AI Programmer

AI Programmers make the brains for the automated characters in the game.

When a player interacts with non-player characters (NPCs), it’s code that decides how the NPCs respond. That could mean whether they befriend or attack you, what their combat strategy is, and how they cooperate with others.

As AI programmer you work with the designers to give characters distinctive and interesting behaviours, and make them fun and challenging to meet in the game.

Programming

You’ll love this role if you’re into:

Coding
Maths
Designing things

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YOUR LEARNING JOURNEY

Many AI Programmers have a degree, which provides professional development and a recognised qualification to employers. However, there are many available pathways and all people working in games claim a unique career journey. Above all, you will need to demonstrate passion and skills in your chosen field. For this job role, you should be someone who loves maths, coding and creative problem-solving.

As a professional, you’ll be working closely with designers to code behaviours for non-player characters (NPCs). The most popular game creation engines use the coding languages, C++ (Unreal) or C# (Unity), but languages like Java and HTML5, are also used depending on the game type.

Working in the games industry is highly competitive and you’ll need to make sure your portfolio (a collection of your best work) stands out to employers and course leaders.

AI Programmer is a senior role and many begin their career in junior programmer roles to gain important work experience and work their way up. Your portfolio should showcase a range of features, systems and behaviours you’ve built, this will demonstrate your versatility. For more ideas, see our top tips page on building your portfolio.

Whatever role you are working in, it is essential that you understand the game making process. You can head to our build a game section for first steps; join a regular game jam to build up your skills and network; or start modding others games to gain experience.