Hello community,
I was wondering if anyone here has had any experience in the area of Video Game Therapy. I am a senior in college and aim to go into this field as a gameplay programmer. Based on your professional or academic experience, how may this field differ from gameplay programming for I guess commercial games? That is, what would you recommend I study or work on that may have been beyond the scope of what I have learned academically? The two companies I am looking at have therapist on staff that they work with in the game development process. How closely did you or your team work with the therapist as a programmer, or was your team compartmentalized and changes or feedback were pushed down by the PM or producer? Finally, both companies utilize physiologic monitoring hardware (ECG, EMG, PPG) as part of their games. What additional skill-sets or knowledge might a programmer need to integrate this type of hardware as a part of a game?
For context, the audience of the games of the two companies are patients requiring physical rehabilitation, HBVT for children with amblyopia and convergence disorders, and people seeking smoking cessation aid.
Lastly, the job posting list pretty standard requirements, experience with C#/C++/Java, Unity, Microsoft Visual Studio, Agile development, OOP & design patterns, etc. I am just hoping someone may be able to shed some light on some of my questions or present some of the unique challenges (if any) of this type of work in contrast to games outside of video game therapy.
Thank you,
Shawn
