What does a Game Programmer do?
Game developers often work on teams and help to make a game’s concept or ideas come to life. They are involved in the creation of a story, outlining the design, and creating game prototypes. They are responsible for the design and development of video games for units including a personal computer, a consul, or a mobile application. They code the base engine from the ideas of the game's design team, and may be called upon to assist with character design with novel design animation and with unit testing.
Game developers generate game scripts and storyboards and translate the designer ideas into functional game codes. Sometimes they contribute to audio and animation, design, and character animation. They also troubleshoot code and fix bugs. Game developers need a bachelor's degree in software engineering or computer science, knowledge of the latest gaming trends, strong artistic and technical skills, and proficiency with programming languages including C++, Java, and C.
- Contribute to or lead the strategy of a new development pipeline.
- Participate in design, user research, and code reviews with colleagues.
- Assess any technical and developmental risks and generate solutions to overcome these obstacles.
- Use advanced knowledge to develop creative solutions to critical issues and complex design problems.
- Be a strategic partner to UX, Art, Product Management and Design when identifying product features.
- Work in OpenGL, OpenCV, and C++.
- Develop an understanding of how the graphics engine will interact with the chemistry.
- Collaborate with a multidisciplinary team of designers, artists and animators in a fast-paced, iterative development environment.
- Direct and manage gaming equipment conversions, placement, and repair.
- A related position, such as a programmer at a gaming company, developer relations engineer, or performance engineer.
- Gather and elicit clear and definite project requirements from the client.
- Engage in the QA process to identify, triage and fix bugs.
- Help the engineering team troubleshoot issues.
- Collaborate with design teams to prototype and implement gameplay features to a high standard of quality.
- Support product performance goals by architecting and implementing systems with performance in mind.
- Bachelor's or Graduate's Degree in computer science, engineering, information systems or mathematics or equivalent experience.
- Fluency in a variety of programs, software, and systems such as C#, Unreal Engine, or JAVA.
- Skilled at rendering and version control processes.
- Comfortable scripting and problem solving.
- Demonstrated acumen with linear algebra and 3D Math.
Game Programmer Salaries
Average Base Pay
Game Programmer Career Path
Learn how to become a Game Programmer, what skills and education you need to succeed, and what level of pay to expect at each step on your career path.
Years of Experience Distribution
Game Programmer Insights
Funcom“The people I work with are experienced and allow me to learn and grow everyday.”
Cryptic Studios“Don't work here if you expect to work on the latest and greatest AAA game/tech.”
Techwink Services“Project Manager was good and taught me good things like what to do when you get stuck in any issues.”
Knighted Ventures“Decent starting pay of 16 an hour with a current 3 dollar bonus per hour spent inside the casino.”
Ediiie“I have recently joined and i feel that it's a good place for freshers and experience gamers to start their career and learn new technologies.”
ChicMic“you get to work with a good and fun team”
American Gaming Association“People are nice and good”
Gram Games“Salaries are great (at least at beginning of each year) but Turkish economy is collapsing so there is nothing to do.”
Frequently asked questions about the role and responsibilities of game developers
The typical day of a game developer includes using skills in design and creativity to write and program video games. They write code to create clients' games or come up with game ideas based on current or predicted trends, as they plan the storyline and purpose of each game.
Yes, gaming development is a good career. An advantage of this career field is that working conditions are usually favorable and remote options are commonly available. This can allow for a healthier work life balance.
Yes, game developers are typically paid well. The average salary for game developers is HK$19,500 per year in the United States. Game developers who have more good programming or technical skills may earn even more, up to HK$25,000 per year.
Working as a game developer can be challenging at times, as it's a highly competitive career. One of the difficult aspects of being a game developer is that they're expected to stay up-to-date on the latest gaming trends. Becoming a game developer requires hard work which can lead to a rewarding career.