Become a game maker at Stardock

Draginol

Join Date 03/2001

+137

Become a game maker at Stardock

Stardock is looking for developers and artists to work on our upcoming games ranging from the fantasy strategy game, an RPG, an MMORTS, and of course future versions of GalCiv.

So what do you need to do to work at Stardock?

Here is the check list:

Work in Plymouth Michigan. We're near Ann Arbor Michigan. Seriously. We get lots of people saying how great they can "work from remote". We already have lots of remote people. We need people here.
If you're a developer, you need to know C++ (at the very least) on Visual Studio. We don't care how much formal experience you have as long as you can code. We can't teach you how to do that, you have to already know it and be pretty good.
You have to be into gaming. At Stardock, everyone participates in the game design. There is no such thing as a game designer at Stardock and there will almost certainly never will be. We all take part.
If you're an artist, you need to know 3D Studio or Maya (preferably both). You also need to have a portfolio of cool stuff you've made.
You need to be self-starting. Seriously. Raises at Stardock are not based on percentages, they're based on what you produce. We have people here who started out making <$30k who now make over $100k.
You must be able to get along with others. We get a lot of people interviewing who are quite certain that they're the smartest people in human history and make every effort to impress that on us. Look we're just a bunch of Monty Python loving, Simpsons watching goons but we are reasonably bright too, mutual respect amongst the team is crucial.

If you think you or someone you know may fit this basic criteria, send us your resume. bwardell@stardock.com and jobs@stardock.com should do the trick.

Also, no interns, co-ops, etc. We're looking for people who are ready to get into making cool stuff right now and stay at it until the game is done.

A few other things about Stardock:

We don't lay off after projects. Once you're hired, as long as you do a good job, you're here as long as you want.
We've been around for 15 years as of this October. It's a very stable environment.
Very laid back working environment. We like to have fun.
Typical work week is about 45 hours a week. Crunch times are rare and short. Since I am there during crunch time and I'm lazy, I tend to work to schedule things so that there aren't much crunch times (I.e. I pad the schedule).

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Effective C++ is something every C++ developer should have read at least once. Another good book for those with a solid grasp of C++ is Design Patterns, which will stir your creative juices.

Do you folks at Stardock do real OOP?

Also, does anyone know how Plymouth, MI compares to Rochester, NY in the climatology area?

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I thought that all people in the gaming industry lived at work, slept under their desks, ate from vending machines and used a hose behind the building to shower

I certainly DID all of that and much more... ya gotta understand the mere pressure of release date breakpoint to grasp what is really involved; anything that was bent up and recompiled between morning and afternoons could end up locked all the way to the 17:00'o'clock rush for "homes".

There i still was - staring at the buggy results hoping someone else would notice.

What sleep.

Slurp... another gush of coffee, cold and yet even the best indent structure couldn't slap back to my face unless verified - twice & over.

Programming is (or in my case, WAS) fun -- when you know what to do & when.

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How long is this offer? Is it like, now only, or what? I'm a freshmen in college, but I have a fairly impressive resume as far as programming goes. Unfortunately, I'm majoring in physics, but I have a job doing C++ programming for at least this winter and next summer, and indefinitely after that (although I have other potential offers that may be more attractive). This would look interesting in about 3.5 years, but I'm out as of now, given the no internship rule. Moving will be no issue when the time comes, since I have little to tie me down, given that I'm a college student.

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kryo

Join Date 05/2003

+458

How long is this offer? Is it like, now only, or what?

As long as we need game devs, I'd imagine

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Something tells me that won't last four years. Ah well, there will be something else.

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Keep the GPA up, get a co-op/internship or 2 and companies will be all over the place wanting to hire you. co-op/internship I think is super important so make sure you do that

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I second Cari's recommendations on the Effective C++ and Effect STL books. They will help you to get a better understanding of how the language and STL classes work so you can use them, well, more effictively

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I second Cari's recommendations on the Effective C++ and Effect STL books...

As long as these helped you fix the Query images = Planet tile names & descriptions when i click on any 72 locations found on multiple consecutive surfaces in a scan mode loop - i'll be happy with v2.0 and beyond.

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Yep STL is a very powerful library, I'm glad our school really hit it hard. We actually had to re implement all the data structures in the STL which was a very nice learning experience. I thought the multi-map implementation was the most interesting with linear probing/bucket hashing.

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Draginol

Join Date 03/2001

+137

Also, does anyone know how Plymouth, MI compares to Rochester, NY in the climatology area?

Jeff Bargmann, the lead on Impulse is form Rochester NY. It's similar climate.

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I think I might be just what you need.

