Is Unity helping or hurting programmers?

This. 100% this.

 

Well put, thats exactly what I ment. We are building a VR foundation not a game (Its a game too but its secondary to the domain code written)

 

At the same time if the company have to choose between two programmers, one with prior knowledge of Unity and one without they probably will select the one with prior knowledge.

 

Thing is, you are only get called, as you perceive yourself. And is purely personal fault.

If person call ownself Unity scripter, expect be treated that way. Assuming you got very narrowed scope of expertise, to Unity only. And that now even touching rest of skills, requires for game dev. So yea, relatively cheap ...

Personally I would never allow call myself like that and I would defend my position, if that would be ever the case. But that may not be applicable to everyone.

When you call yourself a programmer, or software engineer, chances are, you have wider knowledge of multiple languages and platforms already. Probably educational background. Or at least know how to program outside Unity.

Also you can call yourself developer, specially when you work on own project, and have some portfolio for showcase. Since you are presenting range of development skills. But not exclusively. Then perspective view at the person, in comparison to scripter, is completely different.

 

I ALWAYS target my audience semantically when writing my resume. If I’m going to apply as an enterprise programmer, I’ll use things like « Software Engineer » « Agile » « Architecture » « Scalability » etc... And it I’m going to mention Unity in that resume I’ll say « Game Architect » (most recruiters have no idea what Unity even is).

On the contrary if I’m going to apply for a Unity job I’ll use « Optimisation » « Game Design » « Editor Tools » « VR » etc...

 

Personally, I'd have strong second thoughts about whether I want to work for someone who sees things that way. At best they have an outdated perspective. As discussed before, though, not everyone has the luxury of standing on principle.

I think the job specification / interview point is a good one. If they're only hiring a "scripter" they might think that's worth less than a "programmer" regardless of what you call yourself.

 

Agreed. But that only person's choice, to accept position. It may be up to skills then fair enough. Otherwise, it may be a bit devaluating.

 

If they are looking for a "scripter" and you think you're a "programmer", you're on the wrong interview, what are you doing there?

BTW, I guess Unity's reason to use this terms because of the industry. There are engine programmers and there are game scripters. The engine programmers are at Unity. I also know about a lot of effort to rename this as "game play programmer", so I guess slowly but steadily will come to all.
Until then try to sell yourself better, it does not matter what your job called, the question is what you're doing and how much you get for your work (and how much value you're adding to the project).

 

I first learned C# through Unity, and found it wasn't hard to pick up python in addition.
At my interview for my current job, my resume literally consisted of

• My Unity game
• A (barely working) keyword extraction based document summarizer (in python)
• C++ tic tac toe
• A handful of codeacademy courses. (web dev mainly, I think I started a database course but didn't finish.)

Interviewer was impressed I had built, deployed and released a product, and also that I was able to translate my knowledge to a different language and application domain.

Got the job, starting pay was their intern rate. Got a raise 4 months later when they saw I was good.

I think Unity was a big part of why I was able to get hooked into programming as a career path.

 

These days there's lots of overlapping grey area between all of those roles, though. Basically, all of those roles use code executed by a computer to solve problems. Does it really matter what language it's implemented in and how many layers there are between the text we write and the CPU? Even significant parts of Unity itself are written in C# rather than at the native engine level.

20 years ago there was a clear distinction between programming and scripting. These days I just don't think that distinction is relevant.

 

As a person, who both worked/works with script languages (javascript, PHP) and compiled languages as well (Pascal, C++, Java, C#, etc) I don't really care. Whatever gets the job done properly.

 

Language is not the only way different tasks of programming differ. Each area has it's own toolset, libraries, patterns, workflows. If i switch from programming part of an automated factory to for example web developement, i can't just continue what i did before. It just won't work. And a webdeveloper can't just start at my job and be at top level when he never did anything like it before. Learning different tools and skills is part of the job.

The best reference is imo, getting S*** done. If you get S*** done on your hobby projects, thats great, because its what people want. It shows that you are willing to learn and got some dedication.

 

Today is Memorial Day in America.

That is all. Over and out.

 

I think it depends on which target you are willing to spend energy on.
If you want to develop a game engine, a graphics renderer, audio system framework, then you are wasting time writing scripts for a game.
If a professional only has experience in writing scripts for Unity, probably his knowledge in writing/modifying an engine is lacking because Unity is abstracting all those details.

 

As the saying goes always use the right tool for the job ...

Spoiler

 

How do you even answer to such question?

 

With Jab-Right cross combination

 

Can you translate this with words ?

 

Well the simplest answer is, you could have been a world class coder after 50 years of coding, but that still doesn't mean much of anything. Because you can throw them into Unity and they still won't have a clue to anything Unity related. Yeah they could learn - like the rest of us. But until they do, they are worthless for building actual game logic as they are missing the pieces to actually make it function in the actual game.

I like to think game dev and software development are two very different fields when it comes to coding. Just because one can make a game doesn't mean they can make a world class application, and just because they can make a world class application doesn't mean they can make a game.

 

Jab-jab-cross-hook-uppercut ... +optional elbow work and knees and suchlike.

 

Just do quarter circle forward and punch. Most hiring managers can't deal with fireball spam.

 

So, you're saying I should attack him and make sure to NOT get a job.

 

Nononono that would be ridiculous.

You should attack him until you get the job.

"Not what your looking for ey? Then how about a ROUNDHOUSE KICK TO THE FACE? What about now? Not what your looking for ey?" And then rinse and repeat until they crumble into tears and offer you the job. Street fighter idle stance loop while you do it is optional, but appreciated.

 

A double dragon is best.

 

Too much kicking in Dragon Balls?

 

At that point you already lost the job anyways, and if not, you'd be a fool to take it.

 

I like the existential horror more (for example when you don't get the job), so I vote for the Double Dagon instead.

 

You walk away. Then you redo your CV with the title "Programmer" and apply.

We all play games with switching the job titles up. Depending on what job I'm applying for I've had a very different career history.

 

Maybe that why I couldn't get job in pizza shop, when I put job title as scripter ...

 

As with many other things, it comes down to addressing your target audience.