CODE OPEN

Freelance programmer LUKAS DONKERS on the art of coding gameplay into our games

- Luke Kemp

There are multiple ways to become a full-time game programmer, but Lukas Donkers essentially did it by… programming a game. A very successful one, for the Ludum Dare game jam. “We made a physics puzzle game […] we called it String Theory, because your only interaction was moving lines around.”

This was something he made with fellow students during his computer science degree. It did very well in the jam, with plenty of positive feedback, so they went on to upload it to free game websites such as Kongregate and Armor Games. Within a few weeks it had been played over 100,000 times, with a huge amount of encouraging comments. “That’s why I always kind of put it at the top of my resume,” says Donkers. “Game companies do love seeing that kind of stuff.”

This practical application of his skills helped Donkers earn a place at Moon Studios as his first industry job, working on Ori and the Will of the Wisps. “I worked on the time trial mode, a lot of the bosses that are in the game, and a lot of tooling as well. Like, when we made the cinematic for E3, that was actually all in the editor.” But when it comes to gameplay, what actually is programming?