Seeking to hire a game engine developer

[jasonp]

My employer and I are seeking to hire a highly experienced software engineer/developer to develop a unique 3D RTS game engine.

Can anyone point me in the right direction? I apologize if this message is inappropriate. I thought about posting it here because of how impressive the Spring Engine appears to be.

Here are a few specifics...

Emphasis will be on an extensible/modular architecture, clean APIs, polygon count management (automatic level-of-detail), strong computational efficiency, and several additional advanced features not typically seen in current RTS game engines.

The game engine must be implemented in C++ and should support operating systems that support POSIX and OpenGL/OpenGL ES, including Linux, Android, iOS, MacOS and Microsoft Windows.

Success developing this game engine will lead to tremendously exciting and unique follow-on work.

My employer is a US based FORTUNE 500 company, highly respected, highly ethical and highly capable. Compensation and benefits are excellent. This position offers excellent opportunities for advancement and diversification. Our location is in the US midwest in a city ranked highest for quality of life, and at a much lower cost of living than the US west coast or north east. Relocation may be necessary.

This is for either contract work or a salaried position in the United States. Applicants must be US citizens, must have and demonstrate professional experience in RTS game engine design/development and provide references.

[Forboding Angel]

My employer is a US based FORTUNE 500 company, highly respected, highly ethical and highly capable.

So, mr spam bot, what is the name of this amazing company?

[jasonp]

I'm not a spam bot.

Sorry I prefer not to mention my employer's name in a public forum.

I'm happy to speak privately.

EDIT: And I'm willing to support Spring Engine with donations as a thank-you for helping me get the word out. If my use of this forum is innappropriate, then I am genuinely sorry and will look elsewhere.

EDIT2: I just donated 20 EUR. Confirmation Number: 3S068806263219351

[Licho]

must be US citizens

Unfortunately this eliminates almost all spring developers.

[jasonp]

Unfortunately this eliminates almost all spring developers.

That is indeed highly unfortunate. But I don't mind donating more to Spring in return for helping me find a US based developer.

[smoth]

Coming to cherry pick a small community. I think it is pretty lame.

[SpliFF]

I don't think asking here is inaproppriate at all but since this community is largely European you might want to clarify whether you would sponsor a Green Card for applicants willing to move stateside.

Also your requirement for C++ conflicts with your Android requirement since Android development is almost exclusively Java. There is a C++ NDK but Google have this to say about it:

Before downloading the NDK, you should understand that the NDK will not benefit most apps. As a developer, you need to balance its benefits against its drawbacks. Notably, using native code on Android generally does not result in a noticable performance improvement, but it always increases your app complexity. In general, you should only use the NDK if it is essential to your app—never because you simply prefer to program in C/C++.

The same is basically true of your iOS target as well since its' native language is Objective-C.

Also, neither iOS or Android are POSIX compliant.

[smoth]

just my feelings so I put them to words. I know that it may be an opening for some but I still feel what I said and I believe I have said it before.

[jasonp]

Coming to cherry pick a small community. I think it is pretty lame.

I think someone from a small community getting paid to do what they enjoy is a good thing!

you might want to clarify whether you would sponsor a Green Card for applicants willing to move stateside

Sorry I don't have the answer to this. I wish I could say one way or the other.

Also your requirement for C++ conflicts with your Android requirement since Android development is almost exclusively Java. There is a C++ NDK but Google have this to say about it: Before downloading the NDK, you should understand that the NDK will not benefit most apps. As a developer, you need to balance its benefits against its drawbacks. Notably, using native code on Android generally does not result in a noticable performance improvement, but it always increases your app complexity. In general, you should only use the NDK if it is essential to your app—never because you simply prefer to program in C/C++.

