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has modding helped you in the RealWorld?

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MeTcHsteekle Joined: 15 May 2008 Posts: 397 Location: its a secret |

Posted: Thu Jun 04, 2009 4:58 pm Post subject: has modding helped you in the RealWorld? |

quick question, i want too see if anyone here has worked on development in gameing industry as a job [that made sense,right?] and if so, did modding help you [more foucusly, quake modding] in that job/career path? details are nuice too thanks, in advace, but if noone bothers woith my bothering no problem
[there will be a similar thread at Func_ aboot mapping, just fyi]
_________________
bah

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jim Joined: 05 Aug 2005 Posts: 400 Location: In The Sun |

Posted: Thu Jun 04, 2009 5:51 pm Post subject: |

Yes, it helped me to get into a school and a job in games industry, but I didn't like the job very much, so I quit and continue modding hobby. _________________ zbang!

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Error Inside3D Staff Joined: 05 Nov 2004 Posts: 558 Location: VA, USA

Posted: Thu Jun 04, 2009 5:55 pm Post subject: |

It helped me realise that there's a lot I don't know about programming, and now I'm finally going to college. so, yes I guess that it's helped me. _________________ Inside3D : Knowledge Is Power Darkplaces Documentation Wiki

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Electro Joined: 29 Dec 2004 Posts: 241 Location: Brisbane, Australia |

Posted: Fri Jun 05, 2009 12:24 am Post subject: |

Yep it helped me, been in the games industry nearly 6 years now. _________________ Unit reporting! http://www.bendarling.net/

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Wazat Joined: 15 Oct 2004 Posts: 732 Location: Middle 'o the desert, USA |

Posted: Fri Jun 05, 2009 12:46 am Post subject: |

Until I took college programming classes, I was a self-taught programmer centered on quake modding. It helped me a great deal in my classes because I already understood a number of things rather deeply, including the logic and mental syntax-processing that's critical. Quake also taught me some basic vector math and other math concepts -- I gasped in my graphics programming class when we discussed Dot Products, and I said "I know this stuff!". My experiences in Quake with exploring and mastering the tools here had prepared me for that class and many others. I didn't know how to calculate a dot product, but I knew what it could be used for, and that helped a lot.
I now have a Bachelor's Degree in computer science, and I've worked a number of programming jobs.
I worked for maybe a year and a half at a video game company named Sensory Sweep... However, it was a bad experience. If you've read any of the news about the lawsuits and government investigations into the company, you might know a little bit about what's going on. Let's just say I was one of the lucky ones -- I got laid off early, all my paychecks actually cashed at the bank, and I got a new job within a couple of months or so (though my 401K will probably turn out to be bogus). Some people are still owed over $10,000 in back pay and have little chance of ever seeing it. Even before all this happened, the management was sleazy and entirely untrained, the favoritism was terrible, the unpaid overtime was unjustifiably high, and I can't say I'm very proud of any of the games I worked on. Jackass DS, Glucoboy 2, a mini-game warioware ripoff game that got put on the back burner indefinitely, and a Diehard game that never saw the light of day (for good reason!).
Despite all the great talent they had working for them (artists, programmers, all us low-level grunts), Sensory Sweep produced one shoddy game after another because their game engines were poor, their management was incompetent, and they always underbid the project timeline to beat out competitors so we never had enough time to finish anything properly. Oh, and 10-12 hour days were more or less standard because of that. 14 hour days were expected if you were anywhere near a milestone, and I worked 18 hour days on more than one occasion trying to meet deadlines. No matter what though, we got paid for 8 hours a day, tops. No overtime pay for you lowly salary grunts, you're here to work for free. We can underbid as much as we want and still make money because our employees can work any amount of unpaid overtime.
And that's just the tip of the iceburg. The way they treated my uncle was way worse. I really, really was lucky.
I'm told other video game companies usually aren't like that, but I'll be extremely wary about entering the game industry again. It turns out modding at home for myself isn't near as likely to produce a finished product, but it's at least more satisfying than working on someone else's project that is both uncreative and unenjoyable to play. Working on uninspiring projects that someone else came up with, games that hold no promise of being interesting or fun for either the developer or player, suck the life out of you.
At least with my current job, I like my work, my coworkers, and my bosses. Water modeling software is not as cool or engaging as working on video games, but Sensory Sweep was never very cool or engaging anyway.
So yes, my Quake modding did help me get my education and my current career in computer programming and software development, as well as the jobs I've had and currently have. It helped a ton, and I still tinker with Quake from time to time. Unfortunately it's a real challenge to find the time and energy to keep modding, which worries me. It used to be a huge part of my life.
_________________
When my computer inevitably explodes and kills me, my cat inherits everything I own. He may be the only one capable of continuing my work.

