Who are you???

Post by **Kencho** » Wed Feb 11, 2004 12:35 am

Well, I think this is my turn... here I go!

23 years-old boy from Spain (yes, we also code in spain...

)
Been programming in QBasic since 14, moved to DIV (a game-oriented language), then to C, C++ and Java (this last one, required by the university...). Also studied OpenGL and 3D maths (DirectX is too much time-consuming for me right now)
I'm studying computers engineering (I hope to finish this year, as this is taking too long -- that's the punishment for being a "freelance student"). I think studying at university also takes too much time for me. I prefer to be self-taught in students, and take my own rythm to learn everything.

I think all my knowledge is oriented to game development (yes, I also love drawing, CGing, 3D design, software design, sound...). This moves me to learn really bizarre subjects, such as ancient japanese story, greek mythology, and such things. I think it's better a well-documented game than a kill-everytime game...

Of course, I just love to learn. Everything. So I'm always happy of developing something, no problem if I don't finish.

About my gaming experience, I must say my fav games are Ninja Gaiden (NES ones...), Tenchu series, and The Masterpiece: SILENT HILL 2 (and the other two Silent Hill games...). Regarding to this last one, I have to say this is the best game I've ever seen. Great ambientation, amazing story, everything... I dream to work in that development team... T_T

Well, this is taking too long, and I've begun talking about SH2, so I'm afraid this is my last chance to stop!

Proton · Post by **Proton** » Wed Feb 11, 2004 2:34 am

Hi everyone. My name is Proton, I am 23 and I am addicted to game programming.

I got hooked on the stuff 8 years ago when a friend introduced me to a little compiler named Q (it also goes by QBasic). It started small with simple tile-based puzzle games, but inevitably it led to more serious applications like a C raycasting engine.

I struggled to fit into the norms of society, and even took a job programming databases in VB and doing tech support for a retail chain. It was all going so well.... until one day I injected a new library into my compiler. It was a powerful mix of OO and C++ that called itself 'Ogre'.

My girlfriend of 6 years actually encourages my programming hobby, and even plays online games with me like TFC, CS, and NS. And believe it or not, she's hot!

Anyway, now back to coding, but this thread was an interesting read.

Fenris · Post by **Fenris** » Wed Feb 11, 2004 5:27 am

I am 33 (I think), married to a programming goddess and have 1 tiny one. Been programming since way back when. I am now a professor at Cleveland State University leading the good fight of actually trying to educate young programmers. Before that, I did a whole mess of contracting work for fun things like web based medical insurance apps, operating room schedulers, web based EDI front ends, financial aid programs, etc.

But, the most fun I had was 3 years as a full time game developer. Did two web games, one of which was my baby that ended up with about 15,000 daily users before I left. Too bad about that .com bomb, eh? Along the way we almost licensed one of our games to a company that was making a 'small' game called Battlefield 1942. But, one of my partners wanted to hold out for just a little more money. I don't hold any grudges, but my bank account hates that man to this day.

Anyway, the gaming bug never dies, so I am back at it with a new crew, this time working on a 4x TBS game. Still at the design doc stage. Been through three rounds of looking at engines and the two left standing are Ogre and Cipher.

So why I am writing this instead of writing design docs, or exploring engines? Because there are currently 23 assignments still waiting on my website for me to grade, so of course I am wasting time procrastinating. Who says profs don't learn from their students.

Dave

staringmonkey · Post by **staringmonkey** » Wed Feb 11, 2004 6:08 am

Fenris wrote: Along the way we almost licensed one of our games to a company that was making a 'small' game called Battlefield 1942. But, one of my partners wanted to hold out for just a little more money. I don't hold any grudges, but my bank account hates that man to this day.

Not to break the cycle of background posts, but oh my god, that hurts just reading it.

staringmonkey

dhaley · Post by **dhaley** » Wed Feb 11, 2004 6:46 am

I've got one of those stories too... My father was at Berkeley when it all was happenin' in the early 70s - he actually the first version of tar, and the pattern matching for vi. Anyways, he was going to class with a fellow called Bill Joy, and even wrote some papers with him.

So one day, Bill comes to my dad and says: "Hey Chuck, we're going to go start a company, called Sun... Want to come along [as a founding member]?" And my dad replies: "Nah, sorry Bill, I'm already working in another startup..."

Talk about kicking yourself for quite a while.

All the more ironic considering that just 5 years ago or so he ended up doing consulting work for Sun in Italy...

I am now a professor at Cleveland State University leading the good fight of actually trying to educate young programmers.

