   Any professional game developers here?
  If so, could you please fill out this real quick? I don't know any game devs and I have to interview one for a business project. What are several of your normal job duties?What values are important for this career?Do you work with people, data, or things? Please explain.Do you work indoors or outdoors?Do you work at a desk, standing, or on the move?How much noise is there in the work area?Is your work dangerous in any way? If so, how? What are your normal working hours?How often do you work overtime? Do you ever work nights or weekends?What aptitudes and abilities are needed for your career?What education and training are required to enter and advance in your career area?What is the average beginning salary? How about what you earn after five years? Ten years? What types of benefits do workers in your career usually receive?How many workers are needed in your career area at the present time? Locally? Statewide? Nationwide?Do you think demand for workers will increase or decrease in the next five years?Do you work with people in other countries? How?Any additional comments?Thanks a ton.   
  >> What are several of your normal job duties?Programming, helping out artists that managed to fuck something up, meetings, and typing tech designs.>> What values are important for this career?You have to be a good programmer, and you should be good at working together with other people.>> Do you work with people, data, or things? Please explain.Data I guess. I write source code all day long, >> Do you work indoors or outdoors?indoors>> Do you work at a desk, standing, or on the move?sitting most of the time, but sometimes the animators from next door walk in, to ask if we can do some weird move for them as reference.>> How much noise is there in the work area?Just the usual talking, not much more.>> Is your work dangerous in any way? If so, how? You can get RSI>> What are your normal working hours?officially 10-6, but I work a couple of hours longer almost every day.>> How often do you work overtime? Do you ever work nights or weekends?Pretty often. Nights or weekends happen from time to time, but they do kill you, so I try to avoid them.>> What aptitudes and abilities are needed for your career?You need to be a good programmer, and have some experience in the subject (not per se professionally)>> What education and training are required to enter and advance in your career area?Education can be important for getting a job, but if you can show them that you have the required skills without the proper education, they are happy to hire you, as it's rather common that there are really good people that don't have the education.For advancing in your carrier, education is pretty much useless in any field, advancing in your carrier solily depends on how well you perform in the things you're doing already.>> What is the average beginning salary? How about what you earn after five years? Ten years? I don't really know what's average in the industry, and if you don't mind, I will keep my own salary a secret.>> What types of benefits do workers in your career usually receive?Bonusses depending on the sales of the game you worked on are quite common. >> How many workers are needed in your career area at the present time? Locally? Statewide? Nationwide?Our company has +- 200 peope at our location, of which about 80 are working on the project I'm working on now.>> Do you think demand for workers will increase or decrease in the next five years?I think (and hope) it will decrease, because the process of making a game will be streamlined more and more, so fewer people will be able to do bigger projects.>> Do you work with people in other countries? How?Our company has a dependency in beijing, but personally I don't have to deal with those people directly.>> Any additional comments?Not reallyThanks a ton.   ;What are several of your normal job duties?Check the bug log. Attend daily meetings. Implement changes into the current project's code base. Work on whatever systems I may have currently assigned to me. Work with other programmers in the group to help solve problems.What values are important for this career?Problem solving, working well with a team, and being able to work under pressure.Do you work with people, data, or things? Please explain.Things? I guess some of the people here sure don't smell human but "thing" might be a little harsh. You constantly work with people. You are always in a team or a meeting and constantly having to collaborate.Do you work indoors or outdoors?Indoors.Do you work at a desk, standing, or on the move?Desk.How much noise is there in the work area?A lot. A good set of headphones does wonders though. :)Is your work dangerous in any way? If so, how?Only to my social life. Long hours, especially when coming upon a milestone, will basically kill any extracurricular activities you may have. What are your normal working hours?10 - 7How often do you work overtime? Do you ever work nights or weekends?Fairly often. Nights are a common occurance. Weekends depends on how close to a milestone we are. This last month I spent the last 3 weekends at work. What aptitudes and abilities are needed for your career?Logical thinking, problem solving, and obviously knowing the syntax of your coding language of choice is paramount.What education and training are required to enter and advance in your career area?Math, and Comp Sci are the big ones.What is the average beginning salary? How about what you earn after five years? Ten years?Hmmm...you can find that info out at the Game Developer's salary survey. Just google it. What types of benefits do workers in your career usually receive?Pretty basic. Health insurance, dental, etc. If you work for a large publisher like EA or whomever, you generally have access to a company store that lets you buy any title that publisher has published for a fraction of the normal cost.How many workers are needed in your career area at the present time? Locally? Statewide? Nationwide?I have no idea how to answer this one...Do you think demand for workers will increase or decrease in the next five years?Increase. For sure.Do you work with people in other countries? How?Sure, I've worked with publishers in Europe. It's no biggie besides the time differences. Setting up meetings can mean you are at work late or early (depending on time zone differences). Any additional comments?Hmmm. No.   ;  awww yeah there's my A+!;  What are several of your normal job duties?-Developing game features (including programming and writing the technical specifications).-Fixing bugs.-Working with producers and artists to achieve their vision.What values are important for this career?-Hard work-Reliability-Drive and determinationDo you work with people, data, or things? Please explain.