Welcome The Implementer

“There are only two hard things in Computer Science: cache invalidation and naming things.”

— Phil Karlton

The Games Industry has a naming problem. See if you can spot it:

• Technical Artist
• Software Engineer
• Associate Game Designer

What’s the problem with all the above titles? They imply artistry. The reality is that for a large number of entry level positions within the games industry there is plenty of craft involved, and a lot of technical skill, but very often there is an implied amount of artistry that often results in an unclear definition of one’s role. There is an immense focus on the collaboration, and at some companies this can come to the detriment of execution.

The Restaurant Analogy

Consider a Restaurant Analogy. If you hired a Chef, Food Preparation Designer, and Seating Consultant your expectations of those roles are different and higher than if you were hiring Line Cooks and Hosts. There’s nothing wrong with being a Line Cook. You can’t run any significant sized restaurant without one, and when someone is a Line Cook it’s important that they understand that on a day to day basis, their job is to master their station.

Enter: The Implementer

We’ve created a new discipline called “Implementation”. An implementer has enough visual scripting, design sense and artistic ability to get by, but what they have in droves is knowledge of how their engine (Unreal or Unity) work. These are very teachable skills, with very teachable tasks that don’t have much ambiguity in how they are executed. This means that an implementer’s work is predictable, and trainable.

As we work to Be A Launchpad For The Industry, after we’ve covered some basic ground and someone moves out of their role as a Trainee (you can think of this role like an intern) they enter into the Implementation discipline and begin working on a game.

80% Implementation

In reality, 80% of the work needed on a game is implementation work. There are simple bugs that need fixed, new abilities to be implemented, AI behaviors to be tweaked, and level layouts to be modified. There is certainly good sense and craft required for these positions, and our implementation team is paired with Mentors who can help ensure we’re making good decisions (think of them as our Sous Chef in our analogy), but because of our focus on Assets and Tools, our implementation team is well trained and ready to get to building ASAP.

Rapid Adaptation

The focus on Implementation also means that we can move extremely rapidly into new spaces. With each new platform and technological change that comes around, our focus on fast efficient implementation allows us to execute quickly towards realizing games in these emerging spaces.