There hasn't been much written content on GB for a long time but to see it phrased as "You don't need me to do this anymore" feels disappointing. Podcasts and quick looks are fun but they are more general conversations about a game with a lot of goofs in the middle. A review or something else written has drafts and gets edited. It's a particular statement about a game someone had to read and say "This is what I want to say. This was written with intention" as opposed to "I've played a bit of this here's how I feel about it off the top of my head". It serves a different purpose to me.
So apparently if you finish the original Metal Gear Solid on the easy difficulty, some character named "Octagon" gives you stealth camo. Maybe it's like a UFC thing? Or a geometry thing?
Because writing a little HTML isn't hard and doesn't need a CS degree. I work at a company that wants Application Developers, and we are hungry for them and are hiring a lot of people who can write OO code and just be human during the interview. People with CS degrees are in high demand. People who are NOT in demand are those who opened their web page source code and changed a few lines to make the web site title different and then show up to job fairs wanting developer jobs. If you have a Computer Science degree, you can do a lot more than write a line of HTML. Also, web site designers are all over the place, but your average person can't go to the App designer store and drag and drop their next phone app. Someone who has a CS degree and can do some OO programming can read a wiki and be doing HTML in an hour. Someone who plays around with changing web site color backgrounds on their HTML web site isn't going to hop into C++ like nothing.
If I may ask and get a bit off topic, where are you looking? I have a degree, experience in C++ even. You wanna talk about OO, data structures, design patterns? I've got that in spades, what are teams like yours really looking for? Should I be making more connections? Should I be contributing to open source more? Sorry if this comes off as rude or pleading, but i'm at a loss with my career.
He said that anybody with a CS degree has a job, not necessarily a job in video games. And this is not to suggest that he's not basically horrible for lots of other reasons, but he is not incorrect about this one thing. The requirement to achieve gainful employment with a CS degree right now (or even something related) is roughly "achieve a body temperature of 98.6 deg F"; little things like "can write code" or "actually showers" are often set by the wayside because there are reqs and you must fill them.
But what kind of experience do you need to get consistent freelance work? This idea that anyone with a degree right now kind find work in general is still wrong. There was a time when anyone who could write a line of HTML could get work. That time is over now.
As programmer newly out of work trying to slowly break into game development, I have mixed feelings about this. Before I worked making educational games for mobile which was a full time gig that paid my bills fine while also working as a contract programmer on a game that I am not paid for. I am expected to give it part-time effort on a consistent basis but for no actual pay but "revenue share", which isn't worth too much when your current revenue is $0. So I was working 60-70 hours a week because I had an opportunity to get experience and I needed it bad.
One of the things that gets me the most about St. Johns presentation other than the Aspergers comments is a line that reads something like: "Anyone with a CS degree has a job". I have a CS degree and I don't know when this was true, but it sure as hell isn't anymore. Job listings for any game programming position require some heavy requirements beyond willing to work long hours. Entry level anything is far and few between, believe me I'm trying.
From my perspective if a St. John-like recruiter gave me an offer at any studio saying that I could at least pay my bills, have decent job security for maybe a whole year, but I would have to work insane crunch, I'd take it without a second thought. I don't want want to sound like I don't support other developers or I want to drag the industry down by supporting this system, but that an offer like that would be the best opportunity I could hope for right now. And it's still a pipedream to get that. If I could leverage a willingness to crunch hard as an advantage over my competition to make that possible, I would do it. Btw I am still doing the contract/volunteer work thing.
TaunT's comments