Should I become a Video Game Programmer?

What skills do you need to become a video game programmer?

• Do you need to know a lot of math?

• Answer:

  I believe you need to love learning and problem solving. As a programmer, you'll come to a point where something goes wrong, the program or function you've made isn't working, and now you need to look through (sometimes) hundreds of lines of code to spot your error. So patience is good too. Math and Physics. It's a good thing to enjoy math, you'd be using it a lot. Those are probably the two most important things, along with a programing language of course. I would personally say C++ would be the best language to learn. Consider it the base language from which all languages came. Almost like greek, notice how nearly all languages stemed from greek. The same would go with C++ being the root. It's a LOT harder than most people think. Kind of like the guitar, I thought it was going to be easy too... yaa, no. Once you get the hang of it though, it's like driving a car, it's just natural.. well, driving isn't so natural for women, but that's besides the point. :P in the end, it pays off. I would say you need to spend several hours a day learning. Check out lynda.com it's probably the very best video tutorial site there is. This site don't necessarily have much on game programming, or C++, but it has many tutorials on photoshop, illustrator, and many other programs or languages you will need as a programmer. It's a good thing to be well rounded, meaning that you know a little bit of everything, and then a lot of the specific part you play in the overall projects you take on. For instance, it would be good to know html and css, even if you're only a C++ programmer, it will allow for you to create websites that showcase your skills, or showcase the projects you work on. etc. etc. if you decide to take that path, give it your all, or quit. Think, breath, eat and sleep in programming language. ps: open source is a good way to become recognized. hope that helped