We run a work experience program at Splash Damage. Luc was our most recent, and he kindly wrote about his time with us!

In June 2019, I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to spend two weeks at Splash Damage for work experience. For someone who really loves game development, this was one of the most magical experience I’ve ever had in my life. I remember just about everything from this experience because of how surreal it was.

The very first day is still extremely vivid in my mind. I remember the rush of excitement as I just stood at the front door, the tour of the building, sitting down at the desk for the very first time… Even though I was there, I still had to take a moment to just acknowledge the very fact that I was really at the heart of the Splash Damage building, in front of a computer, alongside everyone else on the team. I was quickly introduced to the members of the team and notably the people that I was going to closely work with. Everyone was so kind and particularly patient in helping me get set up, or with some of the issues on my side.

Everyone in the building seemed to be like a family: the atmosphere was relaxed, not austere at all, and the conversations I had were akin to those that I would just casually have with friends. There are even little traditions like Beer Friday (in which workers do what the title implies) that just remind you of how fun this environment is. The people I worked with did not hesitate to show me around the neighbourhood for lunch and were extremely helpful with that as well.

One thing that was quite remarkable was the sheer number of components that go behind a game. I got to see the full pipeline of the production of a game and it was extremely cool. The concept artists, the artists, the gameplay programmers, core tech, … there is just so much going on behind the scenes of one game: it’s breathtaking. Especially these days, when it feels like there are so many games coming out, varying in scale, one can easily forget all the work that goes behind just one.

Another one of the things I will forever remember is the very first piece of code that I got to push to version control of a real product! It is an extremely exciting process, although a little terrifying, knowing that if I push an important piece of code, something may break. Thankfully though, that didn’t happen.

These two weeks were such a blast but unfortunately simply just seemed to go too fast! On the last day, the first day seemed like it was the day before. It was almost scary how fast it went. The problems and tasks given to me were so interesting and were all part of a very big code base which was itself something to get used to.

Overall, this was an incredible experience. It was almost like a dream. The studio is filled with extremely great, kind and fun people, all of whom are open to sharing what they do and explain their work. It was very inspiring for me to see so many people passionate about game development – it really makes me want to continue learning game development.

Thank you Splash Damage for giving me this opportunity!