1. How to Be a Game Developer
David Weller
Technical Evangelist
.NET Developer Division
Microsoft

2. I Want to Write Quake4!! The bad news you need to know: The good news
Writing a Game is hard
Writing a Great Game is really, really hard (and takes a LOT of money these days)
Game Programmers make LESS money than business programmers
And there’s fewer openings (1 game programming job per every 1000 “real” programming jobs)
The good news
Writing Games is fun and rewarding (usually)
You job will always be “cooler” than other jobs

3. Gaming Jobs
Game Programming involves a LOT of things: Scene Rendering, Network code, AI, Real-time control, etc.
But there’s more to it than programming…
Audio specialists (Music, Effects, Voices, etc.)
Designer (Game layout, storyboarding, concept art)
Graphics Art
Business issues (Marketing, Sales, etc)
Producing (the big “Honcho”)

4. What you need to know to be a Good Game Programmer
Math
2D and 3D Graphics Techniques
Physics
Computer Science stuff (data structures, networking, languages, patterns, etc.)

5. Programming Languages
C++
The “Big Kahuna” of Game Programming Languages
VERY difficult to master, not a good starting point
Java
Commonly used for “applet” Games
Not useful for large-scale games
Visual Basic
Easy beginners language
Unpopular in the Gaming Community C#
Great starting point for Game Programming
Easy to shift to C++ when you need to

6. Microsoft Game Technologies
.NET and GDI+: High-speed 2D graphics
.NET and the DirectX Family
Direct3D
DirectInput (Including force-feedback joysticks)
DirectAudio (included DirectSound and DirectMusic)
DirectShow (video playback)
DirectPlay (mutiplayer networking)

7. How Do I Start?
International Game Developers Association ( is a great resource!
Learn to “walk” before you try to “run”
Look at how games are implemented
Think about what makes a game fun
Read about new ideas, Write Code that implements it, Play it. Repeat forever 

8. Starting Points Tetris! Breakout, Artillery, Asteroids, Tank Wars
Collision detection and User Interaction basics
Breakout, Artillery, Asteroids, Tank Wars
Game physics
Pac-Man
Multiple, simple AIs
Mario-brothers-style side-scrollers
Moving entities, gamefield, player, etc.
Terrarium
Competitive AI
Remember: 3D is like 2D with another dimension!

9. Web Resources International Game Developers Assoc. IGDA For Students
IGDA For Students
GamaSutra
Game Developer
Mainfunction.com .NET Game of the Month

10. Recommended Books Beginners Intermediate Advanced
.NET Game Programming with DirectX 9.0
Intermediate
Physics for Game Developers
Mathematics for Computer Graphics Applications
Advanced
3D Game Engine Design
Microsoft DirectX 9 Programmable Graphics Pipeline