Interested in making games?

[tehNihilist]

Getting into serious game dev, (as most people envision it) in SA is almost impossible from what I have seen. That is not to say there are not things happening, there certainly are. People just often need to seriously downgrade what their expectations are, like making AAA titles to rival the best.

Got a few friends in the SA game dev community that have been making a living off making games on hand-held devices. I have worked with them on and off, but all of their/our dreams of going big are so far off with the limitations in this country. It is sad though, talent is found everywhere, but is only truly cultivated in first world countries... And even considering, the competition overseas is so SO stiff.

And I'm with Omega with this - <3 to be a Game Designer. Studied C/C++ programming and grew to loathe it. But that is a job reserved for people that have a good holistic understanding of game development from what I understand.

But good luck to you all! I really hope some of you make it big! ^_^

[Etiko]

collision detection you don't have to write yourself...

But this is one of the most fun things to code... So much math! I love math!

[Trowalts]

Lies! If you're a skilled programmer, you should appreciate what GM gives you to work with: Data structures for free, all the graphics handling you can eat, collision detection you don't have to write yourself...
I'm on number 4 now

You kind sir, should jump infront of a truck before I bitchslap you with an xna bounding sphere, now go waste your own time re-inventing the wheel for a 5th time cos you havent bothered to learn a framework properly. XNA is miles ahead of game maker, but like mentioned before its probably not best to start with. I dident start with it, but I moved on to it eventually and I wont be going back.

[Blackhand]

I practiced and ultimately studied programming (initially C++, after a few years though my array of languages has expanded) because I was hoping one day to get a career in game development.

I obviously didn't get into game dev, instead ended up do the usual backend, services, web dev and mobile dev etc. that most SA developers end up doing. Game dev is just not really something you can get into professionally in South Africa.

I don't hate my job at all, its challenging and can have it's moments, but I'm a lot more passionate about games.

[OmegaFenix]

I practiced and ultimately studied programming (initially C++, after a few years though my array of languages has expanded) because I was hoping one day to get a career in game development.

I obviously didn't get into game dev, instead ended up do the usual backend, services, web dev and mobile dev etc. that most SA developers end up doing. Game dev is just not really something you can get into professionally in South Africa.

I don't hate my job at all, its challenging and can have it's moments, but I'm a lot more passionate about games.

This is very very true. U want to get into Gaming, Get out of SA.

[Murph]

It's a pity that one always has to say : if you want to get into anything (entertainment wise that is), get out of SA....

Sad, but true.