Here is the check list:

1. Work in Plymouth Michigan. We're near Ann Arbor Michigan. Seriously. We get lots of people saying how great they can "work from remote". We already have lots of remote people. We need people here.

I would be willing to move to Plymouth England. You probably need a UK office anyway.

2. If you're a developer, you need to know C++ (at the very least) on Visual Studio. We don't care how much formal experience you have as long as you can code. We can't teach you how to do that, you have to already know it and be pretty good.

Not familiar with C++ But if I'm heading up your UK division I can simply hire in the talent.

3. You have to be into gaming. At Stardock, everyone participates in the game design. There is no such thing as a game designer at Stardock and there will almost certainly never will be. We all take part.

No problem.

4. If you're an artist, you need to know 3D Studio or Maya (preferably both). You also need to have a portfolio of cool stuff you've made.

Not an artist as such, but I do like that one of Dog's playing poker.

5. You need to be self-starting. Seriously. Raises at Stardock are not based on percentages, they're based on what you produce. We have people here who started out making <$30k who now make over $100k.

£100k for running your European division would be fine subject to pension and company car. I also want one of those little hoops that cheers every time you throw some screwed up paper through it into the bin.

6. You must be able to get along with others. We get a lot of people interviewing who are quite certain that they're the smartest people in human history and make every effort to impress that on us. Look we're just a bunch of Monty Python loving, Simpsons watching goons but we are reasonably bright too, mutual respect amongst the team is crucial.

I prefer South Park but I am reasonably good at getting on with people who don't irritate me.

Let me know.

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Quoting KingBingo,

reply 11

I think I might be just what you need.Here is the check list: 1. Work in Plymouth Michigan. We're near Ann Arbor Michigan. Seriously. We get lots of people saying how great they can "work from remote". We already have lots of remote people. We need people here.I would be willing to move to Plymouth England. You probably need a UK office anyway. 2. If you're a developer, you need to know C++ (at the very least) on Visual Studio. We don't care how much formal experience you have as long as you can code. We can't teach you how to do that, you have to already know it and be pretty good.Not familiar with C++ But if I'm heading up your UK division I can simply hire in the talent. 3. You have to be into gaming. At Stardock, everyone participates in the game design. There is no such thing as a game designer at Stardock and there will almost certainly never will be. We all take part.No problem. 4. If you're an artist, you need to know 3D Studio or Maya (preferably both). You also need to have a portfolio of cool stuff you've made.Not an artist as such, but I do like that one of Dog's playing poker. 5. You need to be self-starting. Seriously. Raises at Stardock are not based on percentages, they're based on what you produce. We have people here who started out making <$30k who now make over $100k. £100k for running your European division would be fine subject to pension and company car. I also want one of those little hoops that cheers every time you throw some screwed up paper through it into the bin. 6. You must be able to get along with others. We get a lot of people interviewing who are quite certain that they're the smartest people in human history and make every effort to impress that on us. Look we're just a bunch of Monty Python loving, Simpsons watching goons but we are reasonably bright too, mutual respect amongst the team is crucial.I prefer South Park but I am reasonably good at getting on with people who don't irritate me. Let me know.

You are destined to get hired by SD

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I would love to work for you guys but unfortunatley i'm on the wrong side of the atlantic, don't have much C++ experinece neither although i work with VS (C# and VB.NET).

You make fantastic products (i've lost many an hour on galciv 1 and 2 ).

Good luck in your search for new employees .

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Do you folks at Stardock do real OOP?

Well, I've heard it argued that C++'s OOP isn't "real" OOP, but I hated that teacher anyway. We do use inheritence, polymorphism, templates, etc.

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On a more serious note; how's the crime rate in Plymouth being that close to Detroit?

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well in the uk we have better genral weather than plymoth michigan and a experianced programer would be paid £40k so that would be $80k (lol love the exchange rates) and as to the hours most programing is 9-5 basis so its 40 45 hour weeks only problem is you need to live in cambridge or london to get some of the best jobs and lets just say i had to sell my kidney and half my liver to get a house.

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Well, I've heard it argued that C++'s OOP isn't "real" OOP, but I hated that teacher anyway.

We do use inheritence, polymorphism, templates, etc.

Nice. But do you overload your operators?

well in the uk we have better genral weather than plymoth michigan

I find the Rochester, NY type climate almost ideal. Cold, snowy winters and moderate summers. Lots of clouds though; even more than Seattle. Looking at a map, I would guess that Plymouth, MI does not get the lake effect snows, nor the snows associated with Noreasters, but does participate in the nice midwestern storms. I must have snow!

