Software Engineer
Software engineers or coders are expected to implement the features detailed in the game design document. They have to liaise closely with game designers to ensure the features are implemented as intended and also with the art department to provide support implementing art assets. Taking the design document as a starting base you will have to design the code to make it happen.
Specific specialities in the code department are many and varied. It is common for software engineers to have a speciality such as artifical intelligence or networking. At larger game developers you may be working on a specific area of the code base whereas smaller developers will tend to employ you to work on all areas of the code base.
It is important to develop good working practices and ensure you write code that is optimised and commented so that other software engineers can work on your code if necessary. It is also important to test your work before releasing it into the mainline and most if not all developers will have a process whereby other software engineers check your work before it is added. It is also important to remember your work must be integrated and you cannot work on a feature in isolation with no thought of how it will impact on the work of others.
Getting a Software Engineer Job
It is absolutely essential that you have completed a computing degree of some kind. Unless you have a massive wealth of experience you will not a get a job in the coding department of a developer without a degree.
If you don´t have any industry experience it is worth doing some work for a modification team or even better make a wee game yourself, even if you just make your own version of a classic game it shows you have the necessary knowledge. If you can show you understand the process from the creation of a feature all the way through to implementation within a game engine you will drastically improve your chances of getting work. There are lots of free and open source engines out there that you can work with.
It may be worth having a website which you can point potential employers at to show off your work especially if you are looking for freelance work. Never include any half-finished or sub-standard work in your portfolio or website, it is better to have a small range of finished high quality examples than a large range of low quality or unfinished examples. This may seem obvious but many people make this mistake and your better quality examples may be discounted if you include any work that is below par. If you are providing potential employers with an example game make sure it works before you send it, they will not be forgiving if it doesn’t.
Useful Links for Software Engineers
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