An interviewer searching for a game developer should look for someone who has strong design and coding skills, is up to date on the latest gaming trends, and can work under pressure. Deadlines constrict publishers, so you need to find someone who can get the job done in time.
Some skills are more relevant than others. Although you shouldn’t expect them to answer financial questions like “what is the average cost of game development?”, game developers for hire should be knowledgeable about the programming aspects of a job.
Too often, interviewers focus on professional competency while completely forgetting about character traits and soft skills. As with any other profession, developers should be good team players. Candidates that don’t match the company’s culture and values could have a negative impact on their coworkers’ efficiency.
The Most Common Questions
Interviewers often use the following questions to assess candidates’ personalities and whether they would be a good fit for the existing team:
- What are your interests?
- What are your strengths and weaknesses?
- What are your future goals?
- Why did you become a game developer?
- What is the most exciting thing about the job?
- Do you prefer working solo or as part of a team?
- Can you work overtime?
- Are deadlines a problem for you?
- How do you try to improve yourself at work and outside of work?
- Do you have any questions for us?
As you can see, these are pretty generic questions. They’re designed to gauge candidates’ interests, wants, and needs.
A candidate’s answers can help quickly determine if they will be a good fit for the company.
For developers looking to get hired, keep in mind that employers aren’t necessarily curious about your life for its own sake. Rather, they want to assess whether you would get along with others and become a valuable, long-term asset for the company.
Employment History Questions
Though personality is essential, at the end of the day a candidate is hired because of their portfolio of work.
The following set of questions help determine a candidate’s educational background, training, experience, and qualifications for the position:
- What are the best and worst games you’ve made?
- What was the biggest issue regarding your worst game?
- Can you tell us more about your education?
- What makes you qualified for this project?
- What would you like to improve in your favorite game?
- How do you incorporate feedback in your work?
- Which programming languages do you use, and how would you rate your skill level with each?
- How do you fix errors? (step-by-step explanation)
- Can you identify the latest gaming trends?
- What is the most exciting thing for you when it comes to the future of the industry?
Besides assessing the candidate’s knowledge and qualifications, the goal is to learn whether they are flexible and proactive, along with being disciplined and organized. Any candidate possessing all these traits has the potential to be a valuable asset to the team.
Technical and Development Questions
This third set of questions is usually reserved for candidates who have already passed the initial interviews. Though that doesn’t mean you can’t ask them towards the end of the first interview if you know you have a standout candidate.
These questions are used to assess a developer’s game processes, and how they deal with problems and implement solutions:
- Which elements do you focus on when structuring design for a new game?
- What is your favorite programming language and why?
- Do you have experience making titles for mobile devices?
- What are some of the things you focus on when using Java to create games?
- What is your favorite gaming engine, and how well do you know it?
- What are your points of emphasis when creating levels, puzzles, characters, and models?
- How do you keep players engaged?
- How do you address coding errors?
- If you have to add virtual features, how do you approach them?
How to Tell if Your Candidates Are Prepared
A good candidate will put in the time and effort to get ready for their interview. Want to know if your potential future employee has prepared properly? Here’s a quick list of clues to look for:
- Are they on time?
- Are they suitably dressed?
- Are they relaxed?
- Have they researched your company beforehand?
- Do they show a genuine interest in the company?
- Do they follow up after the interview?
Summary
By keeping in mind the list of questions above you’ll be able to develop a clear process for vetting potential game developers to bring on for your next project. Keep in mind that just asking the right questions won’t guarantee that you’ll hire the right candidate, but it will help you narrow down your choices to the top few, after which you can test them further with some hands-on development tasks.
