What is your background?

[giantofbabil]

I'm 28, my background in programming is fairly limited. About 11 years ago I took a class in high school that I did terribly in and I tried to follow a C++ book after that but that venture failed miserably. Most likely I did poorly when I was younger due to laziness. A few weeks ago I did some Lua tutorials and then picked up Love2D and after doing a few tutorial projects started on a pretty ambitious platformer.

As far as game design goes though I've tinkered with plenty of point and click makers including the entire Enterbrain RPG Maker Series(back to RM95) and Game Maker. I also used a very oldschool RPG Maker called OHRRPGCE which required some scripting(and now that I look at the site looks more advanced now), but wasn't too difficult. I believe this makes game programming a little easier for me since I'm familiar with things like variables, loops, if elseif statements, x/y coordinates on screens in the 2D plane, and even designing custom systems using RPG Maker.

[Linkpy]

I'm 18. I started with Linux and TTY at 12 or 11, I don't know. At 13 I leaned Python in two month. Since I tried many language like C, ASM, C++, Java, C#, Lua, JavaScript, CoffeeScript, MoonScript, Pascal (even Ada, Basic, Lisp...). But the only one who remain is Lua with Löve. My teachers says that I'm a genius (maybe because I sleep in class and I'm still the first ?). So yes, I'm in high-school ("lycée" in French, don't know exactly the translation in English) and I'm preparing an informatics engineer degree. That all

[deströyer]

I'm 35, started programming at age 30. Got hired as a game systems designer for an MMO in 2008, started programming after a while to audit the massive amounts of data that an MMO contains. My background is completely unrelated to both gamedev and programming - I went to university to study molecular cell biology.

[OttoRobba]

- Studied arts up until 2007
- Started and gave up on a bachelors on literature (2008-2010)
- Got a degree for graphic design (2011-2013)
- Worked as an illustrator, studied abroad (2014)
- Gave up on art completely, decided to go back to making games, as I used to when I was 11 or so.
- Studied programming by myself for a year and a half, made a blog about it, made a small JS engine, started a game dev study group
- Got employed at Tapps
- Been there for the past 7 months

[rmcode]

I have always been interested in programming but didn't really "start" programming until about 4 or 5 years ago. First I just modded a few games for fun, then I discovered LÖVE and started working on my own projects. What started as a hobby quickly took over every free minute of my life. I finally decided to drop my law studies by the end of last year and am now working towards a programming degree instead (it's actually a dual study program so I am already employed and get paid for studying which was a incentive too ).

One of the best decisions of my life so far

[gomez]

- Studied arts up until 2007
- Started and gave up on a bachelors on literature (2008-2010)
- Got a degree for graphic design (2011-2013)
- Worked as an illustrator, studied abroad (2014)
- Gave up on art completely, decided to go back to making games, as I used to when I was 11 or so.
- Studied programming by myself for a year and a half, made a blog about it, made a small JS engine, started a game dev study group
- Got employed at Tapps
- Been there for the past 7 months

awesome
Where I live (northeast, Brazil too), we have some game development groups, but we are not paid to work on it. I really want to make the game development my work area (and receive money for that).

To developers: What difficulties did you face in code learning ?
In my case, it was about finding good material to study such things. In 2006, to a non english speaker, it was very complicated. In my native language, I just found academic content, that was for those who already code. I just went better when I started with Python.

[HugoBDesigner]

I'm Brazilian too, and I wish I could work with game design where I live, but it's hard. I've become part of an online group of game developers, but it's currently not paid. Do you guys know of any company here in Brazil that is actually good for game developers?

[radgeRayden]

I'm Brazilian too, and I wish I could work with game design where I live, but it's hard. I've become part of an online group of game developers, but it's currently not paid. Do you guys know of any company here in Brazil that is actually good for game developers?

I happen to be from Brazil as well (lots of brazillians here, apparently). I've worked at a company for a few months, and it still mostly comes down to recommendation (what we would call a 'panelinha') - very few studios are actively hiring, and there doesn't seem to be a standardized process in doing so. If you're still young and have patience, I'd suggest just studying really hard and doing lots of stuff yourself, so you can land a position overseas or maybe be noticed by some local company (unlikely but possible, easier if you get close to people already working on the industry). Nevertheless it's really important that you amass some sort of portfolio so you can show your work around and try your luck, but it's something that you'll have to work on for quite some years still.

[gomez]

Well, there are many successful groups that develop games, like Behold Studios with Chroma Squad and Miniboss, with Towerfall..
And there are many game dev. companies working in Brazil, but i guess it is really complicated to get a job in these companies.
I think that if you make a team and start making indie games is the best way to make money here.
At least in the beginning, to amass a portfolio and try a job in these companies.

[OttoRobba]

I'm Brazilian too, and I wish I could work with game design where I live, but it's hard. I've become part of an online group of game developers, but it's currently not paid. Do you guys know of any company here in Brazil that is actually good for game developers?

Tapps is pretty good (and they are hiring) - there is a lot talent in there, you can probably learn a lot and they do have room for people to grow. I have heard pretty good things about Aquiris as well.

As for "what should I do?", radgeRayden is correct: just amass things for your portfolio. Do tiny games with decent polish, focus on COMPLETE experiences (jam games are ok, finished games with menus and sound are better) and really, send your portfolio/resume everywhere. Don't be afraid to learn new things or of taking risks, continue studying whenever you have a chance.