In the eyes of many people, software engineering and game development are two sides of the same coin. While this is true for some aspects of both fields, there are some key differences that make each a unique experience. During this talk we will discuss these differences between how game developers work and how software engineers work. We will explore some distinctions between methodologies within the two fields and how people handle them. To conclude, we will dive into what both fields can learn from each other so that developers can elevate themselves to the next level.

About the Presenters

Alexander Chatzizacharias Software Engineer at JDriven

Alexander is a 32-year-old Software Engineer at jDriven. He is of Dutch/Greek nationality. Alexander has a bachelor’s degree in Game Development (University of Applied Sciences of Amsterdam) and a master’s in Game Studies (University of Amsterdam). During his master's degree, Alexander developed a passion for gamification and software engineering. One of Alexander's career goals is bringing game development and software engineering closer together. He believes that both industries can learn a lot from each other, and is continuously trying to mix technologies and methodologies from both fields.

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/alex90_ch

Erik Pronk Software enthusiast at JDriven

Erik Pronk is a passionate software engineer who has been working in IT since 2001. During this period, he has gained a lot of experience in a variety of technologies, roles, development environments, and market segments. His main focus is on implementing enterprise solutions in an agile way. In his spare time, Erik loves to run and experiment with VR and domotics. Erik works at JDriven, where he shares his passion and drive with other colleagues.

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/erikjpronk

In the game development world, we often talk about creating games. But creating plugins for game engines can also be a lucrative undertaking! In this interview, Alexandr Pirogov talks to Victor Careil, Founder & Lead Developer of Voxel Plugin, about why plugins are created for game engines, how it is different from crafting games, how to make plugins universal and applicable to different game genres, and finally, how to make a business out of it!

About the Presenters

Alexander Pirogov Unreal dude at JetBrains

Alexander is a seasoned game developer who has worked as a UI developer on the FIFA series, Tools Tech Lead on World of Warships, Software Developer on Rainbow 6: Siege, and Team Lead on Injustice 2 Mobile.

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/Pie_Daddy

Victor Careil Founder & Lead Developer of Voxel Plugin

Victor Careil is the founder & lead developer of Voxel Plugin. Through Voxel Plugin, Victor has been bringing bleeding edge voxel technology to Unreal Engine users for over 5 years.

He's very passionate about enabling developers to harness the power of voxels to create unique games. On the side, he also made several contributions to Unreal Engine including the Material Named Reroute Nodes.

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/Phyronnaz

Unreal Engine is built to work for a wide range of projects and platforms out of the box. It’s up to you to make it run within the budget for your specific needs. In this talk, Tom Looman shows how to identify performance issues and optimize your game projects on a budget.

About the Presenter

Tom Looman Unreal Engine Instructor & Indie Developer

Tom Looman is a game developer and educator with over 10 years of Unreal Engine experience. In addition to working on AAA and indie games at studios including Epic Games, he writes tutorials and courses on Unreal Engine Game Development.

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/t_looman

Rider is a great tool for game development. It can quickly navigate around your project, help you write code faster, and will even find and fix issues as you type. Let’s take a look at Unity and Unreal specific warnings and highlights and how Rider can fix them with a single key press. We’ll learn some important tips and tricks and see how Rider can even show you usages and serialised values from Unity’s assets and Unreal’s Blueprints, directly in the editor!

About the Presenter

Matt Ellis Developer Advocate at JetBrains

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/citizenmatt

Love them or hate them, Unity packages are quite a topic. Used correctly, they can bring everything with project creation, feature development, and asset management to the next level. Learn how Needle structures, uses, and maintains packages to turn the engine up to 11. We’ll go from “what’s a package in Unity” to “crazy things you can do with them” in short succession.

About the Presenter

Felix Herbst Co-Founder Needle, Co-Founder prefrontal cortex

Felix has been creating award-winning VR and AR experiences for the last 13 years, many of which have been made with Unity. Being in that weird spot between designer and developer, he has a strong focus on editor tools, workflows, graphics development, and shaders. Co-Founder @needletools. Co-Founder @prefrontlcortex. Tech @amusevision.

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/hybridherbst

Game developers should be good at crafting the UI, shouldn’t they? This talk will dig into game UI goals and how best to attain them. It will give you hints of a good UI design and how to guide the users visually. Unreal Engine has an option to create a beautiful UI using Blueprints, but at times you might find yourself limited by its options, and you’ll have to fall back on good old C++.

About the Presenter

Ben UI Lead Programmer at Brace Yourself Games

Ben is a Lead Programmer at Brace Yourself Games. He created the UI for the city builder Industries of Titan and the action RPG Vampyr and likes to share what he learns on his website benui.ca.

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/_benui