There is no conflict. I also disagree with Google. I use the Android NDK extensively and have written a strongly performing 3D rendering engine within the NDK. The added complexity I've experienced with the NDK is well worth the advantages I've seen, including portability to Linux / POSIX, better compatibility across different Android versions/devices, availability of C/C++ libraries, better performance and because I prefer C/C++ over Java. C/C++ generally has a edge over Java for numerical or complex algorithms: http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/u64/b ... &lang2=gpp

I would not be surprised if Google's position on the NDK is partly driven by Google's push for developer lock-in, not unlike the lock-in Microsoft has pushed for decades. Code that uses the Android API ends up mostly locked to Android. NDK code is more easily reused across platforms.

Also, neither iOS or Android are POSIX compliant.

Android NDK is Linux. Sorry I may be wrong about iOS.

[SpliFF]

I would not be surprised if Google's position on the NDK is driven by Google's desire for developer lock-in, not unlike what Microsoft has done for decades. Code that uses the Android API ends up mostly locked to Android. NDK code is not.

I think that's a stretch. Androids' VM is Java, so in theory the code is even more portable than C++. The portability in either case is really based on the libraries you use, not the language.

Google's actual stated reasoning behind the Java VM:

* VM code is portable across processor types.
* VM code is less likely to crash or exploit the device.
* VM code is easier to write (debatable, but still a valid reason).

Android NDK is Linux, more or less. Sorry I may be wrong about iOS.

Using a Linux kernel doesn't make something POSIX compliant. The "Bionic" library used in place of libc is a modification and/or subset of the specification.

Bionic ... doesn’t support certain POSIX features, like C++ exceptions and wide chars, which were not needed on Android.

Seems like a minor point I know but suggesting Android or iOS are POSIX systems is like saying Internet Explorer is HTML5 compliant. It only makes sense if you ignore all the missing/incompatible things and if you do that you are no longer talking about the same specification.

Sorry to derail. Your project sounds impressive.

[jasonp]

I think that's a stretch.

Maybe. But I find it odd that both Android and iOS each support only one primary development language AND only one primary OS/GUI API. (Android NDK is a partial exception) Compare that with the number of languages and OS/GUI APIs one can develop for with Linux and MS Windows. Its not like Google and Apple lack the resources to develop support for additional languages and GUI APIs.

Androids' VM is Java, so in theory the code is even more portable than C++. The portability in either case is really based on the libraries you use, not the language.

Agreed. My main worry is that portability is increasingly difficult as one codes more to the Android API.

Using a Linux kernel doesn't make something POSIX compliant. The "Bionic" library used in place of libc is a modification and/or subset of the specification.

Bionic has been close enough to POSIX for our needs. I think we're splitting hairs here. How often does one see Linux without some kind of reasonably capable libc?

Seems like a minor point I know but suggesting Android or iOS are POSIX systems is like saying Internet Explorer is HTML5 compliant.

I did clarify I meant Android NDK and conceded that I may be wrong about iOS. I've not developed on iOS.

[zerver]

I think someone from a small community getting paid to do what they enjoy is a good thing!

Indeed so, because you would be sure to have 100% motivated developers. Consider hiring one part-time US developer who can then act a a proxy and delegate tasks either to us or like-minded people you come across, wherever they are. Likely better results, possibly cheaper, and communication should not be an issue as long as you avoid Asia.

[SinbadEV]

I think someone from a small community getting paid to do what they enjoy is a good thing!

Indeed so, because you would be sure to have 100% motivated developers. Consider hiring one part-time US developer who can then act a a proxy and delegate tasks either to us or like-minded people you come across, wherever they are. Likely better results, possibly cheaper, and communication should not be an issue as long as you avoid Asia.

I was thinking the same thing. I have US Citizenship... anybody want to take the job and just give me a %age of your income in exchange for me acting as your proxy? I'm pretty sure I'd need to hire an accountant to set up a corporation for me to make it work though, so you'd need to cover those expenses too.

Also, I'm joking and this isn't a serious comment at all.

[Jools]

Interesting to follow this topic: is Spring really an European community? I'd say we have a sizeable US faction too. At least xta has had a texan developer (ok, they want to be independent again, but still) and there's the carnegie mellon attendee.

