Shane Smit: Being a Programmer in the Video Game Industry

Shane Smit has been in the game industry for 12 years now. He has released multiple games on multiple platforms including consoles and mobile. In his career, he has had worked for many companies:  RED Interactive Agency, Avalanche Software, and Smart Bomb Interactive to name a few.  After his talk I feel I like have a better idea what it is like to be a programmer in the video game industry.

Being a programmer in the video game industry is not going to be me programming the fun parts in a game, but more of me programming tools for others to use. The main job of game programmers is going to be creating tools for the artist and designers to use.  These tools should be created to enable the artist and designers; making their jobs simpler. Artist have the responsibility to make the game look pretty, designers are responsible for making the game fun, and programmers are responsible for performance, security, and making all sure all the pieces fit.  When an artist or a designer ask for something we the programmers will be there to help them be successful.

The satisfaction in being a programmer in this industry will comes in helping others create awesome games and also in constantly learning new things.  While in school it is important that I learn how to learn because that will be a large part of working in the industry. Game programmers are responsible to be leaders in technology. It is going to be very helping learning multiple languages because they will all be used at one point or another.