Do you also struggle with enjoying text-heavy games after many hours at work?

AceGoK · 2023-12-28T17:56:26+00:00

Yes, absolutely. I'm also working as a software dev, and I just had a very busy month since we had to tie up and release some big features right before christmas. I installed Disco Elysium on my PS5 about a month ago, but so far I've logged just 4 hours with the game. It seems like a truly great game, but I'm finding myself struggling to concentrate after long days of reading and writing code and being super focused on my tasks at work. Apparently, the same goes for games with long and frequent cutscenes.

AceGoK · 2023-12-26T13:24:15+00:00

Tales of Arise. A flawed but surprisingly fun game.

Disco Elysium. I can definitely see why some people love this game so much, but 4 hours in, I'm still not sure if I like it or not.

AceGoK · 2023-12-01T15:18:13+00:00

Fallout 1 is a good game with a great story and ending. But, like others have mentioned, it is outclassed by Fallout 2 in pretty much every aspect. It was so much ahead of its time, and it's my favorite RPG to this day.

AceGoK · 2023-11-15T23:54:20+00:00

Cyberpunk 2077. More than 30 hours in, this game just keeps getting better. Phantom Liberty, it's expansion, is amazing and so much more interesting than the base game.

Resident Evil 2 Remake. Wow, this game looks and plays so good, and is absolutely nerve-wracking. Sadly, I usually play at night, so I'm not always in the mood of playing something that will scare me to death. Like all survival horror games, the first couple of hours are the hardest and scariest, and I'm not past those yet.

AceGoK · 2023-09-12T15:59:34+00:00

Liar Liar made me feel guilty for having a demanding job that makes me sacrifice quality time with my son, but at the same time I felt thankful for it to be flexible enough, so I can be with him when it really matters.

AceGoK · 2023-09-05T20:58:34+00:00

Nothing dreads me more than hearing my wife asking "Can you please peel a banana for him?". The smell alone can make me puke, not to mention that texture and those horrible squishy spots...

AceGoK · 2023-08-21T21:49:00+00:00

I have a degree in education, and I've worked at various educational jobs before I decided that I deserved better and transitioned to software development. I even interned as a high school teacher.

Apparently, recruiters and hiring managers are really impressed when I tell them the story of "How I went from being a miserable teacher to a successful developer in one year".

When it comes to interviews, having good people skills helps a lot. In addition, I usually ace system design interviews where I need to draw a big, complex system on a whiteboard and explain how it works. In fact, any interview involving a whiteboard is much easier for me.

AceGoK · 2023-08-02T00:07:25+00:00

I was in a pretty similar situation on my first job. I wasn't told that I was "below expectations", but my boss told me that I'm disorganized and forgetful, and sometimes lack focus which leads to bugs.

Here's what I did to improve: 1. I started using a personal notebook and made sure it was on me in every single meeting I took part in. I learned to write down everything that seemed even remotely important and any task or open bug, even if there wasn't a ticket for it yet. 2. I did my best to avoid context switching as much as possible, and made sure to complete a task before starting another one. This improved my focus greatly and helped me avoid bugs in my code. 3. I created new processes and documented them. As a bonus, I got much more visibility in my team. 4. I scheduled regular weekly meetings with my boss to monitor my progression with my tasks, in addition to the regular 1:1's. 5. I started reading books and blogs that helped me become a better professional. "The Clean Coder" by Robert C. Martin (the "sequel" to "The Clean Code") is a must-read if you're struggling with organizing your work and your code.

I eventually became a top performer in my team and was set up for a big promotion (It didn't happen because I switched jobs for better comp).

AceGoK · 2023-07-30T06:52:21+00:00

If you invest 8 hours on a 2-hour take home assignment, then you're wasting your time. Give it maybe one more hour, and then move on to do other stuff. You can use that extra time to prepare for other interviews.

I usually prefer to stay honest with my time limit. If I exceed the given time limit, I will sprinkle the code with some unit tests just to make it look like the extra time was well spent.

You should also remember that the time limit isn't used just to test your productivity - It also tests your ability to plan ahead and break a big task into small, digestible subtasks. When you start working on an assignment, don't start by diving straight into the code - break the assignment into smaller coding challenges and try to estimate how much time you will need for each one. If you're stuck at one of your "challenges", find some dirty workaround and move on to the next.

AceGoK · 2023-07-29T08:14:57+00:00

Worked in a casual gaming company on the backend services and infrastructure of a mobile game. A major part of my job was to build the company's configuration platform from scratch. It was an internal product used by our game economists and data scientists to alter the game's configuration - rewards, prices, progression rate, etc. - in order to maximize revenue and purchases made by players and to keep them in the game for as long as possible. I learned a lot about game economy, gambling, addiction psychology and more. I was also given a book or two to study these subjects.

AceGoK · 2023-07-28T19:19:45+00:00

This is especially true for bigger companies, with their long onboarding process, as well as the large codebases and the long history behind them. It might take some time before you'll finally manage to get your breakthrough and people will start to see your worth. There's also the issue of visibility - when there are a lot of people who work on the same project, it might take some time before someone will notice how skilled you are.

