Poll - What's Your Technical Background/Experience?

In my eyes, the whole point of Fusion is that it lets non-programmers do programming. So it always surprises me that there's anyone here at all who has any technical experience (though I'm very grateful that there are, since you guys greatly enrich the community with your knowledge).

My background is digital design in various incarnations: web design, illustration, animation, digital art, Flash design. I have an Arts-Humanities degree and another degree in Multimedia and Digital Arts. I had some programming experience because of Flash, plus fooling with BASIC as a kid, but I never felt like I had a grasp of programming in any meaningful sense. The visual and artistic side was always the bit that captivated me, while the programming was just the means to an end. There's no way I'd be making games outside of a syntax-free programming environment (discovering that Fusion existed was such a joyous moment!). The prospect of ever moving onto 'real' programming remains deeply unappealing to me.

I wasn't sure which option in the poll applied to me, so I went with the last option.

I have a Music Education degree, so I chose the last option too.

I have a DD-214 and I'm proud of it.

Marv

I have an Illustration degree, but worked in the games industry for 15 years as a 3d modeller/animator/level builder. By the time the industry was going full on outsourcing, my job was becoming more of a "cleanup other people's messes" than "creating art I was proud of", so I went full on indie. My time in the games biz allowed me to talk to a lot of people in different areas of expertise and learn some interesting ways to approach developing games. I learned very quickly that my revulsion to "real" syntax was not going to ever be overcome when I tried to learn Actionscript 3. Then I found MMF2 and was able to make my ideas come to life. Like Volnaiskra, I am an artist who finds coding a means to an end, rather than an enjoyable experience. But I do feel some pleasure when I try some complex approach to something and it finally works as intended.

BTW, you might want to add some sort of "Art" option to the poll. Not every game dev is a computer science kind of person.

I have a BFA in Interactive Design and Game Development. My initial training was in graphic and advertising design, but I discovered Fusion during college, and quickly also picked up Unity and Unreal alongside it (back then, Unreal 2 and just barely Unreal 3). I have now been in the industry for almost 10 years, released a couple Steam games, a handful of web games, run a successful indie gaming expo, and am currently mentoring college students in game dev while continuing to make a game that's almost eaten up a third of my life (ugh and yay simultaneously... yughy?).

Healthcare professional, clearly taking the last optionXD interesting poll!

i flunked out & failed all my studies so nothing there XD, my real education was intently watching & playing & studying video games at the arcades

as a kid i learned AMOS BASIC on the amiga (i taught myself most of it after my brother showed me the "BASICS" XD) and i made many games with it. i also made many games with a school friend where i did the gfx & he did the programming in KLIK N PLAY & GAMES FACTORY. then as a teenager i learned a tiny bit of C++ & managed to make one simple GBA game. then years later i made a couple of iOS games with my friend, where i did the gfx & then i recently in the last few years i picked up FUSION & started making games fully by myself again. =D

maybe we need "no experience" & "self taught" categories lol

Hi, I'm new here.
I work into the Italian Sanitary System, but I learnt some base programming from school and university ( base programming at engineery).
As an hobby I learnt a little bit of mySQL, C# and now I'm studing C++ and the Allegro 5 library.
Several years ago an italian game magazine sold "The Games Factory" CD as an attached for an internal competition. Now, 15-20 years later, I found Fusion2.5 on Steam and decided to retry the system.

Quote from dsilvers

while continuing to make a game that's almost eaten up a third of my life

Wow. Big statement! :o Have you got a website or something so that we can see?

I got into gamedev when I was young, but only through tools/engines. I pretty much wanted to make games before I was born

I used these
RPGToolkit
RPGMaker 95
TGF
- insert a bunch of lesser known ones I don't remember and never really learned

I tried learning C++ in elementary school, but gave up pretty quickly.

Click products are what stuck. I always had an interest in computers as well and sometimes technical things.

I've gone from owning a PC/Xbox 360/Ps3/Wii repair shop to being a slot machine technician and now I'm a facilities manager for a large japanese arcade. I troubleshoot/repair/maintain our arcade equipment.

While it is different, the logical approach and problem-solving feels very much like coding games in a sense. I really enjoy the job and the company, but hope to eventually make games full-time.

