1. Why did you choose this career?
I made games as a young child, including computer games. It is something I always loved. I made paper games. I made computer games, my first was at age six (somewhat atypical child). I made computer graphics also as a child, first programming the CGA and EGA graphics buffers in grade school. My 4th grade teacher though the three of us nerds were just making stuff up until we brought in some of our programs. I still remember 3 decades later when we were talking about aspect ratios and Mrs Aller didn't understand, so I brought in a floppy and popped out her Oregon Trail game. When we showed her the oval made by a real circle, and the cirlce made by drawing an oval, she was shocked and I couldn't understand why at the time. I also loved building and tinkering with game rules, my friends and I played D&D as children, I got my own set of dice at age 8 and convinced my parents to buy the books. It was a no-brainer that this would be a good career for me.
2. How did you get into this career?
Developed lots of little games on my own. Earned my bachelors degree and went to grad school studying game-related topics: networking, AI, 3D math, graphics. Sent out resumes. During college I found a job near my school in a somewhat related field (meeting presentation software, this was before PowerPoint). After graduation, still couldn't find a job in games so got a job in a similar field, broadcast television software. Then I kept sending out job applications and eventually got a job at a game studio. Yay.
3. Do you enjoy your job?
Most days, but it is still a job. I'm glad I'm not lifting palettes or laying bricks. Most days I basically enjoy what I do. Some tasks are drudgery, some days require hard mental labor, some days are frustrating, some days have office politics or other problems. Every day is not butterflies and rainbows, it is still a job.
4. Was it easy to get a job after getting a qualification?
Easy enough.
It is somewhat hard to get a job at a specific business in any field. It is easy to say in broad terms "I will apply to every company in my home valley", it is quite another when first breaking in to only have seven game studios in the are which very rarely have entry-level job openings. Game studios usually hire a few developers every project, but the number is small and they usually prefer experienced workers. Any given studio might only consider hiring entry level workers once every few years, and even then only offer one or two positions since they prefer to hire experienced developers requiring no training.
Breaking in to any specific company can be difficult without contacts in the company.
5. What interests and skills would a person need going into this career?
You need to like making games. Playing games is nice too, but making games is very different. Know how to play table-top games ranging from card games like poker to table card games like Dominion to collectible card games like YuGiOh or Magic. Know how to play board games like Settlers of Catan or Descent or many others.
You need to be a programmer. Programmers can work on a lot of things. There are programmers who make the vehicle equivalent of box trucks and tractors, such as database developers. Very useful but not much to look at. There are programmers who make the vehicle equivalent of race cars, which includes game developers. Most of the parts are the same; a piston engine in the F1 racer is fundamentally the same as the piston engine of the box truck and the tractor. Game programmers need all the same education and all the nitty gritty details picked up by other software developers. They then tend to specialize on specific components within the field, but only after knowing how to be a general mechanic.
You need to know 3D mathematics and the mathematics of games. That means linear algebra (the study of 3D math), statistics (you want your computer to be less than perfect and be able to win and follow somewhat repeatable rules), discrete mathematics (computers don't know fancy numbers, they fake them), calculus (some people try to fake it, and it shows) and the lower maths like algebra and trig used as fundamentals of those above. These are not optional. If you can't do matrix multiplies or dot products and cross products on paper, how will you expect to tell the computer to do them? If you don't have a solid understanding of why the math rules apply, how will you know which algorithms to write up?
6. Does this job require long work hours?
There are some tasks where, as a responsible professional, you realize you have over-committed and will stay to complete the job.
Actual requirements for long work hours only exist at bad studios and on mismanaged projects. In the US most of the game development jobs are protected from unpaid overtime but sadly many studios demand unpaid overtime anyway. In the US there are some laws from the 1960s about "computer professionals" since back then programmers were in the same category as doctors and lawyers, so "certain computer professionals" (=programmers) are generally exempt from overtime pay in the US. Be careful to find an employer that doesn't abuse their workers. Too many get away with it because of the rock star mentality.
Sadly there are too many studios run and mismanaged by less competent folk. They create game designs that are over scope from day one and refuse to cut features. Some will not notice that features are slowly increasing or keep slipping in extra work. Some will take too many risks; a few tend to average out, but too many tend to accumulate into nightmares.
7. What in your opinion are the main benefits of this job?
It is fun for me. It is not fun for everybody. A lot of people get excited when they hear about it.
Conversely, age discrimination and frequent layoffs (usually from poor planning) are both rampant in the industry. Combine the two and most people leave by their mid-thirties and have extreme difficulty finding a job after age 45. Many studios either don't realize or don't care about their bad practices. That is by far the biggest drawback in this industry.
8. What leaving cert subjects are most required in this career? i.e. is there a lot of physics or maths involved?
A bachelors degree in computer science is the typical entry requirement. Not always, but if you live in a major city with high education the HR departments won't forward applicants without a degree unless they have an impressive existing work history in the field.
Programming is applied mathematics. There is no way to get around it. Terms like "functions" and "variables" are math terms. 3D graphics are linear algebra. Probabilities are statistics. AI routines are driven by statistics and data. Floating point values are discrete mathematics. Nearly every meaningful line of code is a function, variable manipulation, value assignment, or other math operations. If you aren't doing math and call yourself a programmer, something strange is going on. You must be competent in mathematics.
There can be physics, there are many physics programmers. Art can be useful, when programmers can communicate technically with artists it is a good thing. There can be benefits from other fields as well. Sometimes knowing another language is helpful. Sometimes knowing history and anthropology can be a good thing if you get involved with writing game stories. Too much knowledge is rarely a problem.
