Living the dream

We spoke to Steven Edmonds – a games programmer fresh out of university - who is ‘living the dream’ working at Codemasters - one of the most successful games studios in the UK.

Name: Steven Edmonds
College/ University: University of Teesside
Age: 23
Course: Computer Games Programming

What made you want to be a games programmer?
 
I’ve always been a big fan of computer games, thanks primarily to my father’s interest in technology. When I was 13, I started learning HTML so that I could produce a website for an online gaming community that I had founded with my friends. I found the static nature of html to be quite limiting, so I decided to teach myself PHP with the help of a book and the internet. I enjoyed programming, so when the time came to decide on a career path it was fairly obvious that games programming would be ideal for me.
 
What did you study at school/university?
 
I studied A-Level Maths, Physics and IT along with Geography to AS-level at the sixth form of my secondary school. I came out with a BBCC (respectively), which was more than enough to get me into the University of Teesside on a Computer Games Programming course. 
 
Can you tell us about your career path? How did you get to where you are today?
 
Codemasters is actually my first job in the games industry, and I was lucky enough to get it shortly after finishing at university about a year ago. I was recruited via a third-party games specific recruitment agency who happened to see and like my CV. During my time at university, I had put together a good portfolio both from the work I had to complete for assignments and by carrying out my own learning while studying. My CV got me an interview and my portfolio got me the job.
 
What is the best thing about your profession?
 
While it’s a challenge to only pick one thing, I’d say the best thing would have to be that every day you’re faced with new and interesting challenges to resolve.
 
What is the best thing about working for the company?
 
Codemasters is a big and financially stable company, which means we can focus more on making amazing games and less on having to pump out game after game to try and make ends meet!
 
What part(s) of the game(s) do you develop? 
 
I’m a member of the Front End team in the racing studio. Our primary focus is the 3D menu system that makes our games so special, although we do a lot of underlying work too. I believe we’re the second biggest group in the racing studio next to the graphics group!
 
What skills do you have to have to do what you do?
 
I would say there are two key areas that a good programmer needs to be skilled in: Firstly, they need to have the technical knowledge to get the job done. For most programmers, this means a good working knowledge of C++. The different programming specialties require different technical skills – for example a graphics programmer has to know a lot about matrix maths.
 
Being an amazing C++ programmer isn’t enough on its own though. Being able to communicate and work effectively in a team is just as important - a high budget big game is just too big for one person to work on in isolation.
 
What is the coolest thing for you once the game is completed?
 
Definitely seeing my game in the shops and seeing other people walking away with a copy. It’s really exciting to overhear someone talking about how good something is that you’ve worked on.
 
What challenges, if any, is the games industry as a whole facing today?
 
Games get bigger and fancier with every passing year, and this translates into increased costs and development time. Here in the racing studio at Codemasters, I’d say our biggest challenge is making those leaps forward without spending so long doing it that your work is out of date before it gets released! The end users are always looking for that next big thing and it’s up to us to deliver it.
 
Any advice for would-be games developers?
 
Out of the 60 people who started on my course, about a quarter of those managed to get a degree at the end of it. It’s amazing how many people take up computer games programming with the idea that it’s a doss and you play games all day. In fact I’d say that programming for games is the hardest sort of programming you can do. If you’re passionate about programming, then you’ll find no better place to be than in the games industry. I can’t imagine doing anything else.

Game on!

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