1. Do you know what qualities and skills should a good graphic designer have?

This is a great opportunity to see how a designer thinks of their profession. “To create great designs” is not enough. A good designer will be able to articulate how their designs communicate your brand's vision and solve practical problems.

2. Explain me how do you meet tough deadlines? Tell me about a time you completed great work under pressure?

Good designers are thoughtful and thorough, but you also want to make sure they know how to prioritize and work well under time constraints.

3. Tell me what is the basic structure for developing a game?

The basic structure for developing game is

a) The game interface

b) The implementation of the interface

c) The game source code

4. What is “Pixel Art”?

A digital art which is created by drawing individual pixels in an image rather than rendering a 3D model is known as “Pixel Art”.

5. Tell me how good Bitbucket/Github is for game development?

Bitbucket is a code hosting service and not a file sharing service. It is compatible for small size game development, but if you are handling extremely large files or frequently changing binary files Github would not be useful. Bitbucket can't display differences on binaries

6. Tell me in Android, how you can use load texture method to load the image?

The load texture method will take in an image pointer and then load the image into a stream. The stream will then be loaded as a texture into OpenGL.

7. What is a game loop?

For any game development game loop acts as a central component. To make necessary updates and to check the changes in the game, loop is useful. Graphics, movement, controls etc. all rely on the game loop.

8. Tell me what are the gaming engines you can use for developing games?

The different gaming engines you can use for developing games are:

1) AndEngine

2) Rokon

3) Libgdx

4) Android-2D-Engine

5) jMonkey Engine

6) Cocos2D-Android

9. Tell me why do you want to work here as 2D Game Graphic Designer?

(This question implicitly includes, "Why do you want to leave where you are?" if you're currently employed.)

This question is an open opportunity to show you've done some research on the company where you're interviewing. All companies and interviewers are flattered when the interviewee knows who they are, knows what games they make, and wants to be a part of their experience. Do your homework and put on a good show!

Don't say things like, "I need a job," or "I need to move to Sacramento." Instead, pick a few things that are germane to the company in question. The more specific your reasons are tied to the company, the better. "I want to work on FPS shooters" isn't as good an answer as "I want to work on Game Franchise X because I played the first two games and still see potential for future growth of the product." It's sycophantic, yes, but interviewers are as prone to flattery as anyone else -- although don't give that as your only reason.

When explaining why you want to leave your current job, the trick is to not be negative. Pick a couple of points that are inarguable, for example, "There was no career development" or "They weren't working on the kinds of games I'm interested in," rather than "Their management is clueless and they are going to die soon." The game industry is a small community -- you could very well be talking smack about your interviewer's close buddy.

If you were let go or fired, it's better to say something like, "We decided to part ways," or "It was my time to leave," rather than go into too much detail, unless directly pressed. In that case, the interviewer probably already knows what went down and is just looking to see what you'll say. Answer the question quickly and without negativity, and move on. You want to leave a positive impression.

10. Explain me what will you bring to the team? Why do we need you?

This is a general question that applies to all interviews. There are two ways to answer: the big answer and the little answer.

The big answer requires you to have some knowledge of how the company operates. Who does what? Your goal is to slot your experience, passion and skills (and if you are a student, your passion, skills, and desired career direction) into any holes the company may have -- and it should have some. Otherwise, why are they hiring?

The little answer is to name some of your previous experiences and best qualities and hope that's enough.

Care needs to be taken that a) you don't sound arrogant in assuming the company will die without you and b) you don't say negative things about the company. Statements like, "Well, you obviously can't do good Q/A. You need a good Q/A manager," are likely to go down like a lead balloon. Frame your answer to suggest that you would bring extra expertise, and therefore improvement, to something that's already in place.

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11. Explain me what game would you make if money were no object?

Everyone has a pet project they would want to make if they had the chance -- it's just inherent in the game developer psyche. This is your chance to expound on it, and the more realized your idea is, the more it will be seen as proof that you know what you're doing.

Taking an existing idea and adding, "but I'd make it cooler!" isn't the answer (the number of times I've heard Q/A staff wanting to become developers tell me they want to remake Counter Strike "but better" is staggering); it just shows you have enthusiasm, but no original ideas.

Bonus points if you can take an existing IP license and make a compelling argument for a game out of it. People who can actually do that are at a premium in our industry since most tie-ins, well, suck.

12. Tell me how do you work with collaborators like copywriters, developers, and project managers? Tell me about the final hand-off process?

Great graphic designers are team players who ask questions and solicit feedback. A good candidate will feel comfortable collaborating with clients on a project. They should be able to recommend specific file types for review, source files, and deliverables to make the final hand off as smooth as possible.

13. Please explain about your experience working remotely. What do you feel is important to make sure the work gets done efficiently?

This question should give you some insight into a graphic designer's work style. Mentioning the importance of regular communication, organization, and accountability are good signs.

