Jamie Developer –

Explaining his journey to developer in the games industry over the past 4 years.

From roles, how to communicate and collaborate, his advice on creating portfolios, the importance of soft skills

Left college after studying game design, joined the game design course, graduated in 2021 and got into industry in 2022 as a unity developer but got made redundant after a year and then landed a new role in 2025 as a developer

Explained the projects he worked on, from university projects, to games he created after university, to the first projects he created in industry and the project he created after being made redundant to challenge himself. 

He is now employed by play360 and working on game city, which is a more family friendly game company that works on games that get the family together. Like deal or no deal, the million dollar money drop. And the company is utilising ai and embracing it using it more to make the game run smoother ie answers being correct if they are similar spelling / phrasing instead of using text matching

Grown from junior / generalist role, now a middle weight level with more responsibility working with larger teams and wider skill ranges, but now he’s narrowed and specialized in web development, java etc with multiplayer games

He went on to say specialising is good, but it is better to be well versed in everything before specialising. He said at his first industry role he didn’t love it but he was able to dable and get versed in all aspects of being a developer

He stated that the way university prepared him for this was by working with a development team as a part of FMP, and by working both independently and and as a team, getting used to self starting, and being proactive with playtesting, researching, prototyping etc

He said university was a crash course of things that are needed in the industry, from how to communicate effectively across disciplines, problem solving etc

Once he found his specialty in the industry he was then able to start honing in and start to really specialize in one part 

He then went on to say how communication is one of the most important things in the industry, from examples at how to talk to direct seniors, talk to someone who doesnt share your disciplines, how to talk to project managers, CEOs, or boss

He then went onto explain how he went onto communicate with each discipline by being considerate and understanding what they know and what you know and how to bridge that and effectively communicate in the best possible way. Also by making sure you’re understanding the other party and translating technical stuff to “english”

He then went on to say at university we are getting prepared for this, by not specilising and focusing on communication and all these skills that are needed in the industry. Compared to other university

Moving onto portfolio advice,

General advice, making sure to have at least some sort of online presence from art station, github, linkedin

Moving onto networking, AI has flooded Linkedin and making sure to communicate with real people, from gamejams, discord etc 

Connect with people who are big in the specific area of focus in the industry.

For a developer portfolio, GITHUB account! Showcasing source code that’s formatted nicely. Making it easier to send code to be reviewed by recruiters etc. Making sure all of this accessible and its uploaded somewhere either itch, steam, app store etc 

For the portfolio, just explaining what the code is doing, where updates will be what it does etc, not long, let code speak for itself kind of. Using a website to explain why / how you implemented certain features. Including photos in game and what the code / implementations have done

Show understanding of good code practices, OOP, KISS, Debugging tools etc 

He went onto explain how to present and create a portfolio for a 3D artist

Making sure to use Artstation and showcase your projects, getting across your artistic ability, showcase you can draw to a competent level, be able to het an idea across through sketches, moodboards

Show you can work from references, experience with all the software you use, not just technical ability and understanding game design & art

For a 3D model, 

Show the wireframe, uv layout, poly counts, texture sizes, texel density, optimisation like LODs and texel density, showcasing your different maps, trim sheets and decal sheets, showcasing the renders in the In-engine, unreal, unity, unity URP, different lighting configs

Being attentive to detail, dont add detail for sake of detail but think of context, do the research and then add the detail 

He moved onto talking about Passion pieces and presentation

• Making sure to show work you’re interested in and not just filling up the portfolio
• A handful of strong pieces will stand out

Also said the importance of learning the software inside and out

Making sure to utilise courses!

Moving onto soft skills –

As a junior developer, soft skills can sometimes be more important, willingness to try, just being a good employee with a can do, will do attitude 

He finished by talking about real work practices and how its similar to how university is, and the course mimics how real life is. 

Q , i know you said other universities are pumping out developers, artists etc and that here we are taught the general needs for the industry, but how do we compete for these roles when going for a specialized role 

A , yes technical is important but companies are willing to compromise on skills if you can fit the culture of the company, as long as you are competent with the technical aspects they are willing to teach you if your soft skills are amazing and you are a genuinely friendly nice person.