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[Rant] I'm salaried at 37 hours and get bitched at for being "overpaid" (hah £25K is *not* overpaid) yet I've done plenty of 50+ hour weeks mailed a code-dump home and worked on it until the sun came up again and I've never claimed overtime, and the ungrateful sods want to cut my working week to 17.5 hours.[/rant]

I've long since gone off C++, the only time I use it now is when I'm porting stuff to C# - I'm not hardcore like my mate who used to program for real-time comm devices in asm :/ (I swear if he explains how he decoded DTMF tones to me again I'll kill him)

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Really I don't think C++ is a great langauge but is still used highly in gaming industry and I don't see that changing anytime soon until a new programming language comes out that can really take advantage of multiprocessors which game programmers seem to have an issue doing.

I'm currently in an upper level programming course that foucses on cocurrent programming in C with OPenMP and MPI so we address these issues and it seems like a new language or extending an existing language is the best bet. Now someone just has to do it!

But for application devlopment, I love java. I was a C++ fan boy until I actually was forced to code in Java while I worked at IBM and now I'm hooked. And no the Java is slower than C++ thing isn't true anymore, infact java keeps getting more effient each release you can google about it if you want more information on why they can keep improving speed while C++ cannot.

But when it comes down to it, it depends on the problem at hand and who your working for, if your working for microsoft they love C++, if your working for IBM they love Java. If you work for Apple they love Objective C and Java, so everyone is different.

By the way people at Stardocks, do you guys use Direct X or Open GL or did you create your own language based off of the engine for demigod?

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This is a cool thread, one in which I am deeply interested in pursuing. Mentioned in the original post on this thread, SD is looking for people with knowledge of developing software with C++ at the very least. Being that the subject line of the thread says 'game developers', is there any expectation for some knowledge in working with DirectX or Open GL? How about using the XNA framework?

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Do you have any UK or Aus bases?

Im doing year 12 programming and got an A in year 11 for a subject called programming comp games using flash and either java or C++ lol was good fun.

other than that im good with all the rest, but Austalia is where im at.

Send me a message when you check this thread, thanks.

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Quoting Dubaian,

reply 21

Do you have any UK or Aus bases?

I'm setting up their UK office for them shortly. I'm just waiting for them to make me an offer I can't refuse.

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Quoting technoViking,

reply 19

And no the Java is slower than C++ thing isn't true anymore, infact java keeps getting more effient each release you can google about it if you want more information on why they can keep improving speed while C++ cannot.

I'm afraid this is misleading. Java is still significantly slower than C++, although it is true that they are working on closing the gap. Many a time I've had identical code in C++ and Java and Java runs at about 1.4x as long. However, I can't attest to how the gaming industry uses it since I haven't worked there, so their coding style may give Java an advantage that allows it to catch up.

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Ack, wrong continent for me. And I don't do 3DMax that much. XSI can wipe the digital floor with Max's behind anytime!

And, not related to Stardock offer, we europeans do seem a bit spoiled by our "laid-back" working hours and tendency to actually have a life outside of work. 50...60...70 hours a week!? So basically, all you do is work, eat and sleep (maybe). Thats... not healthy.

Anyway, when it comes to art design&production, my hat's off to anyone who can pull a 14-hour shift and still actually be creative. As for programming, I'd imagine the last third of that shift is where you get all them nasty bugs to fix later.

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OK, hopefully I have these in order.

On a more serious note; how's the crime rate in Plymouth being that close to Detroit?

Plymouth actually has a low crime rate. We're probably about 30 minutes drive from Detroit so it's not like we're getting crime creeping over the border.

Nice. But do you overload your operators?

In some cases.

By the way people at Stardocks, do you guys use Direct X or Open GL or did you create your own language based off of the engine for demigod?

We use DirectX and so does GPG.

Being that the subject line of the thread says 'game developers', is there any expectation for some knowledge in working with DirectX or Open GL? How about using the XNA framework?

It definitely helps if you have knowledge of DirectX but it's not strictly required.

Mostly only cell phone games (and maybe casual or educational games) use Java because performance is a big issue in games. A lot of game developers, particularly console developers, use mostly straight C code since templates, overloading, and virtual functions create overhead and games are very heavy performance software. Hardware is starting to get to the point where it matters less, but DirectX makes game programming so much easier so C/C++ is going to be the language of choice until OpenGL has better driver support and more power.

On another note, if any of you who are sending in your resumes have never made a game, start working on one now. You're going to be competing against people who have gone to Full Sail or Digipen who have had to make a significant project every year for four years and people who have been programming games in their spare time for fun. We want people who are passionate about making games and if you've never worked on a game, well that doesn't speak much for your passion.

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