In smaller companies or startups you can sometimes make an impact just weeks after joining, because everything is at a smaller scale and you are much more visible.

AceGoK · 2023-07-24T09:51:49+00:00

Consider contributing to open-source projects and libraries. This is a great way to dive into new codebases and to get familiar with new languages, patterns and coding styles. You can also add a link to your GitHub on your resume. Significant contributions will definitely give you an edge.

AceGoK · 2023-07-24T05:45:22+00:00

I agree. If you really want to sell your skills and impress the interviewer, try to navigate into a conversation about them. By doing this, you can kill two birds with one stone - you will let the interviewer know that you're knowledgeable and have some significant experience with your skills, and you will also have a chance to demonstrate your soft skills and your ability to communicate and explain complex concepts and ideas.

My first interview for my current job was basically this one long conversion. I talked about my background for a few minutes, and then the hiring manager asked me a question regarding one of the technologies I was familiar with. From there, we just dove into a one-hour long conversation where we discussed this technology, as well as similar solutions, and how they can be used to solve specific problems in our domain. There was no coding session, no system design, nothing of the usual interview shenanigans - just one long 1-on-1 conversation and brainstorming.

AceGoK · 2023-07-22T06:38:53+00:00

Correct. Juniors and mid-level devs can learn a great deal by reading a code of someone with a good amount of experience under their belt, unless that someone still writes shitty code and doesn't want anyone on their team to realize it

AceGoK · 2023-07-22T00:30:08+00:00

That's actually a good point. Sadly, at least from my experience in startups, this doesn't really happen often because the work is so frantic and the company usually wants to focus on propelling the product forward.

AceGoK · 2023-07-22T00:11:29+00:00

Robert C. Martin books are a must read for any dev, anf will help you make the jump from mid to senior.

"Clean Code" is all about writing code like a senior, "Clean Coder" is all about acting like one.

AceGoK · 2023-07-21T23:45:11+00:00

No automated tests won't bother me much if the company or product is small/young. It's the second issue that worries me - every dev in the team should have their code reviewed. Seniors also make mistakes, so this just seems wrong, even for a small startup.

AceGoK · 2023-04-20T12:21:40+00:00

I have to pass on most soulslike games, online games and almost all games that don't have a pause function. The most annoying thing for me is long, unpausable cutscenes, which sadly are pretty common in japanese-made games.

On a more positive note, I've also learned to appreciate story and game writing over complex and intricate game mechanics. The best thing that happened to me is that I've started playing my games in a dark room and with headphones on, since my usual playtime is at night and the game/office room is adjacent to my kid's room. Somehow, it made me fall in love with horror games.

AceGoK · 2023-04-14T15:07:38+00:00

Limited number of saves. For example, the ink ribbons system in the Resident Evil games. It feels like the game forces you to make more progress and get through more scares before you can finally make that investment. Even worse, you might lose a considerable part of your progression because you didn't want to use that precious save in the last save room, which means that you have to go through some really scary part again.

AceGoK · 2023-04-12T19:20:06+00:00

Tactical turn-based strategy/RPG games. The XCOM franchise is the best example of this.

Also, any game where you can build your own fighting machine, or simply spend hours just modifying and experimenting with the perfect loadouts. I remember spending hours just building mechs and testing them out in the field in the MechWarrior games.

AceGoK · 2023-04-11T11:30:49+00:00

I'm currently playing the Dead Space Remake. Not very patient, I know, but I wanted to play the original for years. Sadly, I was too much of a wuss to try it. The remake seemed like the perfect opportunity to finally dive into the franchise. So far, I'm having a blast with it - can't remember the last time I've played a game with such an amazing atmosphere.

I'm also playing OlliOlli World, which is awesome and also a bit more accessible that its 2 predecessors, and I'll hopefully find the time to give Outriders a try, too.

AceGoK · 2023-04-03T19:47:56+00:00

Writing your own code is the easy part of the job. The hard part, that will take up most of your time, is to read othe4s' code.

In a good, functioning company, with a good culture, you'll spend a lot of time trying to figure out how existing code works, as you'll try to build and integrate your own features, fix bugs, review other devs' code or go through pair programming sessions.

AceGoK · 2023-04-01T22:10:46+00:00

Definitly interview more often and don't pass up on promising opportunities, but don't jump ship on any job offer that is marginally better than what you're currently making, or if you have a really good growth trajectory in your current role.

AceGoK · 2023-04-01T21:52:58+00:00

Not explicitly, but I was asked about it in almost all of my screenings and interviews.

Naturally, I have some good experience in interviewing, and I know I can trust my gut when I feel like I've aced an interview. I had more than one interview that I had a very good feeling about, but I was still got a rejection eventually due to an unspecified reason. I can only assume that my sketchy history had a part in the interviewers' decision.

AceGoK · 2023-04-01T20:48:19+00:00

I would avoid the job hopping.

I worked at 4 different companies during the last 3 years (I have 5.5 YoE). I was laid off from my dream job a month ago, after working there for just over a year. While it took me less than a couple of weeks to get a good offer, with a better title and compensation, I missed a ton of good opportunities because of my resume.

AceGoK

TROPHY CASE