I'm about 2 years into my 4 year degree in Game Programming now, its been crazy so far and I just thought I should take a moment to reflect on One positive aspect and One negative.
First, the negative:
I am an Online student, which does have a number of great benefits the biggest of which is the fact that I can attend class and complete all my work on my schedule. However, I found it extremely easy to fall behind and get lost in this much more quickly paced form of education. The programming was my first weakness, not because of it being something all that difficult for me, but more because I tend to learn how a program works by using it rather than by reading a book. The problem with learning to develop code, is that if you aren't being taught with an instructor in the room with you, it can be very slow to discover proper methodology and syntax usage in C++. At least for me, which I find strange since I can easily handle the math related to programming (Trig functions, matrices, 3D transformations, etc.) but actually working with Visual Studio C++ to build programs is quite alien to me.
I have of course made progress, but it still frustrates me how innately unfriendly the whole system of programming is to first-timers. Obviously C++ isn't the easiest place to start either, maybe I should lean to Java and C# until I've sharpened my skills for a while. At any rate...
A positive reflection:
For the first time in the nearly 22 years of my life, I feel accomplished. I'm gaining vast amounts of knowledge and experience through my classes and almost all of it is in some way applicable to my vision and aspirations as a future industry veteran. That's right, I said it. I'm not stopping short on this venture, I intend to fully develop my passion for gaming and go as far as I can into the gaming industry wherever it can handle me. I urge anyone interested in following a path similar to mine to instill a large amount of self-discipline in yourself, its a tough road for the lazy. It sure is one of the coolest things I've ever heard of for a career though.
That's about it, I will continue to make blog posts as I begin to delve into my Student Designs as well as my own indie developments.
hey man, good luck. it certainly helps to have the program interface in front of you. I learn nothing from reading a book unless i can practice the actual coding