I don’t think my knowledge is complete about Windows side of things (PE and Win32 API, MASM, VC++ etc) so I never dared apply for such jobs. But I have never seen one either. I think it theoretically should exist. The systems side of gaming, especially developing a portable framework, developing retargetable, optimizing compilers which prioritize game dev, these are all roles that should potentially exist. I was wondering, if they exist, is it worth building up exclusive skills that would attract recruiters? Mind you that I live in a country that is adversary to the US (very much so) and a US company is not going to hire me for remote development, rather, all I can wish for are smaller developers, indies and European (especially Eastern European) developers. Local developers are another issue, I am a college dropout and I get a feeling that local developers (who mostly make shitty phone games, similar to South Koreans and the Chinese) would not wish to hire a college dropout for such critical task.

That is, if any of these local, or European, or East Asian developers even need someone of this skillset. I once went to interview for a local game dev, and that was back in 2015-2016, I saw a bunch of young men and women (much older at me at the time, not so much now!) sat around this large table, with workstations in front of them. The owner gave me a tour of ‘the office’ (aka the room) and most of them were running Android Studio on Windows. There was another group running Unity. Another group had a 3D software open. I did not recognize the rest of the toolchain people were using.

All I know is, unless for a large gaming conglomerate that builds its own engine, there’s no need for a systems developer in the gaming space.

Correct me if I am wrong here. I have been jumping from discipline to discipline ever since I dropped out due to bipolarity (I gave a girl a flower, she mocked me, I got embarrassed and dropped out, true story). I have managed to learn a ‘good’ amount of POSIX API. You can see my works here.

TL;DR: (apologies if it got long)

Do smaller devs need systems experts, and is it worth investing time in learning Win32 API and how PE works and learn MASM dialect of x86-64 Assembly (I know AT&T)? Would I be able to find a job in the discipline — as someone who is extremely untalated in graphic and sound design etc?

Apologies if this question gets asked a lot (if it gets asked).

PS: I was reading ‘Game Engine Architecture’ by Jason Gregory, and I realized it is completely within my power to cook up an engine that targets Direct Media Layer using LibMesaGL (OpenGL for Direct Media Layer). Do you think it’s worth doing it? Does the world need another engine, this time targeted at UNIX systems like Linux, MacOS and BSD?

  • ChubakPDP11+TakeWithGrainOfSaltOP
    1•2 months ago

    There should be plenty. I applied to two in Turkey, they were fine jobs. All these countries are even healthier than America in some aspects, economy-wise. The jobs in Turkey were cool af. There are some duds in BRIC like Turkmenistan though. I think I have to focus my attention on a Christian nation, rather than a Muslim nation. Chances that there would be expats from English-speaking countries in Georgia is much higher than being one in Turkey. And that is the ultimate problem I face, language. I speak Persian natively and English at L2 level, and I would have issues communicating. I once interviewed for an on-site data pipeline engineering job in the capital, I wanted to fail it because moving cities is impossible for me. I interviewed with a Russian dude, or was he Ukrainian or Belarusian, anways, he worked for the Iranian company in questions and his accent was thick, my accent was thick and even if I wanted to pass the test and rail that cute recruiter daily and nightly and ever so rightly, I would not have been able to.

    Let’s not forget about Russia. They have a much stronger software industry than BRIC nations.

    I got one callback from Turkish company, they were making Real-time OSes. Zilch. I don’t think even if the Ayatollah rizzed Biden and vice versa and Iran was a member of G7 + 2, it would not have made a difference, neither for BRIC, nor for EU, and none for NA ,os SA or SEA. It’s just impossible to get a job when I think of myself worse than dirt.

    Plus I don’t know much either.

    Thanks.

    • @PotentialProblem
      1•2 months ago

      Keep your head up!

      I’ve worked with many Iranians here in the US and all of them are excellent engineers. At least one of them managed to get over here without a college degree and work his way up to a comfortable software job.

      Not having a degree is going to be rough as far as immigration goes… but you’re capable of figuring out complex systems so you’re capable of figuring this out. Easier said than done… but if you keep pushing you’ll get somewhere. If you accept defeat early, you’ll get nowhere.