Game Developer
Game developers work with highly specialised vocabulary spanning graphics, physics, audio, and netcode. This path covers the English for discussing game architecture, writing GDD sections, reporting bugs in game-specific terms, and communicating in the game dev community.
Topics covered
- Game loops & architecture
- Graphics & shaders
- Physics & collision
- Multiplayer & netcode
- ECS & design patterns
- Performance profiling
Vocabulary spotlight
4 terms every Game Developer should know in English:
The frequency at which a game server updates the simulation per second
"Increasing the tick rate from 20 to 64 Hz significantly improved hit detection accuracy."
Linear interpolation — smoothly transitioning a value between two points over time
"We lerp the camera position to avoid jarring cuts between states."
A request from the CPU to the GPU to render a mesh or effect
"Reducing draw calls by batching static geometry improved our FPS by 30%."
The time elapsed since the last frame, used to make movement frame-rate independent
"Always multiply velocity by delta time to ensure smooth movement at any frame rate."
📚 Vocabulary Reference
Key terms organised by category for Game Developers:
Core Architecture
Graphics
Physics
Multiplayer & Netcode
Recommended exercises
Real-world scenarios you'll practise
- Writing a technical section of a Game Design Document (GDD)
- Reporting a reproduction case for a physics bug to QA
- Explaining a netcode lag compensation approach in a technical discussion
- Presenting a shader performance optimisation to the team
🎯 Interview questions specific to this role
Practise answering these questions out loud — or in writing. Each question targets a real interviewer concern for Game Developers.
- Explain the difference between a game loop and an event-driven architecture.
- What is entity-component-system (ECS) and why is it used in game development?
- How do you handle lag compensation in a multiplayer shooter?
- What is the difference between forward rendering and deferred rendering?
- Walk me through how you would profile and optimise a performance bottleneck in a game.