Today's Dev is someone you might recognize as one of our forum regulars, always helping out where he can. A round of applause for Matthjis van der Meide!

Name and position
Matthijs, Engine Programmer on the CRYENGINE “Core” Team.

Why did you want to work in the games industry and how did you get started?
I have long wanted to work in the games industry (basically I decided that I would be trying for that in high school). I specialized to game programmer during university and since then I have been a programmer in the games industry.

What are you working on at the moment? What's first on your to-do list?
I’m usually working on improving or fixing features deep in the engine or optimizing existing features to perform better. In the last few weeks I have mostly worked on PS4 fixes, as well as assisting our licensees that are planning on releasing games on CRYENGINE in the near future to get something good shipped.

What music do you listen to at work?
Pretty much any type of music will do, as long as it’s something. Currently playing some “Two Steps from Hell”, but just before I had a nice “Gunther” song . Typically I just let the randomizer run the whole day, and skip the things I really don’t like.

What tools are you using at the moment?
C++ compilers (many of them), Visual Studio, Bash and Notepad++

What types of games do you like, and what is your favorite game of all time?
I like myself some RPGs when I have a lot of free time (Mass Effect series comes to mind as a favorite), and some Hearthstone when I don’t have a lot of time.

What do you enjoy doing outside of work?
Play board-games with friends, enjoying alcoholic beverages and traveling to other countries.

Where are you going on your next vacation?
It’s not decided yet. Last vacation was to Japan, I can recommend that!

Do you have any tips for people wanting to get started in the industry?
I can only give advice for people who want to be game programmers; I’m not very familiar with artist/designer paths. I think the most important thing to get hired as a programmer in the games industry is to actually having done at least some programming (preferably outside of school/university assignments); showing that you are both qualified technically and also motivated to be in the games industry. This also builds portfolio pieces that you can use to get people interested in what you can do!

Questions for Matthjis, right here. Thanks for reading!

All the best,
The CRYENGINE team.