Why are you seeking a US citizen? For administrative reasons? Be advised that obtaining a green card is usually straight forward for many Europeans, especially if you already have a job contract. At least in Finland, there are some organisations that assist the employer on the issue.

[smoth]

Coming to cherry pick a small community. I think it is pretty lame.

I think someone from a small community getting paid to do what they enjoy is a good thing!

The nature of your project may require the developer to leave the community. Generally these sort of these sort of projects require the developer to give up their hobby work for fear they will take knowledge from that project, and put it into their hobby project, reducing the value of the proprietary knowledge. Large companies(such as a yours) love to lock developers down with contracts ensuring their company knowledge is theirs and theirs alone.

*edited for further clarity*

[gajop]

Here's a crazy thought, hire a Spring develop full time and use Spring for your *Unique RTS Game*. I always wondered why no one did that, guess open source games/engines haven't yet been seen commercially feasible for bigger companies.

On the other hand, while it'd probably hurt the community a bit as smoth says, it would be great to hear people are getting employed based on the work they did for Spring. Besides, no one is tied to Spring, we aren't keeping hostages* :)

*whoever's keeping kloot, make sure you feed him 3 times a day

[jasonp]

The nature of your project may require the developer to leave the community.

I appreciate your concern. But there is no such requirement. My employer does tolerate employees working on related personal projects or contributing to community projects as long as everything is disclosed properly and absolutely no code or intellectual property migrates between business and personal/community work. Migration of ideas is a grey area. Some ideas could migrate. Others not. Assuming the developer is open and honest with their team and management, a lot of things are possible. We are not paranoid about locking down developers like some employers. But we do have to follow rules and common sense. For example there can not be unauthorized public release of code or ideas/concepts that were developed or paid for within the company.

Here's a crazy thought, hire a Spring develop full time and use Spring for your *Unique RTS Game*.

This might be possible. Biggest problem is my employer probably needs to own and control a game engine, not just license it. Another problem is we'll need to add many unique proprietary features and possibly redesign parts of Spring. Could Spring benefit from this and keep its code separate from the proprietary parts? Possibly yes. I need to learn more about Spring to speak more exactly here.

guess open source games/engines haven't yet been seen commercially feasible for bigger companies.

I want to understand this. Is licensing the problem? Or are open source game engines somehow inferior or lacking technically?

[FLOZi]

must be US citizens

Unfortunately this eliminates almost all spring developers.

Eliminates all current (and past?) engine developers.

^ End of thread at this point imho.

[gajop]

This might be possible. The biggest problem I see is we need to add many unique features that would need to be kept highly proprietary for which the code can not be publicly released. Could Spring benefit from this and keep its code separate from the proprietary parts? Possibly yes. I need to learn more about Spring to speak more exactly here.

Well, once you release the game to the public, all* of the code must be open sourced (GPL2 or 3 iirc). The only thing that can be closed source is art.
As far as benefits to the Spring project goes:
Assuming you would want to keep the game closed sourced until release, you could probably commit bug fixes and features you are willing to share upstream.

I want to understand this. Is licensing the problem? Or are open source game engines somehow inferior or lacking technically?

The main problems, or lack of motivation for popularization of open source games is that a lot of what makes a game is content or game specific mechanics.
That lack of shared code discourages people to work on open source engines as much as they would work on open source kernels f.e.
Clearly there's nothing about open source-ness itself that is inferior, in games or otherwise.

*all: In certain cases you may be possible to double licence your code, if GPL doesn't work for you, however I think that by now too many people own the copyright on Spring code that you could ever reach a suitable agreement.

PS: I wish Spring was released under LGPL, at least then you could write closed source lua code (well at least legally), but that's just not the case.

[jasonp]

Eliminates all current (and past?) engine developers

There is a possibility a highly qualified non US developer could be paid to design and develop a game engine. It will be much harder for me to justify it to management. Sorry I didn't create the rules.