I hate this question.

How do you explain to people what you do as a game developer?

conversations usally go like this:

What do you do?

-Im a game developer

Oh, right, what do you specifically do? / how do you make games

-uh, I just tell the game to do stuff, and stuff happens. I make content and put it in the game.

I feel like there is no good way to answer the second question, its nice people are interested, but trying to explain game development or any specifics of what I do in laymen's terms, I find, is nigh impossible. It gets worse when they keep pushing for specifics, then you start using jargon like "game engine" or "C++" it flies over peoples heads and they rapidly lose interest.

How do you guys answer this question?

hmm, this thread isn't suppose to be about my convocational skills :( . This happens a lot (ild say 95% of the time) . We were discussing/joking in work about this hence this thread.

Sorry, it sounded as if you were after advice! Although, I'm sure the respondents so far have indirectly told you how they respond to the question through the advice they were offering you, ha ha.

The main problem with engaging in small talk is trying to say what I (we) do in laymans terms so often if they don't do it, I shrug the question off and move onto a different topic. <-- this seems to be my colleagues response too

I say that I sit in front of a computer, and spend most of my time swearing at it in a low mumble. Once in a while I do some typing and clicking.

What do you do?

- I work with computers.

Oh.

- ...

- Please be my friend.

There are so many ways to answer the second question. Depending on whom you're talking to and whether or not they're actually interested plays a big role in what I'd say and how I'd build a segway to the next topic of discussion.

Usually I try to engage them into the discussion. The way you answered deflects them entirely and you'll be sitting there in awkward silence when you finish.

What do you do?

-Im a game developer

Oh, right, what do you specifically do? / how do you make games

Making a game requires the cooperation of hundreds of different skill sets. Have you ever played <insert some popular game>? No? Do you play games in your free time? <Answers something about mobile games> Oh, well my job is to study how light reflects off of objects in the real world and I try to apply that to objects in games (e.g.) to make them look as realistic as possible.

Depending on whether I'm flirting or not, I might hint that we could study some real world objects at home in my bed. Maybe perform some physical simulations together.

If not flirting, I'd continue with an analogy about how programming is much like poetry, or art. Ask if they read/draw?

Stuff like that.