I’ve heard people looking for good coders and such, but I find that a little too subjective (and they didn’t give any description of what they thought a good coder was).
I was just wondering what the general consensus is for the definition of this term.
Plus :
That’s kind of a hard question to answer, but I’d say coding well is largely about logical thinking and problem-solving ability.
Knowledge of a particular language is secondary, IMO; if you understand the general principles of programming, learning a new language usually isn’t that difficult and can even be done while working on a project.
It’s also worth noting that game development usually requires some domain-specific knowledge; for example, you’ll usually have an easier time of things if you have at least a rudimentary understanding of 2-d and 3-d math.
Again though, it’s mostly about problem-solving, IMO. You see many questions here on the forums like ‘how do I make a car that the player can get into or out of’, or ‘how do I make the AI for an RTS’. A good programmer will know that these sorts of questions don’t have simple, pat answers; rather, you have to break them down progressively into simpler sub-problems until you get to something that’s simple enough that you can code it and then test it in isolation to make sure it works as you expect. Then, you build back up progressively until you’ve solved the original problem.
That’s just my view though; it’s a subjective question, so you’ll get different answers from different people.