Hello everyone,

This is my first time posting, so I hope I got this discussion on the correct area.

I am currently a student in a Game course while finishing up my BS in Game Design with Support Technology. For this particular course we are to ask some questions of the community based on a specialization we have chosen. The one I chose was Lead Programmer for Games. I am looking to eventually work towards this, though I am still new to programming. So some of the questions I have for the community.

• Do companies still offer any kind of learn on the job or entry level positions for people learning to program?
• Is it good to try and learn multiple programming languages, or better to try and just focus on one?
• Is there a good place to start, skills to learn, if choosing to use professional development?
• Do most companies do a lot of remote work, or do they use a physical office?

These are just some things I am wondering about not only for the class, but also as some ideas to help me plan end prepare for a future career I am hoping to peruse. Anything else that you feel may be of use or good to know please feel free to add. Thank you for taking the time to read.

-Morge

Hello everyone,

This is my first time posting, so I hope I got this discussion on the correct area.

I am currently a student in a Game course while finishing up my BS in Game Design with Support Technology. For this particular course we are to ask some questions of the community based on a specialization we have chosen. The one I chose was Lead Programmer for Games. I am looking to eventually work towards this, though I am still new to programming. So some of the questions I have for the community.

• Do companies still offer any kind of learn on the job or entry level positions for people learning to program?
• Is it good to try and learn multiple programming languages, or better to try and just focus on one?
• Is there a good place to start, skills to learn, if choosing to use professional development?
• Do most companies do a lot of remote work, or do they use a physical office?

These are just some things I am wondering about not only for the class, but also as some ideas to help me plan end prepare for a future career I am hoping to peruse. Anything else that you feel may be of use or good to know please feel free to add. Thank you for taking the time to read.

-Morge

• Do companies still offer any kind of learn on the job or entry level positions for people learning to program? -Yes not always. There is always a time to learn in the beginning, especially when it comes to learn the environment and the system you will work on. However, companies are expecting you to know your technical details beforehand.
• Is it good to try and learn multiple programming languages, or better to try and just focus on one? Multiple sounds good. The more you know the better.
• Is there a good place to start, skills to learn, if choosing to use professional development? Usage of professional development? Being a professional software engineer is hard. It's part of designing architectures and choosing the right methodology. Basic scripting- that's the first step.
• Do most companies do a lot of remote work, or do they use a physical office? Usually it's both. Companies expect you to attend physical conferences or physically be at work. It's companies policies so I can't really make a general assumption.

• Do companies still offer any kind of learn on the job or entry level positions for people learning to program?

If by that you mean with minimal programming experience/knowledge then, from my experience, not really (for game dev studios). Even as an intern, I was expected to be able to program, implement features etc., but it will largely depend on the company too. Doesn't mean I didn't learn a lot, but programming experience was a must.

• Is it good to try and learn multiple programming languages, or better to try and just focus on one?

Slightly opinion based, but I'll give my own take on it. I'd say focus on one language to start off, so that you actually learn, and eventually know, how to program and have a good take on how to program adequate solutions for a problem. More concisely, as a game programmer, you want to have made at least one game using that one language. I think other languages should not be considered too much before getting to that point.

Not the best of examples, but I know from my colleague students that once they started on C++, the majority was not at said level and thus ended up writing some, uhh, 'special' code.

• Is there a good place to start, skills to learn, if choosing to use professional development?

As for starting out, there's lots of ways to get started. Pick a programming language if you haven't done so yet (preferably use some randomizer to avoid possible forum wars), find some tutorials, try to make some small programs and try to end up creating some game in it. There's some great articles on here as well that can help 'guide you into the games industry'. I personally don't see much benefit in knowing a bunch of programming languages before making sure you can actually program and implement features to a pretty good extend.

Obviously, it's great to be a good programmer, but (verbal) communication is, arguably, even more important. Especially if you are looking to be a lead, this is essential. Along with that, the ability to handle feedback well a need if you ask me, super useful for during code reviews, although that is kind of part of communication as a whole already.

If possible, you could try going for an internship during your studies if you feel you lack professional experience and/or in the above skills. As I mentioned, it has benefited me greatly.

• Do most companies do a lot of remote work, or do they use a physical office?

At both studios of my internships, they rarely did work remotely, mostly due to the product they were working on being NDA bound.

On a side-note, how come you chose 'lead' specifically?

On a side-note, how come you chose 'lead' specifically?

I have chosen this as I like to focus on helping others more so than usually just doing my own. I figured as I lead I would be able to focus on making sure we are on task on on schedule, but able to help others out when they run into problems. Also I am looking to aim as high when setting my goals.

• Do companies still offer any kind of learn on the job or entry level positions for people learning to program?

I got very lucky that my first job out of school was a place that basically paid me to keep learning, but not starting from square one. I was able to demonstrate general programming knowledge when I was interviewed, but what they needed was a web guy (Javascript / PHP / etc) when I was a game-dev guy for the most part (C++/C#/shaders/etc.). I was hired to build their web-based product, but at a relatively low salary, and with a super loose time constraint to allow me to learn the languages and tools I needed. There was also a senior guy there to help me out. I don't believe this situation is the norm though. I was very lucky to have that job, and the skills I picked up there (both in web technology, and just how to work at a software company in general) were invaluable.

• Is it good to try and learn multiple programming languages, or better to try and just focus on one?

I think that's a question of context. Ideally I'd say start with one (whichever one you need), but aim for multiple at some point. The concepts and skills from one language are more often than not transferable to other languages. I like the idea of starting at C++, but I've got no real reason to back that up other than saying that's where I started and I think it was a good foundation to learn other languages from.

• Is there a good place to start, skills to learn, if choosing to use professional development?

Learn the languages, but also learn the processes and the tools. Learn how C++ works. Learn how source control works. Learn how project management works. If we're talking about games, look into SCRUM and things like that. Try out Unity and Unreal now that you can do both of those for free. Also try implementing little games without using an engine - you can learn a lot that way too.

• Do most companies do a lot of remote work, or do they use a physical office?

Every job I've had since college has allowed remote work at some time or another, but it was rarely used. Not much gets done that way, far too many distractions when you're not used to it. It's a nice option for weird situations where you can't make it into the office (sick, need to be at home for an appointment or something), and I find it good to be able to access work things from home if something comes up outside of normal hours that needs to be handled right away, but outside of that, I'd much rather be at my desk at the office.