
The news is even better if you’re happy starting off simple with game development. If you’re a Python programmer, you’ll be pleased to hear that Python has some game dev chops: it’s the language powering massive titles like EVE Online and Sid Meier’s Civilization IV.

Even if you’re more comfortable with Ruby, which is not commonly used in game development, you can quickly pick up other Object Oriented programming languages that are much more commonly used for game dev, like C++ or Java. Programming skills are central to game development. Software engineers who are interested in game development have a significant head start.

However, with the advent of accessible game development platforms like Unity and Unreal Engine, many of the low-level problems in game development can be abstracted by using the graphics, lighting, and physics engines these platforms provide. This was once true - game developers used to build their own physics and graphics engines. “Doesn’t video game development involve lots of super hard math?” he said, furrowing his brow. When I told a software engineer friend of mine that I was interested in exploring video game development, the look he gave me is best described as concern. However, if there’s one thing that many software engineers are just a little bit overawed by, it’s video game development. We need to understand a broad range of technologies: from programming languages, to frameworks, from internet architecture to networking, operating systems, and much more.

Software engineers spend their days solving tough, complicated, and important problems.
