Most prominent Game Dev Studio Questions in interviews

Hello there. I just graduated in Game Dev and I'm heading to job hunting. I would like to know for the people who already know and had experience in it. What is the most common question in a Game Dev job interview? Especially in Unity, how important it is? What are the chances of flunking it? I would like to know more about it.

Thank you.

 

There is no most common question. And even if there was, it wouldn't matter because nobody hires you based on answering a single question right. This isn't school anymore it's the real world.

Good studios won't ask you many Unity specific questions. I want to know do you have a good grounding in stuff like math and algorithms. And also how good you are at thinking in abstractions. It's the core abilities that make a good developer that I want to find out if you have. Then I'll probe for some higher level stuff like data modeling or basic architecture design. See how far we can go before you get lost. Plus some time on development best practices, although I'm assuming that will have to be mostly taught. Schools generally teach all the wrong habits there.

From there what often stands out is what you did outside of school. Do you have enough interest in what you do to even do that. Do you have any interesting github repo's or maybe some venture you started up with classmates or friends.

Also, just to be blunt, a degree from a 'game dev' school is kind of a red flag. Why you chose that over a CS degree is likely going to be one of my first questions. And there usually aren't good answers for that. Which is why a resume with that on it will usually go to the bottom of the stack after anyone with a CS degree.

The bottom line is to get into a good studio, you need the fundamentals no game dev school teaches. So leverage your degree as best you can, but understand it's weaknesses. If you go into an interview all gung ho about how well you know Unity, it's likely going to work against you. If you focus more on the fundamentals you learned while using Unity, it will at least show you understand what is most important.

 

All of this.

Generally when interviewing, we mostly ask about thier process, how they approach challenges and work methods. We are also gaging personality and fit for our studio. My current studio is fully distributed and very close knit, so working effectively remotely is critical for us.

As far as skills and knowledge goes, we vet all that before we do main interviews. We only bother interviewing people we already know are capable of performing work. It is more about finding out if they are capable of doing it our specific environment.

 

What is "Game Dev" ?

Because last I checked that makes you an expert in every single field, which means you are a Jack of all trades and master of absolutely nothing at all, whatsoever. Since being a "Game Dev" is so not specific, that would ... well, take someone older than I am, and I'm pretty arrogant with some grey hairs. A supreme indie, if you will. A greybeard.

What I am saying is, what's your speciality? Start thinking because you're acting like this is easy. If it's programming try and complete https://certification.unity.com/products/certified-programmer to stand a chance when the time comes, since you have no track record.

Try reading this: https://certification.unity.com/the...mer/UCP Exam Objectives - English 2018.05.pdf

 

1) Ok, we are cool with that.
2) Ok, So I need some study in that. (data modeling and architecture design)
3) Yes, I'm pretty sure that I doing that correctly (development best practices)
4) I'm currently working in my portfolio, updating my projects and creating new ones that have better practices and better design. I assume that quality beats quantity in this case, right?

Thank you for the information.

 

1) sorry if I ask, what are the common answers that stands out in regards of that question? Are the good answesor the wors?
2) About tehpersonalities, you guys expect the entry level workers to be open or reserved in a group environment. Example, I made a piece of code, but a function didn't work as I expected, and I cna't figure out why, could you help me?

Thanks for the info.

 

I have never said it will be a piece of cake, where did you get that?

And yes, my field is actually programming. I've been planning to get the certification actually.

And, haven't we all started with no track record? or did you born with private repos?

Thank you for the links, I will definitely take a look at them

 

Interviews are just to make sure the candidate isn't a weirdo.

Your work experience, specifically published titles, is probably the single most important factor in getting hired. If you are an artist, you need a portfolio showcasing finished game art. If you are a programmer, you need published games/tools. If you are so bizarre that you can't sit down with a stranger and not make awkward situations, then you might want to worry about interview questions. Otherwise, start hammering out good work, be cool, don't be an asshole, and have fun.

 

1) they are open ended questions, so they are just supposed to talk about thier process. Not really good or bad, unless they can’t answer or are clearly out of thier depth. It also depends on the position.

2) we don’t hire entry level or junior, only senior. We wouldn’t even interview someone who would ask a question like that. That isn’t something someone applying for a engineering role would ever say.

As far as personally goes, as mentioned above, it’s mostly to make sure they aren’t weirdos. (Or more accurately, the right kind of weirdo). Our environment is unique, so we really try to make sure they understand it, and are comfortable working in it. People at this level are pretty honest, and they are cool with it or not, or willing to adapt.

 

So at the end of the day, is like any other job. You just try to demonstrate your potential at the maximum.

This was really helpful. Thank you.

 

Most commonly I get "Show me some stuff you have made". (For engineering its "Show me some stuff you have done").

Then there is a series of cultural questions. Which is kind of like doing a speed dating session to figure out if you and the company are compatible to spend the next five to ten years together. It kinda works, but its a very hit and miss process.

Then everyone does an elaborate dance around the salary question.

And thats about it.

 

As long as you don't mention openworld MMOs you're hired.

 

What does that even mean?

First of all, as already pointed out, ideally the skill and knowledge question has already been handled. When I hired people that was always by having them show off previous work, and be conversational about how they did it. Completed projects of their own of some kind, even if they're small. If they didn't have that then I wasn't interested, because if you really want to make games then you're not going to wait for someone to hire you before you start.

So, if you don't have some finished things under your belt, get some. It doesn't really matter what they are. What I want to see is that a) you can finish things, b) you've seen the whole process through to the end, and c) it's not a train wreck. I might even give you some feedback on it to see how you respond.

Secondly, culture is not a bunch of tick boxes. You can be really different from a team of people and still culturally fit in. Or you can be nearly identical and not fit in. More importantly, though, you're doing yourself a disservice if you try to demonstrate your potential to fit in somewhere that you don't actually fit in. First of all, the interviewers will probably see straight through it. Even assuming they don't, you've just got yourself an uncomfortable acting gig for the next several years where you have to keep pretending to be the person you pretended to be in the interview.

Just be yourself. If that works then awesome, you just found a place where you'll have a lot of fun over the next few years. If it doesn't work out then don't worry about it, either you were close and just need to keep trying, or the interview successfully stopped a poor match from going ahead.

 

I think that the most common questions will be related to your passion for games. You need to be a player to make awesome games. Simple questions: Do you love games and which one? Why?

In gamedev, there are no huge corporations with thousands of people. There are few small teams and team is the clue.

You need to be cooperative and just take a fancy to the team because only great cowork and coop can make awesome results.

Secondly, planing and knowledge from economy it is very important too. Just take a look on market for buy wow items
You need to know how economy in games work.