Get into GameDev:
cheat-codes for gamedev interviews
Welcome to Get into GameDev: cheat-codes for coding interviews!
My name is Matthew Ventures and I'm a professional game developer with a passion for teaching/helping others! This book is designed for novice developers to help them pass their interviews and for experienced developers who wish to brush up on their skills by reviewing topics or going through the practice questions. This guide is fool-proof! I would know, because it worked for me and I am often-times foolish. Below are some of the teams I have had the privilege of working with. In the years this guide has been available, dozens of developers have reached out to me over email and LinkedIn to share how it helped. I'm confident that if you're willing to put in the time studying, I can help you as well. Let's get started! |
Introduction
Before You Start
If you're struggling to land an interview or you're a student pursuing internships, I wrote a book dedicated specifically to breaking into the gamedev industry which you can read for free here. Additionally, if you're completely new to game development, I wrote a course while teaching at Stanford that you can view here. I'd recommend going through those assignments before jumping into the the more advanced topics we cover in this book.
I'm a gameplay engineer which means I do work on both code and design, this book covers both topics. The latter half of this book is focused on design while this first half is all about coding. This book was inspired by Cracking the Coding Interview, that's a great book to read first if you are not familiar with the format of general coding interviews. However, gamedev interviews cover somewhat different topics including math, memory, and optimization which is where this book can provides a unique value for you. We will develop a much deeper understanding of game code than just the basic algorithms. Make sure to complete the practice questions to verify your understanding, and ask questions in the comments if you need help.
I'm a gameplay engineer which means I do work on both code and design, this book covers both topics. The latter half of this book is focused on design while this first half is all about coding. This book was inspired by Cracking the Coding Interview, that's a great book to read first if you are not familiar with the format of general coding interviews. However, gamedev interviews cover somewhat different topics including math, memory, and optimization which is where this book can provides a unique value for you. We will develop a much deeper understanding of game code than just the basic algorithms. Make sure to complete the practice questions to verify your understanding, and ask questions in the comments if you need help.
Testimonials
"I just wanted to follow up and thank you for your advice and all the time you put into helping students break into the game industry. Thanks to your help and advice, I was able to land an internship as a gameplay engineer at Blizzard on the Diablo IV team."
— Zakarya Zahhal, 2023
"I recently experienced a studio closure and had to start the hunt for a new job with no warning. 'Get into Game Dev' by Matthew Ventures proved invaluable in my job hunt. Even as a senior engineer with nearly a decade in the game industry, this guide helped refresh my knowledge, especially when it came to C++ and 3D math. Both those new to game development and more experienced folk can get a lot out of it!"
— Thomas Klovert, 2023
— Zakarya Zahhal, 2023
"I recently experienced a studio closure and had to start the hunt for a new job with no warning. 'Get into Game Dev' by Matthew Ventures proved invaluable in my job hunt. Even as a senior engineer with nearly a decade in the game industry, this guide helped refresh my knowledge, especially when it came to C++ and 3D math. Both those new to game development and more experienced folk can get a lot out of it!"
— Thomas Klovert, 2023