Hello All,

I'm currently looking into the role of a gameplay programmer in more depth as part of an MProf in Computer Games Development.

I'm very interested in what it takes, and different peoples opinions of what the role involves, as well as what it takes to get into that role within the games industry.

With that out of the way, I was wondering if anyone would be willing to share any experiences with me via email or pm?

Thanks.

The responsibilities and associated practical roles of any given job title vary tremendously across the industry. Most studios will have fairly different interpretations of what a "gameplay programmer" will do, which in turn impacts things like "what it takes" and how to get a job in that position.

You might get more responses if you provided a little more guidance on the sort of "experiences" you'd like people to share. What are your specific questions?

I'm interested in peoples varied opinions and experiences of the roles and to compare them. Along with how important the role is within smaller studios, where the need to be more of a generalist will be useful, and in contrast the larger "AAA" companies such as Rockstar, Ubisoft and the like.

If someone has held, or has the role of a gameplay programmer for example it would be great to know what advice they would give to someone targeting that role, such as useful skills that may not be obvious.

My specific questions would be, what are the best things to do to prepare for a career in gameplay programming? Along with how different people see the role in both independent studios and larger studios?

Really it would be amazing to get the opinions of people who are, or have been in the industry.

Thanks for the feedback on the question, it's much appreciated.

It's typically a grab bag for stuff that's in the game and not in the underlying engine IME.

How can you possibly prepare for such a thing? You can't. Just get good at programming. Maybe learning about topics like entity systems might help, but by and large everyone does such things differently, if at all.

You talk about "targeting the gameplay programmer role" and preparing for a career in that position. But as I've said, the actual job that goes along with the title of "gameplay programmer" varies widely. So a more important question is: what do you want to do as a programmer in the industry? What kinds of problems do you want to solve, what sort of technologies do you want to use? What kind of features do you want to write? How much ownership of a feature do you want?

It's important to know those things before giving somebody advice about approaching a career, because there may be more opportunities to do the kind of work than you think, or that you can necessarily see, focusing only on a specific title.

Unless it's really more important to you that you have the title of "gameplay programmer" irrespective of the actual work you'll do with that title.

I'm very interested in what it takes, and different peoples opinions of what the role involves, as well as what it takes to get into that role within the games industry. ... how important the role is within smaller studios, where the need to be more of a generalist will be useful, and in contrast the larger "AAA" companies such as Rockstar, Ubisoft and the like. ... it would be great to know what advice they would give to someone targeting that role, such as useful skills that may not be obvious. ... what are the best things to do to prepare for a career in gameplay programming? Along with how different people see the role in both independent studios and larger studios? ... get the opinions of people who are, or have been in the industry.

Have you read the Breaking In Forum FAQ?

It has comprehensive answers to all those questions answered by several people.

[/quote]

share any experiences with me via email or pm

Or, they could be shared publicly so many people could gain from the knowledge, not just you.