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burny26

burny26

In bruges giving good tumbles
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Sep 10, 2010
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At the moment , I am studying engineering Electromechanics. But Im planning on changing next year to engineering informatics software development.
And I would be lying if I said that it is not to learn how to make games; I even hope that maybe in two years time I will be able to apply for a position at PDS.
It got me wondering ,would you guys accept a bachelor Engineering software development ,or do you want someone with a masters degree? Or is regular engineering school not enough to apply for a position at PDS and you really need to go to a specific gameschool?

EDIT: Small thought, is being able to talk four different languages actually a plus on a resumee for PDS ? Or is English all you search for in communication?
 
We don't really care about your education specifics, as long as you are a good programmer. We have a test you need to pass to be up for consideration. Surprisingly many programmers do not pass this test.
We code in C++, but if you are really good in another programming language, it should not take you that long to get up to speed in C++ and we might consider you anyway.
About the different languages; English is a must, Swedish is very nice, all the rest are not that relevant to the job, but might be nice.

Good luck!
 
First of all ,thx for your reply. :)

Secondly ,can you give perhaps a couple of examples of such tests? And when and how do you consider someone to be a good programmer?
Because even though my school probably will give me a lot of knowledge about software ,im kinda sceptical about the amount of experience ill gather here. I will see different kinds of subjects: networkcontrol ,AI , programming ,software design , C++ ,C# .... but I feel that the amount of programming exercises that I get here wont be as much as you expect from someone who applies to work for you.

And I wouldnt mind learning a 5th language ,it would actually be fun for me to start to learn how to speak Swedish. (My dutch dialect resembles Swedish to some degree ; for unknown reasons :p )
 
About 10,000 hours spent programming is a good start.

Subject is rather irrelevant, as when you code enough, you touch quite alot of subjects anyway.
 
I can't really give examples, we just ask general questions about programming, and then you would reason your way to the (hopefully) correct answer. The subjects would be mostly C++ oriented, but some just generic programming as well. Which one of these algorithms would be faster and why for example.

I can tell you that just doing the education will most likely not be enough. To become good enough you will need to write code in your spare time as well. Maybe help out on a few mods here and there, maybe do your own small projects, or a big one. A common saying is that you need 10k hours practice to be really good at something, there is some truth to that.
 
10k is quite a big number, but I remember reading something along those lines in a Science magazine a couple of months back. 10k is the magic number for developing talent.

Ok ,thx gentlemen for the replies and I hope we will meet again in 3-4 years! :)
 
Any sample questions from that test?
 
delra said:
Any sample questions from that test?
Click to expand...

It's probably a basic runthrough of C++, make a widget, how would you do X actions, how do you solve Y problems, find and debug code Z.

"can't really give examples, we just ask general questions about programming, and then you would reason your way to the (hopefully) correct answer. The subjects would be mostly C++ oriented, but some just generic programming as well. Which one of these algorithms would be faster and why for example. "
 
I have a few questions myself, as I'm doing almost the same course as the OP, besides game school probably next year and graduating in History, so my question is: How do you do your research for games, mostly? Also, having Masters degree, etc add something to the table?
 
I hard code for Unix and SCO Linux, as well as working in Cobol and C++. I have been programming for about 8 years in total, but my C++ hours is nowhere near the standard they would be looking for (around maybe 2000 hours if that), however I do know how to bug fix like a mad man! :D

Last program I helped bug fix had close to 10million lines of code, and I worked with 8 other programmers to get some of them sorted.
 
Johan said:
About 10,000 hours spent programming is a good start.
Click to expand...

Hum... 3 more years at my current job and I should be able to put that on the table.
If I count the programming I did on my own in BASIC, I can already put that, but it's so much not worth saying I spend that much time...

As for what are the question, best way to find out is to apply for the job!

Note to myself : start learning Swedish
 
nephilim2k said:
I hard code for Unix and SCO Linux, as well as working in Cobol and C++. I have been programming for about 8 years in total, but my C++ hours is nowhere near the standard they would be looking for (around maybe 2000 hours if that), however I do know how to bug fix like a mad man! :D

Last program I helped bug fix had close to 10million lines of code, and I worked with 8 other programmers to get some of them sorted.
Click to expand...

All 10k hours would not need to be in C++ I'd say. If you are a good coder, you can most likely pick up C++ much faster than that.

SCORPIONMIRO said:
I have a few questions myself, as I'm doing almost the same course as the OP, besides game school probably next year and graduating in History, so my question is: How do you do your research for games, mostly? Also, having Masters degree, etc add something to the table?
Click to expand...

We have people who are historical researchers as a job. (Captain_Gars, Solsara and Darkrenown) They are also scripters and write events. A masters degree could be relevant, depending on what field. But it sounds like you know programming and history then. If you can write too, you could be a good match for historical researcher the next time we need one. Nothing planned right now though.
 
I've probably spent 10K hours playing Paradox games. Ironically, if Paradox didn't exist, I'd have used that time for programming so I could subsequently apply for a position for the [non-existent] Paradox Studios.
 
See, this is why I love PDS, you see a thread like this and you take the time to give lots of useful answers. And you make great games.

How do you pick artists? Is it the same deal as with programmers, where you focus on skills/work experience rather than qualifications?

Also, don't you get a lot of applicants when there's an open position? I'm not sure how sought-after jobs are in the games industry, but I thought some companies had genuine problems parsing all the applications. I'd have thought a selection system that heavily emphasised talent over qualifications would be quite difficult to manage.

hmm, just posted this when I remembered there's actually a thread for asking random questions... but this thread is fairly relevant.
 
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