Last Updated: 11th February
Let me start by saying that to start a project is dead easy, anybody can do it.

But to finish it off, that's the hard part.

And the last 10% to complete the project will make your head explode

That said, I'd say that there are a couple of distinct schools of thoughts on stuff related to gaming:
- Commercial gaming
- Research gaming

My terms lah but basically there are two paths that you can choose if you want to work in a game-related field. Commercial gaming is essentially anything that can make you money or deal with money. I guess a lot of people can sort of have an idea lah kan. Homebrew or underground games can probably fit into this category as well.

Research gaming is a very, very big and fairly new field that you can go into (and a lot of fun as well). This includes stuff like interaction design, New Media (the name of the field, not media-media yang baru), social computing, artificial intelligence, human-computer interaction, etc etc. Basically any experimental stuff comes from here first. Erm like for example games like Killer 7 is what you see in this field. The bad thing about this field is that it is not really stable; it fluctuates a lot. One day you see people bising2 about New Media, then tomorrow senyap oledi. Or just 'silly' stuff like new research papers on a game-related topic. One subsect of this field is the popular political games section, where people create games to make a political stand (like the london bombings, or Christian games for example) and THOUSANDS of people play these games daily, so you can become very famous for "simple" games like this

I'm doing the IF90 course in QUT. Basically you'll be really good with all kinds of media technology like film la games la some tech + art stuff la etc.

Some companies that create (or publish) games in Malaysia:
GameBrains
Sherman3d
Phoenix Games
MiniMax (new one)
Gameflier
TerraICT
Dragonback Games
UnrealMind- Mobile games

If you wanna meet people from the local industry, I'd suggest you to look out for the IGDA Malaysian Chapter meeting @ Souled Out Cafe, Desa Sri Hartamas. It's not really formal meeting la, just lepak2 wan.

EVENTS:
PM me!

LOCAL GAMES EDUCATION:
Multimedia University (Cyberjaya) - Bachelor of Multimedia (BMM) Degree in Software Engineering And Game Design
Lim Kok Wing Univeristy College - Diploma in Games Design
APIIT - Higher Diploma in Computer Systems & B.Sc. (Hons) in Computing with specialism in Multimedia

COURSES AND CONFERENCES
Microsoft On-Demand Webcast series - Videogame Development: Learn to Write C# The Fun Way. This is a FREE course done in association with the world-famous DigiPen Institute, and it's FREE! You get Visual C# 2005 Express program, the source codes, and the .wmv webcasts.
GameProgramming - FREE game programming course. Class starts 24th August 2005 so register quick!
The Education Arcade's 2005 Games in Education Conference - Held in conjunction with the last 2005 E3Expo (video torrents available)

GAME DESIGN & PROGRAMMING RESOURCES
Visual Studio 2005 Express - FREE & excellent IDE for all kinds of languages
GameDev - Game programming & design big daddy site
Game Programming Wiki - VB, C, C++, .Net, Java
Jason Lam's J2ME & Gaming site
32Bits - Excellent DirectX & MFC Tutorials
Visual Basic + DirectX Multimedia Programming Resource - DirectX7,8,9 + VB
Amit's Game Programming Information - Excellent one-stop page for algorithms
Kirupa - excellent platform (Mario) game tutorial in Flash
The Board Game Designers Forum - Huge (think > 20,000) collection of Game Ideas and Board-Game Designs
Game Middleware - Great list of commercial middlewares, engines, physics as well as game surveys


GAME MODELLING & ANIMATION RESOURCES
Blender3D - Excellent FREE modelling software with video tutorials
Zbrush Central - Award-winning modelling program + big community and beginner tutorials
Digital-tutors - Some beginner video tutorials for multimedia programs such as Maya, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, etc.

SPECIALISED GAME ENGINE'S RESOURCES
DevMaster - List of game engines around the Net
Neverwinter Nights engine tutorials @ NWVault
Unreal Engine tutorials @ 3dbuzz
SexyAppFAQ - Great resources for the free, tested and reliable PopCap Games Framework
Kaneva Game Platform - The FREE toolkit (3DSMax-compatible), video tutorials and source codes
Microsoft + Valve: Coding4Fun - Half-Life 2 Mod Spot
Valve's Developer Community
Interlopers.net - 150+ Half-life 2 Engine Tutorials
Ogre3D - Commercial-grade, open-source graphics engine
Wintermute Engine - Free point&click game engine


DESIGNERS' SITES AND BLOGS
EPIC's CliffyB Blog: Check out his "How to get Hired" article!)
Kieron Gillen's Workblog: How to Abuse Game Journalists (for publicity)
ea_spouse's blog: EA: The Human Story
Grimwell's The Colonies - the MMOG that was never made
Ron Gilbert's Grumpy Gamer - from the creator of the Monkey Island series
Hideo Kojima's Hideoblog

A couple of links on game development and/or research that I can think of right now:
How did you get your start in the video game industry? - A great Gamasutra article!

IGDA Malaysian Chapter forum
Ludology - Videogame Theory & Research
WaterCoolerGames - Politics, Education, anything non-entertainment in gaming
Gamasutra - game industry news and articles
Game Development Search Engine
Eurosis and Game-On Conference
Malaysia Game Developers Community (MyGDC) - Mostly MMU students
SourceForge - Great place to find open-source programs and games and game engines
Malaysian INdependent Developers Community - For general developers, backed by Microsoft
OpenAL - Cross-platform 3D audio API

MICROSOFT'S XBOX360 XNA RESOURCES
MechCommander2 Shared Source download (~1Gb needed, 4.5Gb to install)
XNA March2006 CTP download (213Mb needed)
XNA Build Forum


I'll update this post if you guys have more links or events or stuff or whatever ask me if you guys got any questions related to game course annd I'll try to answer as much as I can & know.

