An Interview With A Rare Software Engineer
Today I bring you an interview with Dave Herod, a software engineer who gets paid by Rare / Microsoft to “press things”. Dave is 28 years old, hails from Leicestershire, is learning drumming, and likes heavy music. I’ve never done this before, so be sure to leave feedback and let me know what you think, or if you have any questions I’m sure Dave would swing by to answer some of them in the comments. Also, make sure you follow Dave on Twitter.
You’re a developer at Rare, the game studio responsible for Viva Pinata and Perfect Dark (amongst others). What’s your specific job title, and what does your job role entail?
“I’m a software engineer, and one of the gullible fools who believed that programming multiplayer gameplay would be fun. I focus mainly on synchronising Xbox Live gameplay across the network, which means a lot of tying my head in knots trying to think of every possible timing issue that could arise from having to program asynchronously.”
Can you talk me through a typical day at work?
“After fighting my way through the crowds of cheering fans (lie), and weaving in and out of the hundreds of suicidal rabbits that desperately try to fling themselves to squishy death beneath my wheels on the driveway (true - but I’ve been successful in avoiding them so far, don’t worry), it’s pretty much just a desk job for the most part. That has changed a little recently with the introduction of Project Natal, which I can’t say too much about, other than that my job occasionally now involves standing up and dancing around in front of a TV, looking like a complete idiot to anyone who happens to walk by. All of this while trying to debug code at the same time and realising how difficult it is to press F9 with your toe from halfway across the room.”
I don’t have anything derogatory to say about Alan Wake. My advice to you? Spend a night in Bright Falls and soak up the eerie atmosphere. Alan Wake excels at thrilling you psychologically. Which is why it’s called a psychological thriller, I guess…
