Slitherine

Hey guys,

I am presently doing a career project on game developers, and I was wondering if I could ask a few questions.

1. What kind of courses did you take in high school and college/university to reach your position? What is your position (e.g. graphic designer, AI programmer, Audio Engineer etc.)?What kind of attributes do you need to be game developer?

2.What kind of responsibilities do you have as a game developer?

3. What kinds of game developers are there in total? I presently know of:
Graphic Design
-Artificial Intelligence Programing
-Gameplay Engineering
-Audio Engineering
-Engine Engineering
-Software Engineering
-Network Engineering
-Concept Art
-User Inferface Designing
-Game Testing
-Writers

4. This question is directed to a Network Engineer, if available. What are your responsibilities?

5. This question is for a Writer. What are your responsibilitites exactly?


Thanks and cheers,

atheniandp

Removed double post.

I'm not sure if anyone has replied privately, and I'm prolly not the most qualified person to answer this, but I'll try

As far as I remeber,

Iain (designer) has a degree in Environmental Science, and Phil (programmer) has a degree in Computer Science. I am currently on a work placement with Slitherine, which is the 3rd year of my degree in Computer Games Technology. Im not sure about Richard (artist) or JD (business manager) you will have to ask them or perhaps they will post if they aren't too busy. As for the attributes required to be a game developer, again I've only worked here as a junior programmer for 10 months, and I know nothing about the design/art side of things really, but Phil says, you need to be able to write solid code, and you need a diverse knowledge, good problem solving skills helps alot. Obviously depending on what area of programming you want to do you will need different skills, 3D Maths, Linear Algebra, Trig. etc. help alot with the graphics side of things.

Responsibilities of a game developer vary based on the role, at Slitherine Phil does all the programming, Richard does all the art, and Iain does the design. Obviously each will lend the other their opinions and ideas on things to make for the best overall product. An essential factor (especially with not working in the same office) is good communication skills. You need to keep the other informed on what your upto. Again the other guys are much more exprienced than myself and will probrably be better able to offer you an answer for this question.

As for roles, there are more and more being created in the industry as technology advances, a few years ago it would be unheard of to have a programmer at a company who's sole responsibility was shader programming, but now I've seen advertisements for these at a few of the larger companies. For programming roles, you would typically find the following (of course Phil does most of these on his own here):

Graphics Programmer
Engine/Core Programmer
Physics Programmer
Network Programmer
Gameplayer Programmer
Shader Programmer
Audio Programmer
Frontend Programmer
AI Programmer
and of course the ever more important Tools Programmer

Also for cross platform titles, you may (or may not) have a programmer who specialises with a given platform.

These area's of course overlap, for instance Graphics/Shaders are tightly related, and a great deal of a 3D Engine is the graphics and physics. So communication and good design is vital, regular progress meetings are also common in larger companies. On a large team you will typically have 1 or more Lead or Senior programmers that oversee the development and usually code the hardest parts, typically most Senior programmers don't work on Gameside code (or so I'm told!). Its also not uncommon to have a Graphics Lead, and a Gameplay Lead, etc. on very large projects. Code management programs are common to manage code changes on projects with multiple programmers, can you imagine doing this by hand!?

If I were you, I'd take a look for games related jobs and see whats being advertised for, that way you can see what roles are available. Also larger companies will have developer profiles on their sites, so again you can get a good idea of what roles there are.

Phil wrote all the multiplayer code. He'd be better to placed to answer this.

Iain researched and wrote all the storylines/scenarios, so again he'd be better placed to answer this.

Hope this helps a bit

If you have any more questions feel free to post.

Sorry - too busy to answer in detail right now as we prepare for E3

Studied Environmental science at uni, though played tabletop wargames since I was 6.

You don't get so many types of developers in small companies. Roles tend to be less clearly defined as everyone has to chip in when needed. We have programmers artists & designers and no subdivisions.

Network engineers make the networking work Basically multiplayer & online.

We dont have an internal writer. Most writing is done by the team.

Wow, thanks a ton guys- I really appreciate your replies!


I guarantee that I'll bring back an excellent mark due to your help

And do not be surpirised if some uninvited person barges into E3 and demands to see Slitherine's presentation.

I have been watching this thread wih interest. I find the Slitherine guys' description of how their company works just as interesting as their games.

I currently work troubleshooting ADSL lines for my local phone company. This is a dead-end job that I thoroughly loathe. I spend three hours dealing with corporate nonsense for every hour actually working. I have long wanted to work as a game programmer, but was of the opinion that the industry was difficult to break into, dominated by long time pros with lengthy resumes.

It gives me heart to see how the young Turks at Slitherine are successfully taking on the Old Guard.

I dunno about Young Turks, I think between Iain, Phil, Richard and JD. Your staring down the barrel of almost 50 years of industry experience. Those guys know what they are doing I've learned alot from working with them. You are right tho games programming is a hard job to break into, I constantly worry I don't have what it takes, but we shall see.

If you are working under the guys you are you've got a great start