Job Interview Questions

tim-cain hiring interviews game-industry management career

Abstract

Problem: What makes a good game industry job interview — both as interviewer and interviewee?

Approach: Tim Cain shares his favorite interview questions, explains what he's really looking for in candidates' answers, and recounts his own experiences being interviewed (including a memorable Valve visit).

Findings: The best interview questions aren't about getting the "right" answer — they're about watching candidates think, communicate, and reveal how they integrate their experiences. Red flags include inability to critique one's own designs and fabricated credentials.

Key insight: Interview questions should expose how someone thinks and communicates about problems, not test whether they memorized the correct solution.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6CJUMW-3p0

Design Questions Tim Likes to Ask

Tim uses open-ended design prompts to evaluate candidates — not for the system they produce, but for how they talk about it:

  • "Design a crafting system for a single-player fantasy RPG." He follows up with probing questions: Where do recipes come from? Are they level-based? What are the pros and cons? If someone can't identify a single disadvantage of their own system, that's a red flag.
  • "Design a classless MMO RPG." He wants candidates to articulate the inherent trade-offs. If they can't name obvious cons of removing classes from an MMO, or show how their design avoids those pitfalls, he gets suspicious.
  • "Design a quest that teaches a WoW class ability." For candidates who list WoW as a favorite game — pick any class, pick a low-level ability, and design a quest or solo instance that teaches the player how to use it.

Code Questions

Tim prefers simple coding exercises over puzzle problems. A classic example: pseudo-code on a whiteboard for reversing word order in a sentence ("hello there world" → "world there hello").

He acknowledges whiteboard coding is controversial — it's not the same as real work. But he needs candidates to demonstrate they can actually do the work, because he's been burned. His worst case: a programmer hired at Interplay who lied about his entire background. The man couldn't do basic math — Tim watched him struggle to rotate a sprite without knowing what sine and cosine were. That hire haunted him for years.

Being Interviewed: The Valve Story

In 2011, Tim interviewed at Valve as a designer. He told them upfront he wanted a design role. They said "sure, sure" — then immediately gave him a code test (designing an elevator control panel system). He hadn't coded in years, made a significant mistake halfway through, identified it himself, restarted, and ran out of time.

Valve rejected him based on the code work, despite reportedly telling him he did very well on the design portion. Tim walked away confused: he'd applied as a designer, was told Valve doesn't hire designers but they'd interview him anyway, and then half his tests were code.

A small detail: during lunch, interviewers bombarded him with business questions so he barely ate. His recruiter was furious — apparently this happened all the time.

Questions That Reveal Character

Beyond technical skills, Tim asks questions that surface how candidates think about their own experiences:

  • "What was the biggest team you've worked on?" Small teams → did you wear many hats? Large teams → who did you report to, who did you manage, how did information flow?
  • "What was your favorite class in college?" Then he probes their understanding of the topic. One candidate cited thermodynamics as their favorite — Tim asked follow-up questions to see what they actually retained.
  • "What was the most fun topic you taught yourself?" Self-taught candidates usually answer immediately. Those who aren't genuinely self-taught struggle to name something they enjoyed learning.
  • "What content on your resume were you personally responsible for?" Then: what was the hardest problem you solved? Did you manage anyone? Did you ever make a decision your team disagreed with, and how did that play out?

On Management and Being Managed

Tim notes a growing number of people who want neither to manage nor be managed. But once a team exceeds 10–15 people, that's no longer an option.

His philosophy: meet halfway. As a manager, he'll accommodate preferences — a quiet office, minimal check-ins, whatever someone needs. But he expects the same flexibility in return. What he doesn't tolerate are ultimatums ("I must have a windowed corner office and you can only speak to me on Friday afternoons").

Tim himself has moved up and down the leadership ladder intentionally — going from lead to senior individual contributor and back. He considers this rare and valuable. Most people say once you move up, you can't come back down, which leads to the Peter Principle: ending up in a role you're not competent in with nowhere to go.

The Hobby Question

Tim's favorite question: "What hobby do you have that has directly influenced your work? Give me an example."

Real answers he's received:

  • A cook who designed a crafting system based on cooking
  • A hiker whose outdoor experience shaped how they designed levels — sight lines, angles, making paths feel natural and obvious

He loves this question because it reveals people with well-integrated lives who bring outside perspective into their work.

Why This Company?

Near the end of interviews, Tim asks: "Why do you want to work here?"

He understands when people honestly say they need work and applied everywhere. But he loves hearing genuine enthusiasm — "I'm into story-based RPGs and that's what you make," or "I backed your Kickstarter and loved following the development."

What Candidates Ask

Tim always closes with "do you have any questions?" — and pays attention to what people prioritize:

  • Development environment questions
  • Benefits questions
  • Promotional opportunity questions

All are valid, but they reveal priorities. Someone whose first question is about promotional opportunities is signaling they want to eventually lead — which is useful information for Tim as a hiring manager.

References