What I Learned - 22

This post is covering 2 weeks - moving to Madison, WI to start work with Epic (no, not Epic Games) takes a toll!

As we move into the new year, What I Learned may change or even go away.  Don't worry - if it gets replaced, it will be with updates on my monthly game projects that'll start on January 1st!

With that, read on and enjoy.

What I Learned - 12/15 to 12/28

1. Suggesting that a job applicant play the games of the company they are applying to  is pretty smart to help drive up user numbers.
1. KIXEYE Submission Confrimation Email
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2. A writer is, has to be, the most flexible person on a development team.
1. Jason Blair; Game Writing: 11 Things I've Learned
3. (Reminder:) Making things RIGHT NOW is the best way to learn and show skills needed in creating games, with or without a college degree.
1. Brian Albert; How Not to Become a Game Developer, Game Informer #247 pg. 27
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4. Being nationally accredited (like the infamous Westwood College), rather than being regionally accredited, offers very few other schools that credits may be transfered to.
1. Brian Albert; How Not to Become a Game Developer, Game Informer #247 pg. 27

What I Learned - 21

Apologies for making this late!  However, there's some big news at the bottom of the article...

What I Learned - 12/8 to 12/14

1. Getting an interviewer to agree that a question applies to a position is an effective technique.
1. Success Patterns LLC; Word-for-Word Job Interview Answers to Use to Get Hired
2. No valid reason exists to not use version control when programming.
1. Edward Guiness; Ace the Programming Interview: 160 Questions and Answers for Success, pg. 358
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3. Hard-coding numbers without an explanation is, well, just wrong.
1. Edward Guiness; Ace the Programming Interview: 160 Questions and Answers for Success, pg. 367
4. Hash tables are a saving grace for many programming projects with elements of uncertainty.
1. Edward Guiness; Ace the Programming Interview: 160 Questions and Answers for Success
5. Games cost 30 times more to make now than they did during the Playstation era.
1. J. F. Sargent, Dave Williams; 5 Reasons the Video Game Industry is About to Crash
6. Making a game just about destroying a city with great graphics and physics would be kinda cool.
1. J. F. Sargent, Dave Williams; 5 Reasons the Video Game Industry is About to Crash
2. Who hasn't destroyed a SIM City or blown something up for the heck of it?
7. Hashtables are great in programming, but Dictionaries are even better!
1. Sam Allen; C# Dictionary

Moving to Wisconsin!  There's been an absolutely fantastic offer that, well, would be foolish to refuse.  It's at Epic, the nation's top electronic health records company with one of the best employee bases of any organization.  There's no telling what will come in the next few weeks, but please stay tuned!

What I Learned - 20

This last week saw me wrapping-up the final phase of an interview.  Being flown to the company headquarters, I was able to exercise my software development skills, team collaboration ability, and problem solving prowess.  Engineering programs for this awesome company is looking good!

Then my application failed to meet the minimum qualifications for an entry-level, black-box QA position, likely to be given a bare-bones hourly salary.  My best guess is that it's location, location, and location.  What do you think?



What I Learned - 12/1 to 12/7

1. It has now been seen that mobile developers are paying more to aquire users than those users are spending in-game.
1. Dean Takahashi; Developers, Brace for a Bloodbath: The Cost of Getting a New Mobile Gamer Exceeds Revenue that User Generates
2. .Net and similar off-shoot programming structures are forcing-out a lot of entry-level developers due to the high overhead needed to be learned by the dev before they may even be considered competent in it.
1. Justin James; How Entry Level Developers are being Squeezed Out of the Job Field, and What They can do about it
3. A suggested show of competence with Java and .Net frameworks can be done in a project(s) using: C#, ASP .NET, XAML-based systems, HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, different frameworks, SQL, and LINQ.
1. Justin James; How Entry Level Developers are being Squeezed Out of the Job Field, and What They can do about It
4. The Flood in the video game series Halo was designed with how soldiers carry their weapons; right handed people have exposed left flanks!  (A Flood's host has a huge bulge on their left side where they were attacked.)
1. Titan Books; Halo: The Art of Building Worlds, pg 99
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5. If a game maker ever feels down about making games, watching an inspiring documentary will light the spark again.
1. Realization after watching the movie Us and the Game Industry

What I Learned - 19

Not much for this week - after studying Programming Interviews Exposed, I've learned much more about software development, but not as much about making games.

Let me take this time to ask a question: Do you care for any game analysis that is done via a Let's Play or similar recorded play-through?  For me, it's a lot easier to have a game running in the background while I continue to work than to stop and dedicate numerous hours to new entertainment.

Just a thought.

What I Learned - 11/24 to 11/30

1. Programming Interviews Exposed: Secrets to Landing Your Next Job is the best, most thorough educational text on not just developer interviews, but also the foundation of computer science ever come across.
1. John Mongan, Eric Giguere, Noah Kindler; Programming Interviews Exposed: Secrets to Landing Your Next Job
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Wish me luck this week!  As you may have guessed, there's a company flying me out to interview for a dev position.  It'll be fun.