Gameplay Programmer
Engine: Apex Engine (Proprietary)
Language: C++
Duration: 6 months
My Role: Gameplay Programmer
Together with the team I worked towards the common goal of creating a great experience for the player, maintaining its unique identity while still honoring the Call of the Wild franchise.
This is the first time I’ve worked in an in-house engine and it has been a great learning experience in itself, digging deeper into the depths of pure C++. A lot of designers were new to this engine as well, so I acted as a proxy for the code department while in conversations with them. It is not possible to do exactly what you could’ve done in Unreal Engine for example, so it is important to have realistic expectations. Because proprietary engines are usually very specialised, they are also good at some specific things. So it was about leveraging that to our mutual benefit.
Individual Contributions & Collaboration
I worked on the narrative– and mission systems, including tutorials. Added additional functionality and made tweaks to existing features.
While working with these systems, I made sure that it supported both an initial tutorial and then more complex mission setups than previously. I worked together with the designers to understand their needs, so that I could then add functionality that would benefit both the gameplay and the workflow. I also made some changes to improve the usability and interface for working with it in general.
While implementing the in-game shop, I collaborated with the other programmers to ensure that the system had a solid base to build upon with future functionality. I also experimented with and implemented some ImGUI debug functionality, to alleviate the process of finding and fixing bugs.
Personal Development
I had access to game design mentorship during my time at the company. I wanted to get better at understanding what makes a good game have that extra “magic”, so I took the initiative and created a template for analysing games. Together we played and analysed at least one game per month, comparing notes and discussing all the points. It widened my perspective and helped me expand my game design vocabulary, which in turn helped improve my communication with design in the role of a programmer.