OctoBlock demo - Just a video

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    • OctoBlock demo - Just a video

      Here's a video of a game I've been working on. It's not totally complete, but I think it demonstrates the general idea.

      The Demo

      Features:
      - Shaders can be written in an xml file for the code to handle and build uniforms.
      - Transitions between framebuffers work the same way with a transition shader provided in an xml file

      So to create a new skin for the game, all you need to do is provide shaders in a xml file and a transition shader. This makes it customizable... but only for shader programmers lol

      It uses SDL2 and the process and event manager from the GCC4 book. All other code is OpenGL abstractions to allow for the custom shaders.

      Any advice on finding a job with an incomplete demo like this?
    • What do you want to do in the industry? Are you looking to be a graphics programmer, or generally anything?

      Also, are you doing this in-person (like at GDC) or just posting your resume out there and having this video on your portfolio site?

      -Rez
    • Looking at your resume, I have few notes for you:
      • You have an awkward two-column thing happening. When I look at the page, I see two columns but the second column is super short. You should work on balancing your formatting. This might seem like a minor point, but people who look at resumes have to go through dozens of them. When I first glanced at your resume, I completely missed it.
      • Your picture is mostly fine, though it does make you look a bit formal. Wearing a suit & tie is almost a hindrance. Honestly, I might just remove it altogether.
      • You say that you're proficient in a few languages. To me, that means I can ask you questions about those languages and that you can author code. Not modify, not read, but author a complete program from scratch. I'm not saying you can't, but I get tons of candidates who put every language they've ever touched on their resume. It's a very common mistake. If I see Python, I'm totally free to ask you about the advantages and disadvantages of a list comprehension over a for loop.
      • You have several things listed under experience. To me, this is professional experience where someone paid you for a service. You were an employee. The game dev club is great, but it's not professional experience. Putting it here makes it feel like you're trying to pad your resume. I would create a new section for this kind of thing. Tutoring is probably the same. Maybe they should both go under Activities.
      So I just finished writing all of that and noticed that you have a different resume linked there. These should be the same. Your print resume is much better and solves the formatting issue I had. My other issues are still there.

      The biggest question here is: why should I hire you? What makes you different from the 512 other resumes I have on my desk? How can I convince my company that they should pay 1 hour of my salary to do a phone screen?

      Game developers live and die by their portfolio. When you have no experience, you have to make it yourself. You have to create projects, much like the one you posted above. You have to make games. You have to prove to me that you can make a complete, finished product that's polished as opposed to a tech demo, which is what you have.

      Why? I'll answer that with an example. How many lines of code do you think the core AI for The Sims 4 is? It's somewhere in the neighborhood of 5000 - 10,000. It took me 3 years to write that code. Actually, it took me a few months to get the core framework up and then 2.5 years of tweaking, fixing, refactoring, rewriting, testing, interating, tweaking again, rewriting again, begging for time to rewrite it a third time, and then fixing. I need to see that you have the drive to do the same thing, because that's what game dev is. Most of the time we're fixing it, tweaking it, and making it better. A lot of beginners don't have the drive it takes to do it. There's a special kind of crazy that you require.

      If you're not going to GDC, it means you have no real time limit. Here's what I propose: make a game using Unity, SDL, or whatever you want. It should be simple and complete. Complete means that it's tuned to be FUN. It means there's a UI, music, sfx, graphics (they don't have to be good), a main menu, credits, options, etc. It's POLISHED and plays really well.

      When you think it's ready, give it to people you can trust to give you HONEST feedback. Send it to me. My feedback will be very honest and direct. Then fix it. Iterate. Do it again. Your goal is to have it DONE by this time next year.

      Then come to GDC with your laptop and show it to studios.

      Getting a job in the games industry is very hard, especially your first job. Breaking the no-one-calls-me-back barrier is frustrating and painful. But once you're in and you ship your first game, it all becomes worth it. You get your membership card after a year or so and finding your next job is a lot easier.

      -Rez
    • I'll go through and address each of the issues you brought up with the web resume. I'll also update the site to be ... less awful and more focused on projects.
      And finish the Octoblock game and my other SDL project.

      Thanks a ton. I really appreciate your feedback. Your book really made game programming a lot clearer to me, especially in terms of design patterns and structure.