Evaluate Game Developer candidates across 4 weighted areas: technical proficiency, systems and trade-offs, evidence and rigour, and collaboration and communication. Technical proficiency leads at 35%, so check depth in their engine of record: C# in Unity or C++ and Blueprints in Unreal, plus shaders, animation state machines, physics ticks, and gameplay systems. Use the rubric to compare role-specific evidence consistently.
For technical proficiency, look for evidence the candidate names specific systems they coded, explains engine internals such as update order, GC allocations, or Blueprint to C++ boundaries accurately. For systems and trade-offs, look for evidence the candidate cites measured before and after numbers from Unity Profiler, Unreal Insights, or RenderDoc, and defends the trade-off they picked.
Apply the written 1–5 anchors to every answer, record the evidence behind each rating, and use the factor weights to reach a consistent overall assessment.
Complete evaluation framework
What to assess and how to score it
Review the evidence signals before interviewing. Then use the anchored descriptions—not instinct alone—to choose the score that best matches each answer.
01
Evaluation factor
Technical proficiency
35% weight
Check depth in their engine of record: C# in Unity or C++ and Blueprints in Unreal, plus shaders, animation state machines, physics ticks, and gameplay systems they wrote from scratch.
Evidence to listen for
Command of the languages, frameworks, and data tools the role actually uses
Understands correctness, performance, and failure modes, not just syntax
Has opinions on testing and can justify them
Reads and reasons about code they did not write
Five-point scoring guide
1
Poor
Cannot work independently; fundamentals are missing.
2
Needs Improvement
Weak fundamentals; output needs heavy review.
3
Satisfactory
Competent for the role; needs guidance on complex or unfamiliar work.
4
Very Good
Strong practitioner; handles hard problems with little guidance.
5
Excellent
Names specific systems they coded, explains engine internals such as update order, GC allocations, or Blueprint to C++ boundaries accurately.
02
Evaluation factor
Systems and trade-offs
25% weight
Probe how they held a 16.6ms frame budget: draw call batching, LOD and culling choices, memory limits on Switch or mobile, and netcode versus determinism trade-offs.
Evidence to listen for
Reasons about scale, latency, cost, and failure before writing code
Names the trade-off they chose and what they gave up
Understands the data lifecycle end to end
Anticipates what breaks at ten times the volume
Five-point scoring guide
1
Poor
No thinking beyond the immediate task; no awareness of scale or failure.
2
Needs Improvement
Limited architectural awareness; struggles with design decisions.
3
Satisfactory
Works within an existing design; makes sound local decisions.
4
Very Good
Designs for scale and maintainability; articulates trade-offs clearly.
5
Excellent
Cites measured before and after numbers from Unity Profiler, Unreal Insights, or RenderDoc, and defends the trade-off they picked.
03
Evaluation factor
Evidence and rigour
25% weight
Look for shipped titles with platform detail: Steam release, console certification (TRC, TCR, lotcheck), crash rates, playtest telemetry, and what they changed after watching real players.
Evidence to listen for
Validates results rather than trusting output
Knows how their work is measured and what a bad result looks like
Can describe a time their own analysis or model was wrong and how they caught it
Careful about data quality, leakage, and silent failure
Five-point scoring guide
1
Poor
Ships unvalidated work; no notion of how correctness is checked.
2
Needs Improvement
Validates superficially; misses obvious quality or leakage issues.
3
Satisfactory
Reasonable checks in place; rigour drops under time pressure.
4
Very Good
Validates thoroughly; can name a real error they caught in their own work.
5
Excellent
Walks through a released build they owned, including cert failures fixed and telemetry or playtest data that reshaped their code.
04
Evaluation factor
Collaboration and communication
15% weight
Assess how they work with designers and artists: implementing tunable parameters, Perforce or Git LFS discipline, milestone and vertical slice pressure, and pushing back on scope.
Evidence to listen for
Explains technical work to non-technical stakeholders
Gives and takes code or peer review constructively
Documents enough that the work survives their absence
Aligns with team process rather than working around it
Five-point scoring guide
1
Poor
Cannot work in a team; resistant to feedback.
2
Needs Improvement
Communication issues create rework; lone-wolf tendencies.
3
Satisfactory
Adequate team member; documentation and review participation are light.
4
Very Good
Communicates well; reliable reviewer and collaborator.
5
Excellent
Describes building tooling designers actually used, handling merge conflicts on binary assets, and negotiating cuts before a milestone build.
Evidence-led prompts
Interview questions for a Game Developer
Use these prompts to surface evidence for the weighted factors above and compare candidates against the same role-specific criteria.
01
Can you explain your experience with game engines such as Unity or Unreal?
02
Which programming languages are you most proficient in for game development?
03
What is your experience with game physics and the mathematics behind it?
04
Can you give an example of a game or project where you took a leading role?
05
Can you discuss your experience with mobile game development?
