Alexandr Gutrits, a developer at Plarium

I’d been into game development for a long time, and I was surprised to find a program in this field at ITMO University. When I learned that it had just been launched I realized that I should apply.

During my studies, I worked on many interesting projects at ITMO University’s Interactive Visualization Lab with Andrei Karsakov as a mentor. I believe the most remarkable one was an AR-mobile application for the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2019 European Games in Minsk, and a similar app for WordSkills Kazan 2019.

Now, I’m a developer at an international game development company’s office in Krasnodar. At the job interview, they were surprised that there was a game development program in Russia.

What I would recommend to the students is to learn new things, and to never stop studying, even after graduation.

Andrei Simonov, a developer at Wargaming.net

Basically, I got into a game development Master’s program thanks to a fortunate accident. I applied for several more “conventional” programs at various universities. The game development program was a backup plan for me. However, at the entrance exam, I got a question on game engines and while I was answering it I realized that that’s what I wanted to do. I’ve been into games since I was a child, and I wanted to work in game development when I was a Bachelor’s student, too. At the time, I was really into RPGs with thought-out worlds. I always wondered how I could create something like this.

During the studies, I was working at the Interactive Visualization Lab at ITMO University. My job was related to game engines, for example, Unreal Engine. I learned how to work with them thanks to our Master’s program. I participated in projects like creating an augmented reality for a TV-show, as well as making various visualizations and models on Unreal Engine 4. Other than that, I participated in a students research internship related to modeling pedestrian mobility.

After my graduation, I kept working at ITMO University for half a year, but then managed to land a job at Wargaming as an Unreal-developer. Experience that I gained during my studies and work at the university helped me to effortlessly pass all the interviews, and they offered me a job with a relocation to Minsk.

Nowadays, the game industry is one of the most rapidly developing ones. Various job offers, as well as internships, constantly appear. There is a lack of professionals for interesting and promising positions. Moreover, with a background in technology you can become not only a programmer, but also, for instance, a game designer.

Anastasia Perepelova, a game designer at Nival

We are the first graduates of this program. I applied for it because it’s unique. I was fascinated by ITMO University’s approach to education: there are a lot of practical tasks, freedom in choosing your field of research, and modern technologies. For example, when we were developing a VR game, we tested it on several different devices, including some  brand-new testing kits that weren’t even on the market yet.

Even though the program was newly-made, it helped us discover all fields related to game development. This is highly useful, as sometimes you don’t realize what exactly you want to do, you just know you want to create games in general. I, for one, got into game analytics, research of gamer behavior, and their segmentation, the use of machine learning to improve monetization , and so on.

Game development is highly in demand right now, as Russian GameDev industry is growing. There are lots of various offers and projects, and a lack of specialists.

To students, I can recommend applying their knowledge in practice, trying to create games, and play more. GameDev isn’t about the theory, it’s about creativity and the constant search for better solutions.