Question About Jobs

I am developing a Unity game with some fairly complex systems. I am assuming that publishing a game on steam would look great in a programming portfolio to game developer jobs.

Would a large project like this look impressive to employers other than game dev studios? I am making a game partly because I enjoy doing so and partly because, if it fails, I can at least have something on my resume that ensures my efforts are not in vain. If this would look good on a resume, to whom?

The game has a randomly generated tiled map to survive on with other AI that survive too. You have to survive with dwindling resources. Any help would be appreciated thank you!

 

I don't see how it can have a negative impact. It shows you can code and work with many systems, are able to finish something, can think about if someone will like something, if you apply feedback you get it shows communication skills and professional skills, and a lot more.

It just depends how you chose your words when you talk in the interview.

You do need to have skills for other jobs ofc. If you use unity and then apply for a job in c++ without any c++ experience that will be an issue ofc

 

The game itself will only impress in a non-game company if the people reviewing your work have some gaming affinity. Otherwise they'll wonder what the ... is this about?!? Same if you apply to a game studio, and your reference work is a simulated mechatronic robotic driver with mechanized tool exchange. See?

If you apply as a programmer, what WILL be respected is a showcase of your code. Both from a "best practices" approach as well as readability, maintainability, possibly efficiency too. More so if the person reviewing the code is familiar with that particular programming paradigm (ie Unity development).

The published game at least shows you went through the publishing process. But that in itself isn't worth much and the game could have been made with some click&play tool and most of the code could be copied together. So if someone is critical, they will find reasons to downvalue what you did. Without showing off the code on github for them to scan at their will the published game itself isn't more than a door opener for game studios, and worth little to nothing for most other companies.

In any case, personal appearance and character are quite important for a programmer these days. The programming skills can (and often will) be tested, including how you reason about writing code or how you approach bugs.

 

Appreciate the responses!

 

Github/public repo is really the most useful thing to employers if its a programming role. A released game is only useful to show passion, unless you are going into the biz side of games industry. It doesnt sound like you are applying to a business focused role, so I recommend showing good code on a portfolio people can access if you want it to improve standings for a programming role.

I work as CTO at an app company in copenhagen and I wouldnt hire someone based on a project I have no code visibility on. Seeing your project visually would only be useful if we were hiring for the art department.

Don't take this the wrong way, but nobody hiring out there will care about your ability to go through the publishing process, they care about your ability to do the job you are applying to and if thats coding, then give them what they want to see, not things that are semi-related.


Good luck!