Ambrosia Software Web Board: Questions about Software Developement - Ambrosia Software Web Board

Just some questions from a hopefull fifteen-year-old: (Hehe, how many of you thought I was fifteen? )(Wait, what I'm I saying? The rest of you could all be under ten for all I know)

1) What would be needed to work for a nice company (like Ambrosia) as a game designer/maker/tester. Designer meaning that they think up the game, maker meaning that they do wahtever they need to do for the game to work on a computer. Tester meaning, well, a beta or prebeta tester (if such a thing really exists...).

2) If some one doesn't have what they need, how would they go about getting what they need for each of these positions?

3) How easy would it be to create a new company and be able to have a decent game, assuming that the creator/s have no previous knowledge or conections?

Try not to laugh, but I would like to do all of the above, but I fear my limited abilities would be quite a hindrance. Hopefully some one with experiance could council me here.

Oh, and one last one on a slightly different topic, how are (good) pictures made? I'm assuming not on paintbrush, but I know I could always be wrong.

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"It has to start some time.
It has to start some where.
What better time than now?
What better world than this?" ~Theo Nean Donly~

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Yes, I'm an infant with the ability to type on a keyboard.

I'm not laughing, mainly because I'm interested in the answers to the first two. However, Andrew doesn't reply to this board a whole lot and it might be a while before we get an answer.

Theo, I don't think they pay their testers. There's Zach, but I doubt he gets a salary. Also, the beta-testors usually don't get paid for testing Ambrosia's products.

I'm going to restate one of your questions, but so it focuses on something more specific:

4. What educational requirements, and/or experience is the minimal to be considered for having a job such as making a game? (like programming a game)

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"I'm a controversial figure. My friends either dislike me or hate me."

[This message has been edited by Avatara (edited 02-20-2001).]

It is my personal opinion that the following are all you need to do what you ask....

1.) Ambition. This isn't your greed type of ambition...this is the kind of ambition that you want to move up, you want to get things done, and you want to do them right. You have to be a hard worker....lazy people just aren't going to cut it. You have to be self-motivated (read: I'm screwed ). If you can't work on tasks without someone telling you every move to make, you're not going to cut it. And yes, you have to be competent. Decent spelling, grammar, etc. will always help. But I've forgotten the number one requirement....self-confidence.

2.) Basically this is an attitude kind of thing....you can have what it takes if you want to. Sure, there are some education aspects to it, but nothing that regular schooling isn't going to take care of.

3.) Depends on what you mean by knowledge. Obviously someone with no knowledge of C++ programming is not going to be able to make a game written in C++. As to connections....I think connections are one of the most important things to have...you can have an awesome game, but if it doesn't hit enough people, it won't get big. That's something great about Ambrosia...if your game is good, they'll as like as not publish it, and Ambrosia is one of the biggest connections in the Macintosh playing field.

And per Tyrael's request:

4.) For something like Coldstone, the only requirement is hard work and good imagination. Of course, you probably want to hook up with a graphics artist to make something large, but graphic artists seem to be crawling all over the place. If you wanted to actually program your own game, it's different. I don't think you can say, "If you have 10 years of C programming experience, you can make the best game in the world!" I just don't think that is true. Once again, it comes to self-motivation. In my C++ class, I could be much farther ahead if I put more work into it....as it is, I put almost no work in, and I'm one of the top in the class. So I'll reiterate: I don't think there is a set "minimum experience" needed. It depends entirely upon the individual.

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And so the problem remained; lots of people were mean, and most of them were miserable, even the ones with digital watches. Many were increasingly of the opinion that they had all made a big mistake in coming down from the trees in the first place. And some said that the trees had been a bad move and that no one should ever have left the oceans. - Douglass Adams

On your last question, Theo, I'm not quite sure what you mean. Different pictures are made different ways. If you want to make a "good" graphic, depicting a scene/spaceship/anything like that, you need to start with a 3D program. However, if you're designing a logo or anything else that is in 2D, Photoshop is the standard. If you want to know more about anything, email me!

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<font color="gold">Bronze: the other gold metal.
Bacchus Publishing: [url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/cgi-bin/vftp/show.pl?product=evo&category=guides&display=date&file=ChroniclesByJake101.sit.hqx"]Chronicles by Jake101: the unposted chapters[/url], [url="http://"http://users.erols.com/alkrauss/Once_Again.html"]Once Again: on the web.[/url]
Bacchus Freeware: Olympus Wars, a plugin for EV:N.

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I've found through experience that I can catch on really quick. One, sometimes two good examples and a couple questions, and then I can pick up on it really well.

I've also found that currently, I'm decent at a wide variety of skills, but I don't really specialize in one (not counting algebra, that's not a career)...yet. Hopefully I can find something that really interests me. After 6 weeks of a C++ course where we meet every two weekdays I can make a decent "BlackJack" game, but with no pictures. And of course, it was slightly buggy when we handed it in, but with only three days to work on it total I wasn't able to do a whole lot about it. I knew what to fix, it was just a problem of time and tools.

