   top down versus bottom up to get in industry
  hi, i have been told here to get onto a game development team such as neverwinter nights team or everquest team, i should start by making scripts for mods of the game i like, then go onto torque making demos. but another guy said to not do that, and to start from the bottom up with simple games like pong and a graphics library. im not sure who is right, could someone please let me know which of these approaches is the correct one to get into the field? i basically want to know what i would need to do for a game development company to even look at me as a prospective employee.   
  There is no 'correct' way of getting into the gaming industry. However, I have found that knowing someone who does work for a game company can go a long way. To that end, I can see why people recommend making modifications to games you like because if the modification is good enough, it will eventually get noticed by those who developed the game in the first place. Establish a good track record of doing this, and someone is bound to take notice.   ;  Those aren't neccesarily different options, making some small games on your own would aid your understanding when working with an engine such as Torque.As the AP has said, there isn't really any 'correct' method.  Either route will allow you to learn about making games and will allow you to produce a portfolio of existing work to show off.Also, some of the information presented by Tom Sloper at his website www.sloperama.com may be of interest to you, I'd suggest heading there and giving it a bit of a read.  Dan Marchant's Game Development Q&A at www.obscure.co.uk also provides some excellent information and is well worth a read.   ;  It depends if you want to do game design or game programming. If you want to do game design, then the making mods and building levels is what you should be doing. If you want to do game programming, then you should learn how to program, and you would start out by programming simple games or other software projects.   