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Discussion on: I switched from software engineering to game development, ask me anything.

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nelruk profile image
Nelson

While you were working in your old job:

  • Did you create some games?

Create video games is something (I believe it is) super cool. You were working with C++ and C# but switched to Java. Why? Some courses I see offer also work with Python. Why not choose Python or even still working with C++ or C#?

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rapidnerd profile image
George

I didn't create games while working in my old job. I found myself far too busy to be doing that, I did create a lot of them in my head though.

I switched to Java because I wanted to work on phone games, as I use an Android phone the Android operating system uses Java for it's application framework. Python is one of the languages that could be used for pretty much anything you want it to be used, but when using it for games it's not really ideal.

Working in C# and C++ is amazing but it's only really designed for desktop games. You'll see big games such as Playerunknown's Battlegrounds and Overwatch using these two languages for them, but seeing as I did phone development I stuck with Java because that's what Android supports.

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polentino911 profile image
Diego Casella

Working in C# and C++ is amazing but it's only really designed for desktop games. You'll see big games such as Playerunknown's Battlegrounds and Overwatch using these two languages for them, but seeing as I did phone development I stuck with Java because that's what Android supports.

Sorry, but this is just plain wrong. First, because you need to squeeze the most out of the hardware available on a phone without wasting resources, C++ is the choice for high-performant games (not talking about flappy birds here, obviously).
Unity3D for example, which is written in C++, can be used in Android.
And second, because Android itself provides an NDK to allow developers to easily implement part of their app in C/C++ .