1. What are some of the duties and responsibilities in your job?
I'm a game developer and my discipline is programming.
My general duties are to help determine what needs to be built based on descriptions of features and descriptions of designs. Build it, and also help others build it. The job is software development generally, I tend to focus on software architecture. Computer code is applied mathematics, every instruction is something that can be described in math terms.
2. Does your job feel like a job, or career?
Many people view game developers with movie star syndrome. We are normal folks working regular jobs. Some days are stressful, some days are lax. Some are particularly fun, others dull. As the years pile up, you either decide to manage your career as a career, a series of transitions, or you end up having life happen to you rather than you controlling life. The sooner a person realizes they need to take control of their own destiny, the better off they will be at forming a career of their choosing.
3. What special training and/or college prepared you for the work you do?
Game programmers typically have a degree in computer science, and getting the degree forced me to study topics I would not have studied otherwise.
Game programmers need a solid math background. Some people can get by with math through linear algebra and using iterative methods usually taught through grade school, but such people struggle to advance in the field. Developers need linear algebra because that is the math of 3D worlds, trigonometry because that is the math of 2D worlds and display, they need calculus so they can solve problems directly, they need statistics so they can figure out all those distributions designers use for probabilities of things happening. Additional math is helpful. Game-related topics like physics, music, art, are all useful. Non-game topics and real world experience are useful so you understand life when trying to incorporate it to your projects.
Game developers in other disciplines, design, art, music, etc., have different backgrounds, most except testing do best with a college degree supporting that field.
4. What other jobs have you had that prepared you for the work you do?
Every job has given me life experience. In games there is no useless knowledge or useless experience.
When hiring entry level workers, I look at their job history to ensure they know how to hold a job and know how to work. Even if that job is flipping burgers, stocking shelves, or tending the till, it can show they know how to work with others, know how to an assigned job, know how to show up to work every day.
5. What high school (and college) courses prepared you for this position?
Math and sciences prepared me the most. During high school I self-taught computer science topics among my friends. This was the years before the Web existed, so it meant inter-library loan for books since the system had few, and ordering from book lists at the local book stores. I ended up taking the AP Computer Science course during my junior year along with about 20 others, a group of us convinced a teacher and the administrators to add another course (unfortunately not for college credit) my senior year.
6. If you had to do it over, would you choose the same career?
Yes. I love creating games, and I love creating software.
7. What has been the high point of your career?
Each year brings new high points, for me. Completed projects, watching people grow and develop, problems solved, challenges overcome, helping people accomplish goals. There is much to enjoy.
8. What do you dislike about your job?
Every job has challenges that go bad. I dislike when I cannot find good solutions to the problems at hand. In that case I usually need to find some alternative solution, often less than ideal. I also dislike when I need to fire someone, or when I'm laid off from a position (which thankfully is rare for me, but too common in the industry).
I have known several people who don't meet the challenges. I' have known about (but never worked under) bosses who take advantage of people, and heard horror stories of workers who failed to push back against them or tell them they were wrong. Some of these people work brutally long hours and, for reasons of their own, accept the situation even if it may be unfair or unlawful. As the industry has matured, these situations are much less common.
I have also known people who have struggled through the hoops to get in to game development because they loved playing games, only to discover after doing it that it is not their passion. Playing games is fun, but different from making games. Just like watching movie is different from making a movie, eating food is different from making food, watching a sport is different from playing a sport. If you get into the field, make sure your passion is for actually making rather than playing.
