Gaming Studios' expectations (+ considering my profile)

Community Community & Industry Discussion
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Hey guys/girls

Don’t mind about all the Australia’s parts, I copy paste this from another post of mine.

Briefly introducing the context of my question :
I’m a foreigner in Working Holiday Visa, if (and it will ofc) it could change anything to some aspect of my questions.

I learnt a “bit” of C++ from August 2023 to January 2024 with a very good online course that seems to have good reputation. After completing it, I have made some very little games with it like Pong, Tetris, Snake and some others using SFML library. I would consider myself a total beginner with some knowledge about it C++ though, especially with what’s I’ll explain next.
I mostly did learn C++ to get on Unreal Engine 5. I did a solo game by myself to practice from January to Now, and even though it is a “Practice Project”, it is quite complete and stable actually.

But I didn’t use direct C++ only blueprint system in this game, that’s why I could not even say I know how to program C++ in a conversation, I’d need a rewind myself on it for a while, and still I don’t have any experience in a big project, maximum I may have had was a 1 000 lines game project without anything complicated.

So my questions are :

  • What are the RECRUITMENT requirements/expectations for an Unreal Engine’s gameplay/level design developper ?

  • What are the ACTUAL SKILLS required/expected to be a successful one in the job ?

And about my own profile :

  • Is having no school/degrees in the field a big issue ?

  • Would anyone give that I seem to be a good learner from what I did (considering what I do is not crap though), or the actual-right-now skills are what is really looked at ?

My main goal is to make games by myself, but since I am here in Australia right now, I wanna try my best to maybe be part of a team here. After I publish my game next months/early 2025 I plan to learn and practice on C++ and the combination of both.

Thanks for reading !!! :slight_smile:

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Hello @Bromyy! The questions you pose are interesting and there isn’t really a “catch all” answer to them, every video game studio is different, they have unique requirements or expectations or talents to look for, that said I’ll try my best to give you some answers that can help you.

  • Regarding requirements/expectations, it varies a lot depending on seniority and on if we are talking about a level designer, a content designer and a gameplay programmer. For level designer you will be expected to know mostly blueprints and more regarding the overall use of the engine to create levels and sequencer to help build in storytelling and quests within the world. For gameplay programmer you will likely find expectations more inline with C++ and creating supporting nodes for the designers. Content designer is a bit of a middle ground between those two extremes.
  • This is a huge question that we could expand for ages and it heavily depends on whether you see yourself as a designer or a programmer, my advice would be to watch some videos from GDC and/or unrealfest regarding level design and choose your profile in order to understand what skills to hone.
    Now on to your profile questions:
  • not really, at least not in my experience, no studio I worked at has ever asked me to see my school diploma, they care about results, about you showcasing what you can do.
  • Absolutely! specially if you are aiming for entry level jobs like trainee or junior, showing that you are a good learner, that you are not stubborn and are willing to be molded into the developer they need can go a long way during the interviews.

I hope my answers help you and good luck!