Hello everyone!

I'm a second year student mastering software engineering.

I'm looking to gain as much experience as I can while I'm still a student, that's why I'm looking for a summer internship in game development.

From what I've heard, summer internships in game industry are quite rare and hard to get.

Because of that, I've decided to start a showcase project on my github account to show my skills and my coding abilities (so far I've been messing around with OpenGL, but my code quality was quite low since it was only for fun and testing stuff). I've also already made mods or tools for fun, but nothing open source.

This project is a game engine written in C++ with OpenGL (even though I try to get as modular as I can so that I could swap with DirectX).

I started working on it 2 weeks ago, and I can only work during my free time; so the progress is quite slow.

I'd like to know what coding elements are valuable to internship recruitment ( style, patterns, ... ).

Also, I've already done two internship in software engineering, except those were not in the game industry. Does it worth anything?

Regards.

PS: I apologize if this thread is not in the correct category, I wasn't sure where to post it.

AFAIK as long as you have a CS degree, and SOME expierience creating games or similar interactive expiriences, you have a chance to be able to enter the industry as a game programmer.

Will an Internship in a game studio help? Yes of course... but so does having done awesome personal projects in your free time, either complete games or complete subsystems. Show dedication and passion for the craft and industry, no matter how.

The degree matters to pass the HR filters, then its up to your skills and how you sell yourself to pass the other filters.

I really don't know about internships, AFAIK usuall companies don't expect interns to be good at anything yet (not even people with a degree are expected to be that good without years of professional expierience, or MAYBE additional academic titles)...

But again, if you specialize already when doing your free time side projects, you might be able to show some quite impressive code because of that.

Possible specializations might be AI, Graphics programming, Game logic or Tools. Most probably being able to show awesome skills in the basics (Math for example) will also help to impress a studio that considers giving you a position as an Intern.

Have you read through the forum FAQ yet, especially the articles in section 3 and 5?

Regarding entertain1's comment about not needing a degree, that comes up frequently. The need for a college degree depends a great deal on your location on the globe. Some regions absolutely require a bachelors degree in a programming-related field, other regions don't care if you have any formal education. Your profile and recent posts doesn't say where in the world you are located, so we can only guess.

Also, I've already done two internship in software engineering, except those were not in the game industry. Does it worth anything?

Employers are interested in two questions: 1) Will you do the job well? And 2) Will you fit in?

A degree is evidence to the first question. It shows you have the general knowledge that schools require you to experience. It shows you have the ability to stick through a degree program until the project is complete.

A good portfolio shows you have some passion towards creating games which helps address both questions.

Work experience at any company shows you can hold a job. Summer internships don't show it as much because everyone knows the position is short term, so companies are willing to put up with problems because they know you are going away at the end.

I'd like to know what coding elements are valuable to internship recruitment

There is nothing specific. No one thing will guarantee you a job.

Employers are interested in seeing that you have skill and passion for the job of creating game software. Passion for playing games and enjoying being entertained won't help. They want to see that you can do the job. They want to see a series of successes related to the field. They want to see that you can write code that works well.

A company may happen to have a specific need and you may happen to have implemented that specific thing, but that's mostly luck. They need someone to develop a specific thing and it may have been exactly what you did. Maybe they need html5 minigames and that is exactly what your portfolio shows. Maybe they need a three.js fluid simulation and that is exactly what your portfolio shows. Maybe they need experience with Unity level management, and that was exactly what your portfolio shows. You cannot plan for it to happen, but when it happens it gives you a much stronger bargaining position for the job if you realize it has happened.