1/4 Series on Vetting Game Programmers: Family Matters

Ever read "Dune" by Frank Herbert, it's a bit like "Game of Thrones" the books are political first and then they are Fantasy and Sci Fi later.  The premise of both books deals with royal families and how they behave.  The more more compassionate they are the more successful they are.

If you own a game company or are part of one you are now part of the royal family.

I sound like an old fart but I'm still a hardcore gamer who loves the business and wants to see even better more interesting games develop.  I also like to help out some of the companies that are blasting off right now.

So I thought I'd write a short series on how to make things better for game companies who want to hire Game Programmers and other other employees.

Since I'm a recruiter and work with HR and CEO's I've noticed that some of the companies who are hiring have hired people in HR who are professionals but not really into gaming.  A Catch 22 is that some of the CEO's don't realize that they aren't connecting with the grass roots of the company they own.  I guess what I'm saying is upper management often doesn't really have a lot of interaction with the people they are hiring and HR is relying more and more on computerized systems for mining resumes but they don't understand the gold that they are mining.  

Before you even think about submitting a a job description, you have to think in depth about who you want this golden new person to be that you are adopting into your family and what role they will play.  

Literally, they will become part of your company's family.

In some ways it's a wedding or partnership and in some ways it's a parent to child relationship.  How much of each do you want this person to be?

• Deep interest in gaming, both as a programmer AND a player. This used to be designated as “avid gamer” but what does “avid gamer” mean any more? Of course candidates are going to tell you they’re avid gamers!

• Wide variety of gaming genres (ok, at least two!) If you make MMOs or FPS games only, specify that you want someone whose interest and passion is in your genre.

• Want someone with corporate-culture experience? These days, that’s different from “must have shipped an AAA game” because small companies can ship AAA titles too.

• What do you like about gaming?

• What was the first computer or console game you played?

• What was your first computer?

• What’s your favorite game and why?

• What’s your favorite book? Movie? TV show?

• Do you prefer open worlds or well-defined quest lines? Do you think a game should/can have both?

• What’s your favorite character class?

• How would you briefly describe the mechanics of your favorite game to a non-programmer?

• Do you usually play games to the end?

• What’s your Beta test experience? (No, you’re not looking for a QA person BUT it doesn’t hurt to hire a programmer who thinks like a QA person at least a little, as in being able to vet their own work before they hand off a fix as “done.”)

• What’s your favorite game of ours and why? (If you’ve only published one game, they better have played it! And listen for their own words—if they sound like they’re parroting what they read about your game, it’s entirely possible they haven’t actually played it.)

• If you could work in any other area of our industry, what would it be and why?

• What makes a game fun for you? (No, you’re not hiring a game designer BUT the programmer’s job is to make the designer’s vision work.)

• If time and money was no object, give me a quick pitch for a game idea. (No, you’re not hiring a marketing person but you want your employees to be well-rounded and be able to communicate with each other.)