The games industry
Introduction
Having worked as a games programmer I have some experience of how the industry works. I am also fortunate in being able to, as part of my job, visit game developers and query them on current thinking. I have assembled some of this information below which should be helpful in looking for a career in games.
What's it like working as a games programmer?
Its great fun but can be hard work with long hours. It is brilliant to be able to get paid to do what you love - writing computer games. You also get to work with a lot of very talented people. Some of the artists and programmers I have worked with are the most talented people I have ever met. The environment is always very relaxed, often with flexible hours, bonus schemes etc. Near the end of a game when you enter the 'crunch phase' you work flat out for weeks, sometimes months on end (this does depend on the company). You are often working 9 am until 10 at night so you can forget any life outside work during this phase. In contrast the beginning few months of a new game is a very relaxed time indeed :)
Traditionally it is the hours that eventually take there toll and a lot of programmers, like myself, leave and go into other employment but I think as the industry matures the working conditions will improve.
As an update to the above, some of the games companies I have visited more recently seem to have much better working conditions. These seem to be the companies that are surviving the recent upset in the industry and as well as better conditions tend to encourage more analysis and design and generally promote correct software engineering practices.
What's the pay like in the games industry
Generally the pay is not quite as good as equivalent jobs outside of games. Artists, testers and designers get paid the least while programmers get paid the most. A programmer can earn quite a good salary and there are often bonus schemes and incentives. At my old company we got free consoles, Walkman's, phones etc. once a year. In the past a few games programmers made a lot of money from royalties, however nowadays royalties are rarely that good and certainly cannot be depended on. When going for a job in games try to get a decent starting salary or at least a promise of an early salary review. A company pension scheme is a big bonus but check you can move it around if you should leave and move on. Often you will start on a low salary but after just a year or so it will go up greatly.
Any advice on interviews?
I was involved in interviewing some candidates when working in games so I know a fair bit about what is being looked for. Generally an enthusiasm for games and a good knowledge of the issues involved in developing for the different platforms. For example when interviewing a candidate for a Playstation programming position I asked the candidate about the issues they would expect to face hoping they would talk about the limited memory, graphics capabilities etc. For a programming position you will often be expected to sit a fairly simple C or C++ test (or sometimes a face to face questioning), this is just used to filter out those who can't program at all. A demo is always good to have, but most important is your ability to talk about something you have written. If you don't have a demo with you, you may be asked to talk about a university project. The interviewer is looking to see how well you managed designing and implementing your own code and how well you can talk about the issues you faced. Finally they are looking to see how well you will work in a team and could fit into their company. Other brief things:
- Get advice on writing your CV (and read the notes below).
- Do some research on the company in advance, if necessary buy some of their games and play them before the interview. They will quite likely ask you what you know of their company in the interview.
- Let them know about any structured design knowledge like UML you have, this always goes down well.
- Prepare some questions in advance that you would like to ask at the end. You are always asked 'Have you any questions?' at the end of the interview and this is your chance both to find out information and to further promote yourself. Ask them about the future plans of the company for example.
- Don't be too desperate, I interviewed one candidate who kept saying things like 'Just give me a job' and 'Please let me work here' and it did not go down well at all. The interviewer wants to think the candidate is keen to work at their company and not just desperate for any old job :)
A good place for help on getting a career in games is the Blitz games web site: www.blitzgames.com/gameon/
Update
While visiting a games company recently I quizzed them about what they are looking for in new games programmers. Some of their responses are shown below:
CVs
- Never begin your CV with ' I have been interested in games since the age of ...'. One guy said he would scream next time he saw this phrase.
- Never exceed 2.5 pages. 2 pages is preferable. He sometimes gets CV's of 9 pages and those go straight in the bin. These people get a lot of CV's every week and have not the time to look through 9 pages.
- Do not say you have C/C++ skills if you do not have C++ skills. This particular company only wanted C++ skills and found some candidates claiming both were really C programmers with a bit of C++ theory.
- Don't describe all the irrelevant things you have done in the past e.g. 'I was captain of the tiddlywinks team at school'. Stick to the last few years (apart from qualifications of course).
Demo
- A simple but effective demo is really useful. They are not looking for huge games but just simple examples of good work. They also like to see you have covered a few game areas and not concentrating solely on graphics.
- No more renderers! They have been sent so many renderers and they do not find them useful. Most jobs as a games programmer do not involve graphics.
- No more tigers! The DirectX SDK comes with some .x files like the tiger and many beginners seem to use them in their demo code. It is very easy to get hold of other models from the Internet to use in your demo (see 3D Models)
- A web site is a good idea. They like to be able to visit an applicants web site and browse demo's and examples of work etc.
- Include a simple 1 or 2 page design. So for example you might want to add a few UML class diagrams to describe your demo.
Other
- For them DirectX is useful to know but not OpenGL
- Analysis & Design skills are very well sought after
- Being able to work in a team is essential and ideally they would like to see examples of team projects you have worked on
- The new .net is now the standard development environment (but not managed)
Where can I get information about the UK games industry?
I recommend anyone interested in the games industry take a look at the UK DTI report. It was published not that long ago and so gives a good idea of the current state of the UK games industry. You can view it in .pdf format here: DTI Report
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