This post has been edited by C-Fu: Feb 11 2007, 11:53 PM

This is great a thread dedicated to the ins and outs of game programming. Hope this thread stays active for a long time to come.


I have some news from a good friend of mine, who participates in this forum as king_kong. He has informed me that there will be a gaming function held here. Its called the Asian Game Developers Summit.
this is the website address - http://www.agdsummit.com/

Well those who are interested, go and have a visit. I think i would be going for this. It would allow me to see the people who are actively involved in the asian gaming scene

i was also involved in doing my own self study on game development... one year ago when i was working ... now not free liao cos working... ehehhe

as a contribution, i would like to provide the following link..

www.gameprogramming.org

its a FREE programming course... have to register... but got lots of homework to do... and forces you to follow the sequence... ie u cannot do graphics programming before u do the c++ course. .

and u cannot be inactive for a long time or your account will be deleted... good site though... cheers for the malaysian game development community

anyone really successful in doing self study n research?

its sad to know that there are many ppl keen to learn but due to lack of guidance... they gave up... like me

This post has been edited by jason83: Aug 3 2005, 12:43 PM

Well u shouldnt give up. Im working as well ans i know its tough to keep up learning for something you truly love doing, but giving up is not the answer. If you dont do it now, you'll never be able to do it.

Thats why im trying to get all the help i can get from all the sifus here. I really like to thank in advance to all your guys and girls for the information given.

Well with that being said, anyone know where i can go to get a crash course in C++. have to brush up my skills. havent been using it for a while.

Well Putera.com has a forum dedicated to games programming, but it's mostly in BM lah. People there have been sharing and discussing about games design & programming for like 5+ years now I believe, but yeah it's nothing big lah. All are beginners also, so don't be shy

As for C++ crash course I believe Microsoft is (was? dunno if finished oledi) doing a webcast course on games programming using DX and C++. You register, then see the streaming video. Not really sure if it's finished already or not, because last time I forgot bout it

This was the email that I received last time. Don't really have the time to check it right now.


Oh and I just received this mail minutes ago. Might as well share it and let u guys be jeles hehehehehe

Starting from this year my uni made a deal with Microsoft to let them provide Xbox SDKs and tools for a couple of new subjects related to games programming.

This post has been edited by C-Fu: Aug 3 2005, 01:57 PM

what u are u from brother??

maybe we should have some gatherings... so tat we can have discussions or have some mini projects to do? u guys all use directx right?

Well im not a pro in the gaming community like how i would want to be. I would however take all the chances i can get to become one. Such gatherings will definately be a real insight for me.

not pro either but i did pretty well with my comp sci course ... so a gathering would interest me as well..

so better if u guys check the igda malaysian chapter site lah, and see when are they gonna have the gathering. might just be the thing that you need

well i once participated in the forums... but i hate the moderator there... well those who are there will know who he is... i mean doesnt mean he is a white or doesnt mean he is a pro in this industry, he can do watever he likes... like not respecting others..

since then i found out that its not a frenly place to ask for help..

i think the best is www.gamedev.net

however sherman in the IGDA forums is nice... i respect him.. very helpful

jason ah? mmmmmmm your name sounds familiar lah last time like a couple of years ago i think i saw your name somewhere and also in igda forum

well it was one yaer ago.. the mod... he closed my thread... cos he said IGDA is not to ask technical questions... its about the industry... well i was angry... nobody was asking him questions, and sherman didnt complain that im asking too much...

so until now whenever i hear his name or his company name.. one word..... f***

i believe what this industry in malaysia needs is help n support, guidance... not some pro who shows off in front of newbies... everyone was once a newbie....

yes i believe i asked at the wrong place... but at least u can pm me to give me a warning first, this is respect.. for the ppl above n below u

This post has been edited by jason83: Aug 4 2005, 06:21 PM

C-Fu do you think that those courses offered in MMU, LKW and APIT have part-time options.

Im a working person and taking 3 years off to go hardcore game studying is a bit difficult for me at the moment.

Well ill email the administration staff at those places and find out. Sorry to keep bothering you like this. Thank you for all the info. By the way, C-Fu how old r u? if i may ask.

jason83: oh yeah come to think of it yeah i think i remember about that. yeah well the least that he can do is to point out to some online resource lah kan.

I can't speak for others cuz I only studied in APIIT, but APIIT does offer part-time courses lah. Which course I'm not sure, but you can do part time for Diploma and Higher Diploma courses.

My age ah? Mmm.. budak kecik :D

yeah at least send me a pm or reply there to say its not the right place first... some mods are really teruk.. at least not at here at lowyat.net

so c-fu, have u done any demos yet?

Oh ok. i will check APIIT out. The course offered by MMU is really interesting but also really hardcore. I want to do it but worried if got the cash and time to attend. If they have a part-time course it will be great.


Well if you dont mind, i'd really like to know how old r u? hehe. sorry if i seem a little pushy. I dont mean to be

well jason83, im sorry to hear you had such a bad experience. Sometimes its better for us to be humble and polite even though the other person is harsh and rude. Eventually they will learn the errors of their ways.

Mmmm... good question lah!

okok.... so any of u had made any demos or simple game before?? can tell us a bit about your project ar? C-Fu got?

Well im currently writing down my game idea into a game doc. Writing down all the juicy details and models and etc. Trying to get the actual work written down as well.(like the coding and etc)

having so much problems as im not a programmer by nature. so getting the entire thing down on paper first is difficult.

Well im gonna see this through.