Gameplay programmers, man. They’re the best. That’s why we’ve got a lot of ‘em. You know any? 

...Oh, look! There’s one right here! 

Internet world, meet Josh Shucker, one of our totally awesome programmer peeps making sure our squanch stays extra squanchy at all times. He has a squanchy magic touch if you will–literally. Mr. Shucker has a former career as a bona-fide *magician*. Sorry for the spoiler, we’ll leave the rest for you to discover.

Check his words below:

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Josh Shucker, Gameplay Programmer

What do you do at Squanch?

I’m a gameplay programmer so I’m usually coding new features in the game, but what types of features can vary wildly. Personally, I find this refreshing because getting to work on lots of different things helps keep me from feeling burnt out on a particular feature. Our gameplay programmers also tend to branch out a bit so I’ve also gotten to work in other areas which might normally be handled by a different type of programmer, such as UI and tools. Ultimately, I do whatever needs doing. 

How did you get into the industry?

I only had two careers in mind as a child: magician or game developer. I actually spent 8 years working at a magic shop and even got a degree from a specialty school for magic before I realized I didn’t actually enjoy the business aspect of it at all. After that, I started working on a computer science degree at Cal State Long Beach and joined their Video Game Development Association to learn skills that were more directly relevant to the game industry. Once I graduated, I managed to snag a job as a UI engineer with Blind Squirrel Entertainment and then just kept moving on to new projects and studios. I’ve now been in the industry for about 4 years and I’ve worked on a number of exciting projects, but our current project is the most exciting yet!

What’s your favorite part about your job?

Getting to work with such a creative and hilarious team. I don’t think I’ve worked at any other job where I constantly find myself laughing my ass off during a company meeting. And I never feel self-conscious about my humor because everyone is just as immature as I am. 

What’s the hardest part about your job, and how do you overcome that?

Squanch is much more design-focused than other studios I’ve been at so sometimes I might be working on a feature and then, once I think I’m finished, the design changes significantly and I have to either seriously revise the code or rebuild the feature altogether. Ultimately, that’s just the nature of the job and designers need the agency to throw out or change features if they aren’t working to make sure the final product is fun, but I’ve learned that I can save a lot of work if I anticipate that things may change and build my features so that as many aspects of them can be tweaked as possible. Then, if the design does change, I might just have managed to make the feature flexible enough to adapt to that change with minimal effort.

Did you grow up with a pet?

I’ve always loved cats. Got my first cat, Truffle, when I was roughly 10. I used to put her on my head like a hat and parade around the house, which she strangely loved. Currently, I have three cats (Kiki, Tess, and Stella) and an unexpected bunny (Pippy) that we decided to adopt when a neighbor left her behind. Seriously though, don’t get me started talking about my fluffy babies or I’ll never stop and you’ll have to see an uncomfortable number of pictures. (Too late!)

If you had the voice of an angel (and maybe you do, we don’t know) - what would you sing at the superbowl halftime show?

That’s a surprisingly hard question for me, my music choices vary wildly depending on my mood. If I’m being serious, probably Drive by Incubus, it’s one of those catchy songs that I just find myself singing every so often and helps improve my mood if I’m having a hard day. If I’m feeling a bit silly though, probably something by Jonathan Coulton (Code Monkey seems appropriate).

What’s your favorite kind of pickle?

Dill. No wait, Tommy.

What is your favorite joke?

(Incoming terrible programmer joke)

...

Knock knock.

Race condition.

Who's there?

Do you remember the first game you ever played?

Yeah, I think I may have played a few at a friend’s house that I don’t remember, but the first game I owned and played all the way through was Super Mario 64. After that I kinda became obsessed with gaming, especially ones where I could really immerse myself in the world and story.

Any tips you’d like to share with other aspiring programmers?

There is so much to learn as a programmer that it can feel very intimidating to people who are just starting out. I know that when I started I wasn’t sure how I was going to learn and internalize everything. I think the secret is that (as many programmers like to joke) about 80% of your job is just looking things up. Knowing how to program well is important, but the truly important thing is knowing how to find answers to the things you don’t know when you need them instead of trying to memorize everything. 

....And never forget your semicolons;