   Three Questions
  Urghh. Well, lol, you guys are extremely helpful with my questions. So I have a couple more. I couldn't seem to find recent salary info. So I'm just wondering, what salary can an Video Game AI Programmer expect? I understand that it varies from place to place, but there should be a general salary....I think? I just want to have a heads up, and some clarification.Another question, should I go to a Computer Science college? I was talking about it with my brother, and he said that I'd learn a lot of unnecessary things when learning. What type of college should I aim for, when planning on becoming an AI programmer. I see a thread on this already, so I'm kind of "weary".    Last question, I forgot where I heard this but, I heard that as an AI programmer, you constantly have to learn new languages. Like custom languages or something like that, I don't know exactly how to word it :S. But I remember someone saying " I had to learn languages in a week" or something like that. Thanks.Anyway, sorry for the large block of text. You guys have been extremely helpful!   
  Hello Phu, you wrote:>I couldn't seem to find recent salary info. So I'm just wondering, what salary can an Video Game AI Programmer expect?The 2007 Salary Survey is recent enough for your purposes. Go to gamecareerguide.com.>should I go to a Computer Science college?Not unless you want to be a programmer. If you want to be a programmer, "yes.">What type of college should I aim forOne that you like, can afford, and isn't too far away from where you live. See FAQs 34, 44, & 25.http://www.sloperama.com/advice/lesson34.htmhttp://www.sloperama.com/advice/lesson44.htmhttp://www.sloperama.com/advice/lesson25.htm>I heard that as an AI programmer, you constantly have to learn new languages.As a game programmer, you need to be able to learn new programming languages now and then.>sorry for the large block of text.Where? I haven't seen a large block of text...?;  Salary - probably more than IT, but less than finance.Computer science - yes. You might learn "unnecessary" stuff, but you will also learn to appreciate the value in knowing things that you previously thought were unnecessary.New languages - Yes, I've had to learn different scripting languages in a short time frame. This should be a very easy thing to do once you've done a CS course though. If you're interested in AI, you should learn languages from different paradigms too: imperative (OO and procedural), functional and logical.   ;Quote:Original post by PhuninI couldn't seem to find recent salary info.Salary.com, the general programmer positions will give you a good idea of the general salaries depending on location. Gamedev jobs will be around 80-90% of that because people will take a discount to work on 'fun' stuff.Quote:So I'm just wondering, what salary can an Video Game AI Programmer expect?Salary info tends not to be that specialized (and indeed the jobs tend not to be as well). Generally though, you'll make plenty enough to be mid to upper middle class.Quote:Another question, should I go to a Computer Science college?That is the generally recommended major. I would expect that to go doubly so for AI which does have some good academic grounding.Quote:I was talking about it with my brother, and he said that I'd learn a lot of unnecessary things when learning. I can't disagree more. I've gotten far more use out of my general education courses (and interaction with people outside my major) than major specific courses. If anything I wish I'd taken more courses outside my major (psychology and art theory especially). Quote:What type of college should I aim for, when planning on becoming an AI programmer. I see a thread on this already, so I'm kind of "weary". The best you can get into. MIT and Carnegie Mellon are renowned CS programs near you.Quote:*snip*, languagesProfessional programmers tend to learn a number of languages, especially as time goes by and things change. AI programmers tend to learn a few...  specialized languages since their problem domain is unusual. Learning languages fast could be because of the pressure of a job, or because that person was especially skilled. Not sure what your concern is there, but hope it helps.;  Ahh, thanks for the responses. The college question is what had me worried most :o   ;Quote:Original post by PhuninAhh, thanks for the responses. The college question is what had me worried most :oI like past tense! (^_^)