Woohoo! Being a TA myself I find that a highly respectable goal.

kfoong · Post by **kfoong** » Wed Feb 11, 2004 7:01 am

lol, better keep going then...

I just turned 16, and I know VB (bleargh), a little of java, C#, DarkBasic, Game Maker, Pascal, PLua (palm port for lua), a little of lua, C and ofcourse C++. I know some windows programming, OpenGL, and DirectX. I also know HTML (of course

), PHP, and very little of javascript. I've made a few websites too, a one or two of them professional (though I haven't earned any money).

I know how to use photoshop, illustrator, paint shop pro, flash well enough to do some things. I also know how to draw.

I've done some music mixing and brushed on music making.

I had a look at Irrlicht, the things it created seemed nice, but i didnt like the way it did things. Crystal Space didnt seem to have a nice and friendly community like this one so I left that.

I made my first app when I was 4 (or was it 6?) in delphi, but I didnt pursue programming until I was twelve and havent looked back since. I have a passion for learning things that could help with my game projects (hence all the stuff above

). Im at a selective school which is in the top 25 in the state.

I hope to be a game developer one day, or a BLOCKED or a graphic designer. There are possibly other things i missed. There is only one person in my school who is into programming like me. *Takes a deep breath*

monster · Post by **monster** » Wed Feb 11, 2004 7:48 am

I'm <cough>33</cough> and I'm a code monkey in product development for the "world's leading supplier of software for information management, and the world's second largest independent software company". According to our website.

I moved to Melbourne (Oz) from Reading (UK) last year, but confusingly, thanks to the wonders of modern internetty stuff still do exactly the same job for exactly the same people. But for less money. Hmmm.

Since starting out on my trusty Speccy aged 11 I've programmed millions of different machines (PrimeOS <shudder>) in millions of different languages, ADA and Modula-2 anyone? And Cobol, written out by hand on code-sheets that you had to give to data entry "experts" to type in? I'm trying to lull myself away from the keyboard by learning to play guitar, but there's something they say about old dogs and new tricks which escapes me at the moment.

WLTM; Bubbly Blonde, 18 - 24, GSOH, NS, Melbourne Area.
Or am I on the wrong forum for that?
Oh bugger, here's the missus, Hello Dear....

<click>

mmelo · Post by **mmelo** » Wed Feb 11, 2004 10:41 am

monster wrote:I'm <cough>33</cough> and I'm a code monkey in product development for the "world's leading supplier of software for information management, and the world's second largest independent software company". According to our website.

Would that be Computer Associates? If so my wife works for that company as well... first in the UK and now over here in Portugal...

Jezze · Post by **Jezze** » Wed Feb 11, 2004 1:12 pm

I'm 21 (this january)... I am studying to get a master in computer science so I guess I am the young programmer that people like Fenris so desperatly are trying to educate =)

I'm a hobby programmer and designer ( lead developer of www.spiritofgaia.org ) and I've recently taken the bold step into the art of computer graphics because it is a field that is always evolving and therefor very exciting...

I'm a big fan of functional programming... strange that functional programming languages isn't used more than it is...

Except programming I enjoy sports, I've played ice-hockey and football (soccer) sense I was a little kid but not at the moment... I also play classical guitar and drink beer.... and occasionly a jolt... =)

Oh, I almost forgot! Im a small collector of click'n'play adventure games... I don't know how many titles I have but there are many... Max in Sam'n'Max is also my "role-model" because he is just the funniest character ever created...

Tada....

psyclonist · Post by **psyclonist** » Wed Feb 11, 2004 1:57 pm

Jezze wrote:Max in Sam'n'Max is also my "role-model" because he is just the funniest character ever created...

You're so right! I'm the proud owner a Sam'n Max Freelance Police comic book signed by Steve Purcell

Jezze · Post by **Jezze** » Wed Feb 11, 2004 2:38 pm

Damn I wish I had one of those! Cool that someone shares such an excellent taste... =)

Tark the Shark · Post by **Tark the Shark** » Wed Feb 11, 2004 3:38 pm

Well met,

I am Jerry Tarkanian, perhaps you've heard of me.

After 43 years of coaching basketball, in which I won more collegiate games than any other coach ( 990 to be exact ), finished my career with the sixth highest winning percentage ( 79.6%, mainly because of some woeful final years at my alma mater of Fresno St., anyways ) and sixth most career wins in NCAA Division I history, I have moved on to the world of computer graphics.

So here I am, looking to duplicate my unrivaled success in the basketball world, in the world of graphics programming and game development. My initial travels have brought me here to OGRE, who I'm recruiting heavily to be apart of my planned dominance. I have much to learn, but pumping in 43 years+ of blood, sweat and tears into coaching I figure it will take far less to get things going here with OGRE, etc.

