have some advice for me, please also give it a price tag, even just a guessed one.
Thank you.
Replies
https://forums.unrealengine.com
https://www.worldofleveldesign.com/categories/cat-ue4.php
Thank you for your contribution, but forums are not what I had in mind.
And you scared me, there, with the tuts series, because several are paid and not exactly cheap (for a tut)! x)
I'll give those a look, thank you.
Thank you, they're actually very cheap! =o
But also very confusing: I have no idea which ones will answer my questions and give me the knowledge that I actually need. =(
Ok, maybe I should jot down a number for my budget: let's say I could be able to spend around 1k$ (maybe 2k), to learn.
Interacting with a teacher, even in a delayed manner, would be a big plus.
Nobody ever hires a game developer, but a character / UI / special-FX / technical artists, game designers, writers, musicians / sound designers, animators, programmers, managers, accountants, cooks, etc.
Depending on your field of choice there's gonna be a specific set of skills expected from you, and a kickass portfolio. Look at game dev job classifieds to get an idea.
discord servers are good for quick help too and theres basically one for every program
Steamy_Steve said:
Thank you for your contribution, but forums are not what I had in mind.
And you scared me, there, with the tuts series, because several are paid and not exactly cheap (for a tut)! x) I'll give those a look, thank you.
Heh, apologies for the fright however when self learning you'll tend to weigh cost against end result a particular resource may or may not deliver in terms of quality and obviously prices are indexed over time which I hadn't checked lately since last sourcing W.O.L.D.
Also another thing from your OP, the gist in my opinion is that you're interested in the entire pipeline, both art and technical side so as mentioned above community forums are a great knowledge base too tap for a future potential project of this scope plus middleware store fronts usually have user generated examples for sale catering to every discipline, whilst keeping in mind would be very useful observing realtime game logic via the engine profiler.
Anyway good luck with your endeavours.