I'm thinking programming is my key. I've always liked computers, and making things.

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But I think he means "what knowledge do I need for Ambrosia to hire me as part of their team." Not just for one game, but maybe as part of the company...as much as say the "Office Mom" is (sorry, can't think of the name at the moment).

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I don't know very many. Talos seems to be dabbling in graphics, but I can't be sure...

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I meant the latter part, "program my own game". Of course its different, and 10 years of experience, while it will sure help me, won't guarantee I can make the best game possible. Self-motivation is definately the key, but with lots of self-motivation I can't exactly jump up and start flying. Experience, education, sometimes the surroundings and availability of resources/tools also come into play here. Of course, self-confidence is a slight problem with me...and I hate telephones. What's wrong with e-mail, mail, or talking in person?

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Of course what he wants to make depends on the situation. I know of Photoshop, and people have rumored Strata for 3D graphics designing...do you know of any others? How about affordable ones? (like not something that costs over $400)

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"I'm a controversial figure. My friends either dislike me or hate me."

[This message has been edited by Avatara (edited 02-22-2001).]

I can see that my lack of knowledge prevents me from explaining myself fully in the way that I want. I'll try and combine all my questions into one paragraph that will hopefully convay what I'm trying to ask.

I have no programming abilities, but I have always been interested in programming. I have no clue how games/programs are made. I _do_ know (I think), for example, how to make a game from Coldstone, where the interface (is that what it's called?), and I suppose graphics, are already set up. Basicly, I have the creativity and (sometimes ) the motivation to make a game when I have the tools. However, I _don't_ know how the interface is set up in the first place. How are the internal knowledge in games like EV or Cythera made. For example, how did they say that buying certain weapons in EV would allow you to shoot? How did they get so that if you press the space bar, little dots would spit forth and those that were hit enough would die? I guess that's what I'm trying to say.

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Paid? Who wants to get paid?

And I wouldn't hope to dream about working for Ambrosia (hence my lack of self-confidence). I just ment to use that as an example.

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I _don't_ know of Photoshop, only paintbrush. But I heard you people talking awhile back about this kind of thing, and I realized that maybe seeing one would explain some stuff.
Is there anything that can be used for free?

The whole reason I started on this is [url="http://"http://web.mit.edu/craighea/www/utumno/"]Utumno[/url] . I figured out how to change some things in the game, by opening the text and changing numbers, but I don't know how to get into what says that being a warrior means ______, being a mage means ______. I know the game is old and pretty $h!ty, but I figured it would be a good start to become "maintainer", however Matt said that major improvement needs to be shown first, so...

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"It has to start some time.
It has to start some where.
What better time than now?
What better world than this?" ~Theo Nean Donly~

[This message has been edited by Theo Nean Donly (edited 02-27-2001).]

Well if it's just simple game programming you want, Coldstone is it.
I've seen the interface and it's childsplay to operate (much like OS 7- 8.6)
You can get Talos to e-mail you some graphics or use the default ones, and the programming is as simple as well... here's an example:

You go up to the menu and drag down to create NPC (non player character)
it gives you an editor style thing that allows you to change the walking pattern they move in, their hps, mps etc.
You can edit in things that can be said to them to trigger different responses (think 'Ask Halos about Comana')
Then you hit ok and drag them to a position on the board, then adjust their walking pattern accordingly.

You can use a toolbar style thingy to 'paint' landscapes like forests grass or water for example.

ColdStone is going to be a godsent for brainless would be programmers like us.

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-TheDarkDragon
Who am I? I am the darkness which lies within your soul. I lie between Good and Evil. I am the Dark Dragon Within. Fear Me.
*Always capitalize Dragon, or you'll find yourself as a pile of ash.*

Yah, but I don't want to be a brainless would-be programmer
Oh, and on that topic, is Coldstone still in beta? When is it going to come out?

P.S. It's not "just simple game programming" I want That's not good enough for me.

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"It has to start some time.
It has to start some where.
What better time than now?
What better world than this?" ~Theo Nean Donly~

Quote

Coldstone is about to enter beta 3. And I don't know how to do any GUI (graphical user interface) programming, so I can't answer your questions about that.

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And so the problem remained; lots of people were mean, and most of them were miserable, even the ones with digital watches. Many were increasingly of the opinion that they had all made a big mistake in coming down from the trees in the first place. And some said that the trees had been a bad move and that no one should ever have left the oceans. - Douglass Adams

If you would like to move on past my level of brainlessness then I would suggest planning for a tech course in your spare time or seeing if they have C++ for dummies.

GL

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-TheDarkDragon
Who am I? I am the darkness which lies within your soul. I lie between Good and Evil. I am the Dark Dragon Within. Fear Me.
*Always capitalize Dragon, or you'll find yourself as a pile of ash.*