Best wishes,

-- Jerry

cTh · Post by **cTh** » Wed Feb 11, 2004 3:49 pm

Well, this thread is geting really interesting, I did not get it seriously the first time I saw it, and now I must be one of the last few who have not writen nothing about themself (shame on u, u know who u r)

Before Ogre
I'm 27, born in Croatia but now live in Moscow/Russia, very happy married (BTW my wife also is a real beauty, listen to good music, play with me all the games I like, she even listen to my developement achievements without falling to sleed)

I was a profesional developer in a Croatian mayor software developement company for about 6 years, doing ASP/VB/Java/C++ database applications, pure shit, do not want even to remember those days, this kind of developement makes me hate computers/developement, even if you can make a good living out of it...but anyway, it teached me what OO and organization means, and made me finish some big projects so I now know what it takes

Now, in pure facts, from the very soul, I'm a musician, play the guitar (even very well

), played in 2 bands of my own, had a lot of recording studio experience, lots of live performances around Croatia and so on...
All in all, I'm a 'long hair, fagot clothes, sex, drugs, every sort of filth...and I hate the police...' guy, with piercings on top

My passion, Jimi Hendrix, ZZTop and stonner rock

Ogre
In this times of my life I said 'FUCK OFF' loud to everithing and started to look forward making a game/framework/tools, so I'm basically a fulltime developer working on my own for noone and for nothing, I just have a feeling that I can do it and I do not want to die with the question 'would I succed in making a game' in mind, I want at least to be sure that I cant

My two cents.

tonyzahn · Post by **tonyzahn** » Wed Feb 11, 2004 4:13 pm

Wow, I seem to be the average around here:

I'm 23, bearded and married with a 7 year-old stepson. I'm technically the "senior software engineer" for a web-based educational software company (used to work for The Learning Company before Mattel killed it...). I program in all sorts of languages (I miss spending more time with C++). I'm currently going back to school part-time to finish my BS in Computer Science (going on 10 years for a 4-year degree, you do the math).

Unfortunately between work and school I don't get to spend anywhere near as much time on game programming as I'd like, but finding a great engine like Ogre has saved me a lot of time rediscovering the wheel. The only game I've actually completed was a Dos-based clone of the "columns" game (kinda like tetris) written in C and x86 assembly (for the graphics).

I live in the US, not too far from Washington D.C. (it gets weirder the closer you get).

Antiarc · Post by **Antiarc** » Wed Feb 11, 2004 5:31 pm

dhaley wrote:I've got one of those stories too... My father was at Berkeley when it all was happenin' in the early 70s - he actually the first version of tar, and the pattern matching for vi. Anyways, he was going to class with a fellow called Bill Joy, and even wrote some papers with him.

So one day, Bill comes to my dad and says: "Hey Chuck, we're going to go start a company, called Sun... Want to come along [as a founding member]?" And my dad replies: "Nah, sorry Bill, I'm already working in another startup..."

Talk about kicking yourself for quite a while. All the more ironic considering that just 5 years ago or so he ended up doing consulting work for Sun in Italy...

Heh, I have one of those. My dad was employee #8 at this little company called Dell Computer. Michael Dell used to help me Xerox my hand.

My dad left a year later to found his own business which eventually flopped. He sold his stock options for $2500. They would be worth approximately $40,000,000 today.

Post by **sinbad** » Wed Feb 11, 2004 7:06 pm

@Tark the Shark: Wow, congratulations on having the least predictable bio for an Ogre user!

@monster: I use Oracle a lot at work, do you think you could persuade your employers to stick to ANSI SQL a little better please?

I still can't understand how '+' can be deemed an a good way to represent an outer join...

marcoc · Post by **marcoc** » Wed Feb 11, 2004 9:35 pm

I'm 17, I started programming on my sister's old Commodore VIC 20 (Basic) then moved to Fortran and finally to C/C++. I grew up with Macs and I am recently experimenting other operating systems like Linux or Windows.

I'm at Liceo Scientifico (that is the Italian secondary school, specialising in scientific studies) and I will probably study maths at the university.
When I'm not studying or going crazy with Ogre, I like cycling and canoing.

Marco

monster · Post by **monster** » Thu Feb 12, 2004 1:26 am

@sinbad: Oracle 9i supports SQL/92 standard join syntax; http://otn.oracle.com/oramag/oracle/01-nov/o61sql.html

Post by **pjcast** » Thu Feb 12, 2004 6:05 am

Well, I suppose I should get in on this action... So here it goes

I am 24 (almost 25),
Have been a off and on hobbiest programmer for about 18 years. Started in the 80s using gwbasic. Moved on to QBasic in the early nineties. Then took the next logical step and went to c, and later c++. Though, have learned alot within the last six months using Ogre (Wonderful design).