Been using CT for propietory application dev in house for a long time as far back as TGF (Over 20 years)
Still using it today. More as a POC and personal use now. To be able to make an application without needing to code C++ or C# is still bliss.
I'd love this to make applications which require raw speed (when speed is critical to productivity) currently it's fantastic for prototyping ideas and making 3rd party interfaces.
If Fusion could build a native C++ or export to source to build a native C++ exe with all the extensions instead of its own DLLs then CT will have this in the bag.
F2.5 is already just as flexible as mmf1.5 was with the resources available at the time even with all the baggage.

[MENTION=15682]Volnaiskra[/MENTION] Sorry for the very late reply! Games can be found at Please login to see this link..

Picked the last option.
I'm a programmer / Music composer / Game Developer / Graphics Designer / Computer Repair / Electronic repairs / DJ - Mixer / Video DJ - Mixer / Telecom Specialist.
Think that sums it up... lol

Wasn't 100% sure what to pick here. I do consider myself a game developer, but I've also never released a game that wasn't free. In addition, I've always made games while working a full-time job, at least up until this past July when I officially went into business. Now I work part-time on games, and part-time actually making money. XD

I know a bit of programming, but I went to school for design. I feel that most of the time I understand the logic behind coding, but learning other languages has always been difficult for me. That includes programming languages! So I was drawn to programs like Fusion early on.

I've been playing games almost as far back as I can remember. I loved games, and for a long time, I wanted to make them, but always felt that I would never be capable.

Then along came Scott Cawthon. He legitimately inspired me to give game making a shot, and while I didn't pick Clickteam Fusion because of his games, his games were what introduced me to the software. Clickteam Fusion 2.5 looked like a great starting point for someone with no knowledge of programming (which I had none). So, I downloaded the free version, and dove in. My first game was an overhead game where the objective was to get a rabbit (who would later become Reacher, the protagonist of most of my games) to the end without being hit by spikeballs that would bounce off of the walls. It was basic, but I had a lot of fun making it. I then got the Youth Digital course, and that gave me a great starting point for how to use the software. Aside from the Youth Digital course, I am entirely self-taught.

I was in my sophomore year of high school at the time, so I had to juggle game creation around my school schedule, which was a bit tough, but I kept going. Two RPGs, Two Platformers, and several unreleased experiments later, and here I am, with the developer version of Clickteam Fusion 2.5, and I'm getting ready to go to college to become a professional animator, although I intend to continue being an indie game developer as a side job.

Maybe one day, if the snowball effect ever kicks in, it could be a full-time job, who knows? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I've always been into games and made a couple with my bro early on using GamesFactory. We sold a few copies. Then I got in to graphic design. Now I own a graphic design and print shop (pixelsgraphicdesign.com). I think the apps are going to be the future of my career so I'm trying to learn in my spare time. I've developed one app professionally for a client already but I really need to learn more than the art to make a living in the near future. Cool survey but I agree, need to add Art background option.

Quote from GamesterX23

I got into gamedev when I was young, but only through tools/engines. I pretty much wanted to make games before I was born

I used these
RPGToolkit
RPGMaker 95
TGF
- insert a bunch of lesser known ones I don't remember and never really learned

I tried learning C++ in elementary school, but gave up pretty quickly.

Click products are what stuck. I always had an interest in computers as well and sometimes technical things.

This is pretty much my life story.

I tried C, I tried Javascript.... Even Game Maker was a flop for me. I never was able to figure any of the programming software out at the time I was growing up. The only thing stuck to me was TGF, MMF.

With many more software tools we have today, I feel like CT Fusion is still the best for me, for whatever reason. Maybe because I'm just use to its coding logic.

I started on Klik n Play back in like 97 or something, when I was around 10. I grew up with my dad playing around with Lightwave on the Amiga, and doing animation and stuff, so computers/gaming/graphics was kind of in my blood. I moved on to CLick and Create and then MMF. I tried some C++ programming in middle school but it was too much. I hated using the built-in sprites, so I started learning how to art.

I discovered 3Ds Max, and went full-on artist mode. I stopped all of it from like 17-21 and partied like a rockstar, then decided to go get my degree in Digital Entertainment and Game Design. While in college I learned AS3.0, JS, and C# alongside the Unity game engine. I'm now currently employed as a "Graphic Artist", though I do all kinds of development, from HTML5, to Audio/Video, Vector Art, 3D rendering/animation, and AR/VR development in Unity. Just got back into Fusion, and it's nice to come home, and unwind with some "Easy-on-the-brain" game development.