-All of them... Weird question.Do you work indoors or outdoors?-Indoors... another weird question.Do you work at a desk, standing, or on the move?-Desk.How much noise is there in the work area?-It's fairly noisy, not so noisy that you can't concentrate though. Lot's of talking with coworkers.Is your work dangerous in any way? If so, how?-Yes. I once faught a gorilla with knives for fingers. (honestly this is getting a bit ridiculous).What are your normal working hours?-October to April/May: 9am - 6 or 7pm (monday to friday)-Rest of year: 7am - 10pm (or later) (5-6 day week)How often do you work overtime? Do you ever work nights or weekends?-See above. Don't usually work 7 day weeks ever though(few exceptions).What aptitudes and abilities are needed for your career?-Understanding of programming concepts (various programming/scripting languages).-Problem solving skills.-Interpersonal skills for dealing with producers, artists, managers.What education and training are required to enter and advance in your career area?-None are REQUIRED, although a bachelor (or higher) of computer science, or software engineering make for MUCH MUCH better resumes.What is the average beginning salary? How about what you earn after five years? Ten years?-Not sure on the averages.What types of benefits do workers in your career usually receive?-Varies greatly from company to company.How many workers are needed in your career area at the present time? Locally? Statewide? Nationwide?-There are probably around 4000-5000 developers locally. Across the province (yes I'm Canadian), it's probably the same (dev studios are often concentrated in one location). Across the country it's probably around 2.5 times that (The US has a much larger number of studios though).(edit: I missread the question. My answer is regarding how many are currently employed. There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of jobs to fill at the moment, however that is expected to change)Do you think demand for workers will increase or decrease in the next five years?-A huge increase is planned (at least at my company). Games are becoming more expensive and time consuming to build. Experienced people are prefered, but there aren't enough around, so new grads have lots of opportunities ahead.Do you work with people in other countries? How?-Not directly, although we do outsource select things to Asia, and a lot of our marketing/legal departments are in the US.[Edited by - dashurc on September 11, 2007 12:53:18 AM];Quote:Original post by dashurc...Is your work dangerous in any way? If so, how?-Yes. I once faught a gorilla with knives for fingers. (honestly this is getting a bit ridiculous)....Knives for fingers? I can't wait until my first game programming job. the PHP web development work I did was nowhere near as interesting.;What are several of your normal job duties?Designing systems. Writing code. Reviewing code.What values are important for this career?Caring about your work.Do you work with people, data, or things? Please explain.I work with co-workers (people), code/assets (data) and office equipment (things).Do you work indoors or outdoors?Indoors, obviously. They don't let programmers out of the dungeon during the daytime...Do you work at a desk, standing, or on the move?At a desk. (Sometimes I stand at the desk, or pace in front of it...)How much noise is there in the work area?Not much conversation noise, but lots of environmental noise (my desk is next to the entire floors AC unit).Is your work dangerous in any way? If so, how?No, besides ergonomic / repetitive strain injury / regular office health/safety stuff. Maybe obesity too...What are your normal working hours?9:30 - 5:30How often do you work overtime? Do you ever work nights or weekends?Never (Unless I've been coming in late and going home early).What aptitudes and abilities are needed for your career?Logical thinking / problem solving, ability to learn and adapt, ability to work without being managed, general communication skills.What education and training are required to enter and advance in your career area?A degree relating to computers / experience with C++.What is the average beginning salary? How about what you earn after five years? Ten years?$40k, $60k, $70k.However, just because you've been somewhere for 10 years doesn't mean you will get a raise. What types of benefits do workers in your career usually receive?None. Sometimes we get a free barbecue or get to visit trade shows...How many workers are needed in your career area at the present time? Locally? Statewide? Nationwide?Ask a recruiter!Do you think demand for workers will increase or decrease in the next five years?Increase.Do you work with people in other countries? How?On occasion. Email / conference calls.   ;  >>> What are several of your normal job duties?Checking bug logs. Communicating with QA department. Programming.>>> What values are important for this career?You have to be able to work to a deadline and work well with other people.>>> Do you work with people, data, or things? Please explain.Data I guess, I'm a programmer.>>> Do you work indoors or outdoors?Indoors>>> Do you work at a desk, standing, or on the move?At a desk.>>> How much noise is there in the work area?There's a bit of ambient noise. As the person above said a pair of headphones are a real asset!>>> Is your work dangerous in any way? If so, how? No.>>> What are your normal working hours?9 - 6>>> How often do you work overtime? Do you ever work nights or weekends?Work from 9 - 9 (three times a week) during crunch time when we have a deadline looming. Don't work weekends.>>> What aptitudes and abilities are needed for your career?You need to be good at maths and programming, so you need a reasonably logical mind. You also need to be fast at solving problems and learning.>>> What education and training are required to enter and advance in your career area?A degree in maths/programming.>>> What is the average beginning salary? How about what you earn after five years? Ten years.No idea.>>> What types of benefits do workers in your career usually receive?Job satisfaction.>>> How many workers are needed in your career area at the present time? Locally? Statewide? Nationwide?We have around 80 people here at work... we're a reasonably small game development company in New Zealand.>>> Do you think demand for workers will increase or decrease in the next five years?Without a doubt demand will increase.>>> Do you work with people in other countries? How?Yes, we receive contracts that have to be fulfilled from overseas customers. Working and communicating with them as much as possible is essential to producing a satisfactory product.>>> Any additional comments?Not really.   