I recently completed a five year enlistment contract with the Navy. During that time I dealt entirely with avionics systems. But, since leaving, have taken up on programming again.

I am now enrolled in a local college looking to earn a degree in computer science. I have no real goals in what I want to do, but have always liked programming (not neccesarily games).

I am working on using ffmpeg to play video files within Ogre. Also, I hope to release a Contra (NES rocks) clone sometime soon. I would love to earn a living as an Indie Game Studios, but so does everyone else. I have lots of ideas and not enough time...

Bugga · Post by **Bugga** » Thu Feb 12, 2004 9:18 am

Hello folks,
Im 41. I started programming in basic on CPM then CPM/86 before DOS became the dominate operating systems for Micro Computers--now know as PC's. I started and stopped several game projects through out the years. I cant remember how many languages I have learned or operating systems I have used. The only constant is 'change'. I have been working in the software development field for over 20 years now and decided to get a proper start on a game I been had on the back burner for years. It took me about 6 months to develop my slot machine game using OGRE. This included learning 3D modling tools, OGRE engine, Sound tools etc. I am currently bringing it up to date when lateset OGRE build. My main goal for OGRE is to put together an first person adventure game that will allow the player to walk into a vehicle sitdown and with a seemless transition be able to fly into space and land somewhere interesting. This will bring together a first person player game with multiple vehicle simulators and wrap them up into a challenging scavenger hunt type adventure. My initial test are promising and as soon as I have a better relation with a physics engine I may be able to get out something productive.
I would just like to say that this is a Great Community with a lot of talent. I feel privileged to be a part of it.

KeaponLaffin · Post by **KeaponLaffin** » Thu Feb 12, 2004 6:08 pm

pjcast wrote:I am 24 (almost 25),
Have been a off and on hobbiest programmer for about 18 years.

So, you where about 6 (almost 7) when you started programming??? Wow!

Anyway, I'm a 22 year old student majoring in computer science, minor in math. I've been programming as a hobby for about 8 years. I mostly work on AI and encryption. Recently I started work on a program for the US marines to create their duty rosters (no I'm not military). I'm here because I'm gonna make a kick ass MMORPG!!! (joke)

Actually I'm making a Racing game ATM. It would help if I had some idea what I am doing though.

I'm new to 3D game programming, I did create a text based MUD a long time ago, as well as a few strategy games.

P.S. Great engine! If I make any money with my projects, the OGRE team can expect a donation.

Post by **Guest** » Thu Feb 12, 2004 7:32 pm

@KeaponLaffin: Yeah, I was just about that age...

Really, it was nothing to impressive... Just text/and or limited graphics puzzle games in gwbasic. I got interested in programming/games at around 3yrs old after playing lots of games on a commodore 64 (that system was sweet!)

Toxic · Post by **Toxic** » Thu Feb 12, 2004 8:32 pm

My game programming hobby started at the fine age of 8, with a wonderful pac-man clone for the TI 99/4A.

That sounds like me, but I was around 13 when I got my TI-99/4A and wrote the pacman clone (after like a dozen versions of the tron motorcycle race).

Im 33 now. I studied cs with focus on computer graphics.

After working some years for a company mainly developing software for processing mpeg audio/video I lately started a games company with some friends. Were still not sure what 3D engine to use but OGRE seems to fit our needs perfectly so far.

We are located in Berlin, Germany.

JSpataro · Post by **JSpataro** » Fri Feb 13, 2004 2:15 am

Cool thread!

I am 24 and I am from the bay area in California. I went to the academy of art college in San Francisco and I wanted to become an animator. However, I got hired at Capcom and decided that I wanted to be a game designer instead. I am brand new to game design and I hope to learn a lot from my coworkers. I just started programming as a hobby not too long ago and I have only been fiddling with OGRE for a short time. I must say, it is very impressive and I look forward to asking many questions.

-Joe

mac · Post by **mac** » Fri Feb 13, 2004 12:44 pm

To raise the age average a bit: I'm 34 years old... I work in a small game studio (together with Toxic - who btw. is a feared starcraft player under the name BoA.Toxic).
I studied cs with focus on AI/AL. Strangely most of the work I did so far was web programming and database stuff... but isn't a computer game a database with a nice front end...

Even not having posted a lot - this forum has become one of my favourite websites. And this is definitely a nice thread!