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FrikaC Site Admin Joined: 08 Oct 2004 Posts: 947 |

Posted: Sat Jun 06, 2009 5:10 am Post subject: |

I've worked for 2.5 years now for Human Head Studios. Makers of Prey and Rune. I was hired largely because of my portfolio of mods for Quake and other games and because of word of mouth recommendations from contacts I've met through the Quake scene. Oh and they loved Qake.
It's been a pretty exciting ride so far. As I'm under NDA I can't really say what we worked on, but I must say the work environment is great. Yes, there's the occasional crunch, but it's entirely optional.

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leileilol Joined: 15 Oct 2004 Posts: 1321 |

Posted: Sat Jun 06, 2009 5:17 am Post subject: |

FrikaC wrote:
but I must say the work environment is great.

even post office fire?
_________________

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scar3crow Inside3D Staff Joined: 18 Jan 2005 Posts: 837 Location: Las Vegas, NV

Posted: Sat Jun 06, 2009 6:13 am Post subject: |

I'm not a modder, but the friendships I've established through this community and through my devotion to Quake and what makes games good in and of themselves did enable me to snag an on-site interview with GarageGames (after I botched my phone interview). Once in person, I was able to dazzle them with my smile, I got the job, which brought a new degree of security into my life.
So you can attribute Quake to me moving 3000 miles, having a stable income, learning a WHOLE lot more about game development, creating some of the best friendships I've had, and my getting married (prior to the job, which I landed partially because of Quake, my near future was very much in flux, and unstable, and certainly capable of the load balancing needed for a marriage).
Quake launched a fair number of those now in the industry, far beyond this community. I don't think anyone is the worse for getting involved with Quake.
_________________
...and all around me was the chaos of battle and the reek of running blood.... and for the first time in my life I knew true happiness.

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FrikaC Site Admin Joined: 08 Oct 2004 Posts: 947 |

Posted: Sat Jun 06, 2009 7:33 pm Post subject: |

leileilol wrote:

FrikaC wrote:
but I must say the work environment is great.

even post office fire?

Yes it's nice.

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ajay Joined: 29 Oct 2004 Posts: 295 Location: Swindon, UK |

Posted: Mon Jun 08, 2009 4:57 pm Post subject: |

Not in terms of work, although I did once get an email offer of an interview; not sure if it was all genuine or not. Its more helped me feel in a small way creative and keep my meagre brain ticking over, as well being a nice distraction from real life woes.
Maybe thats why I'm not modding now... 'cos I'm really happy with life and work!
_________________
my site

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reckless Joined: 24 Jan 2008 Posts: 390 Location: inside tha debugger |

Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2009 5:29 am Post subject: |

not so much in work related terms but i also got an invite to an interview. unfortunatly in usa so a bit farther away than i could manage to travel at that time. but it keeps me from getting bored

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Tomaz Joined: 05 Nov 2004 Posts: 49 |

Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2009 12:04 pm Post subject: |

TomazQuake / MiniRacer defenitly helped me get into the game dev school I attended for 3 years which ended with me getting hired there as a teacher in game programming. Being a teacher in game programming has 2 sides, the "bad" side is when we get new students, and you tear your hair off trying to get them to understand simple for loops, but it all pays off in the end when they graduate 2 years later and land jobs at the big companies. We have lots of former students in the bigger swedish companies like Avalanche ( Just Cause ), StarBreeze ( Riddick ), DICE ( BattleField, Mirrors Edge ), Massive ( Ground Control, World in Conflict ) and even a couple foreign companies like Splash Damage ( Quake Wars ).
So in the end its nice to stand there and be able to tell people "Mr X has coded on Y game at Z company, and I tought him how!"
Now I wouldnt mind being able to tell that IVE wqorked o na game as well, but so far I have not been so lucky, but that day will come, AND THEN I WILL RULE THE KNOWN UNIVERSE!!!!!!

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