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Author: Bill Roper
Date: May 3, 2005
Source: Flagship Forums (dead link)

Bill Roper's Inside Insights

So, you want to get a programming job in the game industry? Good luck. This might seem a little harsh, but I want to be honest to you about this. Almost everyone who likes to program enjoys playing games. Many programmers at some point realize that they could get paid to make games, and that it would be their dream job. Thus, there are a ton of applicants. It is not unusual for a team to only hire one or two programmers a year, and yet they get 4-20 resumes a week. It doesn't make for good odds.

"Yeah, so how do I stand out?"

"What do people look for?"

I've read thousands of resumes and helped hire at least 10 programmers while I was at Blizzard North. This is what I look for:

An absolute requirement is that you must play tons of games – computer, console, handheld, whatever. This means that you have played both a large number of games and addictively played a few games. You must also be able to talk intelligently about the games. What specific parts of them are good or bad? Listing your favorite games and betas that you got into helps demonstrate this requirement. Your cover letter also helps show your enthusiasm.

Okay, so you have that one under control. You are an intelligent game addict. Cool, most people pass that test. You also must have a demonstrated interest in making games. There are a couple ways to do this:

First, make your own games. If you are in college, turn some of your large projects into games. Programming your own games will get you motivated to learn more, and give you a taste of what a Game Programmer does. Working on a game with other people is will teach you a great deal, but I need to be able to easily see what you did to contribute to that game. Think about showing your game at GDC.

A couple things to think about when making your own game:

1. Make sure it works easily. I’m not going to spend time downloading this driver or that SDK to make your demo work.

2. Make sure that it is fun. It seems obvious, but almost none of the demos that I've looked at were fun. The ones that were the most fun had very, very simple graphics so that the programmer had time to work on the game play.

3. Make sure that it is simple. I’m not going to read a long list of instructions.

A few other ways to demonstrate interest in making games: do an internship with a game company, work for a summer in QA, attend GDC, and get into betas.

All right, so far I’ve described some of what it takes to be a good Game Designer. I feel like every Game Programmer must be a good Game Designer. That is why I list that stuff first. So, what kind of programmer do I look for?

Brilliant
You must be smart - really smart. A great programmer can do 10 times more work per hour than a mediocre programmer. You should be able to solve complex problems, attack the same problem from several angles, and remember random Monty Python quotes.

Decent Communicator
You have to talk to other people to do this job. You should be able to talk about code and solve problems with other people.

Experienced
Sometimes we look for someone with a particular expertise: sound, networking, graphics, etc. You can still demonstrate some experience in one of these areas right out of college, but it takes a really good demo to do it. Of course, years of programming experience also helps. I learned a ton in my first 2 years out of college.

C/C++
That’s what we use. I’ve hired a few people with more experience with other languages, but you aren’t going to get a job as a COBOL expert.

We usually give programmers a written and oral programming test. It shows us how many registers you have and how fast your processor runs. Most people don’t get past the written test.

Okay, let me finish this the same way that I started it. The odds are tough. It is not easy to crack into this business. It also doesn’t pay very well compared to other programming jobs – unless you are good and lucky. You have to really want it, and work very hard to get it. I mailed out about 80 resumes, sent 200 e-mails and had 6 recruiters working to get myself a game job during my Senior Year in college. I had an internship and a really good resume. I didn’t get any offers until a few days before graduation – most companies want you to start ASAP.