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?

  • @[email protected]
    1•2 months ago

    I’ll be honest, and sorry in advance, but it’ll help you more. Your cynicism is probably the thing getting in the way. I understand it’s rough and not fun, but you’ve got to avoid it grinding you down.

    You need to give yourself reasons to stand out. Making a half baked unfinished engine that no one uses isn’t as impresive as improving an existing one that people use. Greenfield projects are rare and you probably not going to get that as a first role. So you need to prove to employers you can take legacy code, learn it, understand it, improve it and get it live. Demonstrating you have the capability to do that on a FOSS project demonstrates you may be able to do that on an in-house engine. You also learn from the code others write. Why did they do it this way? Is it better? What are the pros and cons? Degrees differentiate, yes, but a green person out of uni vs someone who has proven they can do a similar job, you have an advantage. Plus, 5 PRS is probably easier than a new engine. Making one from scratch cannot hurt, but it doesn’t prove everything they need to know. Businesses hire because they have a problem and need someone competent to solve that problem. Tick those boxes and remove the risk and you have reasonable chances.

    If you only demonstrate you’re not comfortable going out of your comfort zone and getting your hands dirty, you are not helping yourself.

    So give them reasons to hire you, give yourself a chance, and keep applying. Give yourself a 2% chance, apply to 50 jobs, give yourself a 10% chance, apply for 10, but always go over the odds.

    Remember, industry is rough right now. A lot of experienced proven folk got let go in last year. Might need to improve your odds and bide your time.