When companies talk about hiring a gameplay programmer, what they are talking about is a programmer who will be responsible for code that directly touches on the game experience. That is, the programmer will be responsible for actually constructing the games, rather than engine or larger game systems. But beyond that, things vary a lot:
Some companies expect gameplay programmers to implement the user interface. Some don't. Some companies expect them to implement AI code, some don't. Some expect them to implement audio code, some don't. To be honest, the "gameplay" in gameplay programmer is an industry shorthand for "everything that we haven't hired a specialist to do". So these programmers need to be very versatile, and need to be able to learn new disciplines quickly.
I spent almost fifteen years being a gameplay programmer in the commercial industry, across five different companies. My experience was that in some companies, a gameplay programmer is considered to be a junior or entry-level position; programmers who are only working on an individual game, after all, don't need to be as sophisticated as those who are working on systems that need to support lots of different games simultaneously, the way that engine programmers need to.
In this sort of company, if a gameplay programmer does really well, he might be promoted into the engine team someday, if he can prove his worth. Or he might become a specialist, if he shows an aptitude for a particular area.In other companies, a gameplay programmer is considered to be a medium-level position; programmers working on an individual game need to have some useful experience and be dependable. Inexperienced programmers might be given undesirable jobs to cut their teeth on (data pipelines, tools, etc), and eventually be allowed to move up into a "gameplay programmer" job. In this sort of system, a gameplay programmer who continues to do quite well might move up into a project leadership role, or else onto the engine team.In still other companies, a gameplay programmer is considered to be a senior position, and to be a half-design position as well; these programmers are expected to be excellent, proven programmers, but also to have strong design sensibilities and qualifications, since they're directly touching the code that most strongly affects the player's experience with the game.
In this sort of system, a really good gameplay programmer will likely remain a gameplay programmer forever -- this is considered to be the most valuable position which he can fill.As a general rule of thumb, the better the company's games, the more senior a position they considergameplay programmer to be (and therefore, the more difficult it will be to actually land such a job).
Some companies expect gameplay programmers to implement the user interface. Some don't. Some companies expect them to implement AI code, some don't. Some expect them to implement audio code, some don't. To be honest, the "gameplay" in gameplay programmer is an industry shorthand for "everything that we haven't hired a specialist to do". So these programmers need to be very versatile, and need to be able to learn new disciplines quickly.
I spent almost fifteen years being a gameplay programmer in the commercial industry, across five different companies. My experience was that in some companies, a gameplay programmer is considered to be a junior or entry-level position; programmers who are only working on an individual game, after all, don't need to be as sophisticated as those who are working on systems that need to support lots of different games simultaneously, the way that engine programmers need to.
In this sort of company, if a gameplay programmer does really well, he might be promoted into the engine team someday, if he can prove his worth. Or he might become a specialist, if he shows an aptitude for a particular area.In other companies, a gameplay programmer is considered to be a medium-level position; programmers working on an individual game need to have some useful experience and be dependable. Inexperienced programmers might be given undesirable jobs to cut their teeth on (data pipelines, tools, etc), and eventually be allowed to move up into a "gameplay programmer" job. In this sort of system, a gameplay programmer who continues to do quite well might move up into a project leadership role, or else onto the engine team.In still other companies, a gameplay programmer is considered to be a senior position, and to be a half-design position as well; these programmers are expected to be excellent, proven programmers, but also to have strong design sensibilities and qualifications, since they're directly touching the code that most strongly affects the player's experience with the game.
In this sort of system, a really good gameplay programmer will likely remain a gameplay programmer forever -- this is considered to be the most valuable position which he can fill.As a general rule of thumb, the better the company's games, the more senior a position they considergameplay programmer to be (and therefore, the more difficult it will be to actually land such a job).
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