We as a group interviewed Martyn Honeyford, a senior software developer at Gameloft. Martyn is an Online Interlocutor working on computer games for iOS and Apple platforms. He oversees online features and capabilities of games and has been at Gameloft for 7 years, before that he spent 6.5 years at Microsoft developing for Xbox and 11 years at IBM. Martyn has worked on various Apple arcade games. The interview was conducted during a Microsoft Teams meeting on 6 July 2021.
“I’m primarily working with members of the studio” Martyn stated, with the studio having various departments. While he is working on the “sort of engineering programming side of things”, they have a design team that is “tasked with coming up with the ideas for the games, and how it’s going to work.” Followed by an “art team [that] deals with everything from concept arts and assets that go into the game.” Of course, there is a management team, as well as a QA team that’s “responsible for testing if the game works” and the studio management that’s “ultimately responsible for the studio making money.”
According to Martyn the game developing industry is
“quite a creative industry and people are quite passionate about things”
which can lead to disagreements and conflict. “Most people tend to be quite pragmatic” and agree to a decision, while “less experienced people can get a bit out of joint a bit more easily”. He finds it challenging “when people aren’t performing well and have to be put on performance management plans”, but also “when your optimism in the success of the product isn’t shared by everyone throughout management or projects gets axed”. When “you can’t work on a project for some time, or the focus gets changed” can also be quite frustrating. But, with experience, he explains, comes the understanding that “at the end of the day it’s not [him] investing 10s of millions of dollars” and you have to accept that “if there’s not a lot of confidence that the product is going to succeed, then that’s fine”.
There is a lot that Martyn finds rewarding about his job. Sometimes there might be
“a challenging feature that seems difficult to start with and you come up with an innovative or interesting way that works [which] is always satisfying”.
And being in the game industry, if the “game is well received, that’s obviously a big plus.” And then of course, once it is finished, “the final project is something that you can show to people.” As Martyn has two young kids, “it’s quite nice to work on a game and they can play it.” Compared to when he worked in finance where, while the work itself that had a certain amount of satisfaction, it was “not something you can really share with somebody”.
Gameloft obviously performs internal testing, but also engages “small groups of 50 to 100 external people to test”. Once a game is released, there is a community manager who “focusses on the feedback of the community” and replies to bugs and monitors reviews. We read “the forums and try to listen to feedback and improve things”. The company also utilises consumer telemetry to understand how long people are playing for, and how far people get into a particular journey.
When it comes to skills, Martyn looks for “formal computer science backgrounds” rather than specific programming languages. He thinks an academic background sets people up for having a good understanding of computer architecture and how software works. If you have “good fundamentals” it doesn’t matter too much for him if you’re “the best C++ or C# programmer in the world” because you can adapt that knowledge to a particular problem. Of course, this is dependent on if the position is for full-time or part-time. If they are hiring for a contract of a couple of months, of course he will look for someone “able to do that specific job” immediately. But also, as it is a very “collaborative environment”, he stresses that interpersonal skills are a must and people shouldn’t be “afraid to have a discussion and push back”. Sometimes you need to stand your ground in this industry.
To get into this type of industry, in particular the gaming industry, a passion for programming and game development is necessary. Although Martyn admits that he is coming from a programming background and looks at things from that point of view. “It’s not just a matter of liking games, it’s a matter to be passionate about how games work”. Usually demonstrable skills are important, mainly in the form of a portfolio, which can include projects from university as well as pet projects. Martyn sees it that
“when you’re really passionate about something, there’s nothing stopping you”
from contributing to your portfolio and, “there’s never been a better time for people to contribute to open-source projects” for example. “Being able to kind of show your passion and backing it up” is important for him; it is more about quality, rather than quantity on the CV, according to Martyn. While his current company does not have a black and white approach when it comes to qualifications, there certainly are businesses, mainly the larger ones, that do. However, the Brisbane industry is small and interconnected and there is a lot is of word-of-mouth. That said, hiring decisions are made on a “case by case basis” and even candidates that do not have an academic background might still be invited.
Martyn admits that he likes video games, although plays significantly fewer video games now that he is in the industry. But during the development process, he typically “doesn’t play the games they’re working on” for fun. He usually works on a particular aspect of the game and simply plays to that point. Just “jumping through the game as quickly as possible until it does the thing he’s actually trying to test”. It is normally the design and QA department who play the game to see if it is fun. But once the game comes out, he plays the games and “finds a whole new appreciation” for what he has done. But, even after the release, there is always a bit of a nervous period, because he does a lot of the backend and there is the “what if I did something wrong and someone loses all his progress” feeling, or uncertainty about how servers would react to a million users joining at the same time. But
“once [the games are] released, I go and play them, and actually enjoy them”.
Interviewer(s): Adam Ballantine, Alex Goldberg, Jessica Warburton, Karsten Beck, Paul Archie
Interviewee: Martyn Honeyford – Senior Software Developer at Game Loft
Interview Setting: MS Teams Online Meeting on Tuesday 7:30pm 06/07/2021
Affiliation with interviewee: Martyn is an Online Interlocutor working on computer games for iOS and Apple platforms. He oversees online features and capabilities of games and has been at Game Loft for 7 years, before that he spent 6.5 years at Microsoft developing for Xbox and 11 years at IBM. Martyn has worked on various apple arcade games.
(Start of Interview)
Interviewer(s): Karsten
Q. Are you fine with this being recorded?
Interviewee:
“Yep, no worries.”
The interview showed that working in the IT industry means working in a very collaborative environment. Even though Martyn mainly works as a programmer for a specific part of a computer game, his day-to-day interactions with other team members are manifold. His relatively small company already employs programmers, designers, 3D artists, quality testers and management levels. Everybody plays their part, and although the end-product is a fun game, daily life can bear frustrating moments. Be it that the project someone has been working on for weeks gets cancelled, goalposts move, or a team member must repurpose something that has acquired much work already. Many different characters and personalities all aim towards a common goal, and therefore, teamwork is essential.
We can also conclude from the interview that it sometimes is more beneficial to be a master of many traits rather than a specialist in one field. However, this is highly dependent on the company and the project. While small studios might need more versatile employees, big companies are likely to look at a well-developed skill.
It particularly stood out that Martyn’s assessment almost exactly matched the information gleaned from the Industry Data above. With a good grounding in the fundamentals of IT, it is not so important which programming language is known, or what software experience is had; this can all be taught. What is universal is the value of having ‘soft skills’, i.e., good communication, good teamwork, etc. However, one thing became evident during the interview. If someone is very passionate about what they are doing, that can go a long way in the industry.