Select your current position

Pick a role and level — we'll show the growth path, skills and gap analysis.

Development path

Junior

0-2 years

Current

Responsibility: Completing tasks under the guidance of senior colleagues. Learning the codebase, standards, and team processes. Writing code to spec, fixing simple bugs, writing tests.

Key skills:

Game Networking: Netcode, Photon Need
Game Physics Need
Level Design Need
Unreal Engine C++/Blueprints Need
Code Quality & Refactoring Need

Middle

2-5 years

Next

Responsibility: Independently developing features from decomposition to deployment. Participating in code review. Optimizing performance. Mentoring junior developers. Taking part in architecture discussions.

Key skills:

Game Networking: Netcode, Photon Need
Game Physics Need
Level Design Need
Unreal Engine C++/Blueprints Need
Code Quality & Refactoring Need

Senior

5-8 years

Responsibility: Designing the architecture of components and services. Solving complex technical problems. Managing technical debt. Code review as a quality gatekeeper. Mentoring middle developers. Choosing technologies for new tasks.

Key skills:

Code Review Need
CPU Profiling Need
Docker Need
Game AI: Pathfinding, Behavior Trees Need
Game Animation Systems Need
Game Backend: PlayFab, Nakama Need
Game Localization Need
Game Mechanics Design Need
Game Networking: Netcode, Photon Need
Game Performance Optimization Need
Game Physics Need
Game Rendering: Shaders, Pipeline Need
Game Testing & QA Need
Game UX & UI Design Need
Git Advanced Need
Git LFS Need
GitHub Actions / GitLab CI Need
I/O & Disk Profiling Need
Latency Optimization Need
Level Design Need
Memory Profiling Need
Mobile Game Development Need
Performance Budgets Need
Unit Testing Need
Unreal Engine C++/Blueprints Need
Algorithms & Complexity Need
Code Quality & Refactoring Need
Multithreading Need
System Design Fundamentals Need
Design Patterns Need
OOP & SOLID Principles Need
Memory Profiling Need
Data Structures Need
Memory Management Need

Lead / Staff

7-12 years

Responsibility: Technical leadership of a team or area. Designing system architecture. Coordinating with other teams. Establishing standards and best practices. Participating in hiring. Planning the technical roadmap.

Key skills:

Code Review Need
CPU Profiling Need
Docker Need
Game AI: Pathfinding, Behavior Trees Need
Game Animation Systems Need
Game Backend: PlayFab, Nakama Need
Game Localization Need
Game Mechanics Design Need
Game Networking: Netcode, Photon Need
Game Performance Optimization Need
Game Physics Need
Game Rendering: Shaders, Pipeline Need
Game Testing & QA Need
Game UX & UI Design Need
Git Advanced Need
Git LFS Need
GitHub Actions / GitLab CI Need
I/O & Disk Profiling Need
Latency Optimization Need
Level Design Need
Memory Profiling Need
Mobile Game Development Need
Performance Budgets Need
Unit Testing Need
Unreal Engine C++/Blueprints Need
Algorithms & Complexity Need
Code Quality & Refactoring Need
Multithreading Need
System Design Fundamentals Need
Design Patterns Need
OOP & SOLID Principles Need
Memory Profiling Need
Data Structures Need
Memory Management Need

Principal

10+ years

Responsibility: Technical strategy at the company or domain level. Cross-organizational influence. Solving systemic business problems through technology. Mentoring lead engineers. Publicly representing the company.

Key skills:

Code Review Need
CPU Profiling Need
Docker Need
Game AI: Pathfinding, Behavior Trees Need
Game Animation Systems Need
Game Backend: PlayFab, Nakama Need
Game Localization Need
Game Mechanics Design Need
Game Networking: Netcode, Photon Need
Game Performance Optimization Need
Game Physics Need
Game Rendering: Shaders, Pipeline Need
Game Testing & QA Need
Game UX & UI Design Need
Git Advanced Need
Git LFS Need
GitHub Actions / GitLab CI Need
I/O & Disk Profiling Need
Latency Optimization Need
Level Design Need
Memory Profiling Need
Mobile Game Development Need
Performance Budgets Need
Unit Testing Need
Unreal Engine C++/Blueprints Need
Algorithms & Complexity Need
Code Quality & Refactoring Need
Multithreading Need
System Design Fundamentals Need
Design Patterns Need
OOP & SOLID Principles Need
Memory Profiling Need
Data Structures Need
Memory Management Need

Gap analysis: skills to develop

To reach the next level you'll need to develop:

Game Networking: Netcode, Photon

Develops network systems in Unreal: relevancy, dormancy, conditional replication. Optimizes bandwidth through replication graph. Implements client prediction and server authoritative logic.

Game Physics

Develops physics systems in Unreal: Chaos Destruction for destructibles, Vehicle Movement Component, custom physics sub-stepping. Profiles physics via Unreal Insights.

Level Design

Develops production-quality levels in Unreal: World Partition for open world, Level Instances, Data Layers. Optimizes streaming and LOD. Uses PCG (Procedural Content Generation).

Unreal Engine C++/Blueprints

Deep knowledge of Unreal Engine: GAS, Enhanced Input, Common UI, Niagara, MetaSounds. Develops Editor extensions and custom tools. Understands engine modules and plugin architecture.

Code Quality & Refactoring

Ensures Unreal C++ code quality: SOLID principles for GameplayAbilities, smart use of UPROPERTY specifiers (EditAnywhere, BlueprintReadOnly). Configures static analysis (PVS-Studio, clang-tidy).