14. Tell me what are the models used to make money in gaming business?

a) Charge Per Copy

b) Monthly Subscription

c) Micro-transactions

d) Pay-per-Play

e) Ad-based

f) Provider billing

g) Merchandising

h) Code Licensing

i) Sponsorship

15. Tell me what are the Android tools used for developing games?

Various tools required for developing games are

a) Eclispse: Integrated Development Environment (IDE)

b) ADT- Android's Eclipse Plugin

c) Android SDK-includes ADB

d) Hudson- Automatic build tool

16. Explain me different methods used for storage in android?

The storage methods used in android are

a) Shared Preferences: Store private primitive data in key value pairs

Internal Storage: Storage of private data on device memory

b) External Storage: Storage of public data on shared external storage

c) Network Connection: With your own network server you store data on the web

d) SQLite Databases: In private database it stores structured data

17. Do you know what are the common errors done by programmer while programming?

The common errors done by programmer while programming is

a) Undeclared Variables

b) Uninitialized Variables

c) Setting a variable to an uninitialized value

d) Checking equality using single equal sign

e) Undeclared functions

f) Extra Semicolons

g) Overstepping array boundaries

h) Misusing the && and l l Operators

18. Tell us about Objects in Blender?

Blender is a 3D computer graphics software program for developing visual effects, 3D games, animated movies, and software. It is an open source program.

In Blender to manipulate objects, when you push “space” tab it will open a menu bar, from there, you can select the object of whatever size you want as a sphere, cube, etc. You can do many activities like add, delete, move, scale and even rotating the objects, once you select an object.

To merge two objects into one in Blender, you have to follow the following steps

☛ Select both object in object mode
☛ Now to join the object into one Press Ctrl+J
☛ Enter edit mode and change it to face manipulation mode
☛ Remove the surface or faces that will be joined with each other by pressing X
☛ Switch back to Vertex Manipulation mode
☛ Join the objects by selecting the corresponding vertices from each object and using F to create a new face
☛ After pressing F, the two object will merge as a single object
You can also transform object using properties panel, you can use this method if your need is very specific. To edit the properties of your object you have to

► Go to properties panel
► Click the object icon
You can transform the object by changing its properties in the rotation, location and scale tables

To copy an object you have to be in Object mode, and then

☛ Right click on the object that you want to copy
☛ Press shift+D to duplicate it first
☛ Right click on object to get out of grab mode without changing its location
☛ After that press M to bring up the layer move popup menu
☛ Click the button for the layer that you want to move it

19. Tell me what do you do on your own time to extend your skills?

As a programmer, do you work on home projects? As a designer, do you doodle design ideas or make puzzles? As an artist, do you do portrait work?

Having hired many people in the past, one of the things I can speak to with authority is that those people who spend their off time working on discipline-related projects are the ones who are always up on current trends, have new ideas, are most willing to try something new, and will be the ones taking stuff home to tinker with on their own time. Now that shouldn't be expected of everyone, but the sad reality is that there is competition for jobs out there, and those who are prepared to put in the extra work are the ones that are going to be in hot demand.

Demonstrating that you learned C# over a weekend because you thought it was cool for prototyping is exactly the kind of thing a programming manager wants to hear. Suddenly your toolset expanded, and not only did it show willingness to do something without being told, it makes you more valuable.

20. Tell me your creative process. What are the major steps?

Every designer should have a detailed answer prepared for this. A good designer won't just jump in and start designing. Great designers begin by trying to understand the problem they're being asked to solve. Depending on the project, they might interview users or look through data to determine the best course of action. They should also allow for at least one round of substantive feedback and iteration before they submit their final designs.

21. Explain me what are the problems you might face while developing game with Java?

a) Garbage Collector : Non-deterministic memory management could be a problem

b) Lack of third party libraries: Most of the available libraries do not support Java. Java has huge class library built in but they are not game related

c) Not supported by game Console: Java is not supported by popular game consoles.

d) Smaller Community: Most game programmers use C++ , so if you are developing games on Java, you can expect least help from others as very few programmers can give you the solution for your query.

22. Tell me in Java game development what does the animation thread class holds?

The animation thread class updates the DrawablePanel for game logic and forces a redraw of the panel. It holds a reference to the Drawable Panel.

23. Tell me what is “onsurfacecreated” in android game development?

“OnsurfaceCreated” is called every time the drawing surface is created. This can happen when the application starts or when it becomes active after being sent to the background or when the orientation changes. After a context loss, all these events are triggered, so every asset will be lost and have to be recreated. All assets and application objects should be recreated at this place.

24. Explain me how would you make the games you're playing better?

You'd be surprised how often this question comes up, even if you aren't interviewing for a design position. Everyone wants a developer who has design sensibilities because it inevitably means she or he will be more involved and engaged in whatever is going on.

Knowing ahead of time how you might answer this question means you'll come off sounding like you've actually thought about a game in development terms. Game studios are looking for people who think as they play -- about what they're playing, how it's done, what could have been improved, and most importantly, what they can rip off.

One downside to adopting this mentality is that it becomes harder to enjoy a game for what it is, but that's an occupational hazard in all jobs.

Believe it or not, you can answer this question in an entirely positive way. However, if you decide instead to criticize a design or implementation decision in a game, be sure you have a solution to the problem too. It's not enough to moan about the final strider battle in Half-Life 2: Episode 2; you have to have an idea of how it could have been made more enjoyable, perhaps through easier car control, or not destroying all the supply stations so quickly.

If you decide to bash a game that the company where you're interviewing developed (and that takes courage; some companies will applaud you while others will diss you for not drinking the Kool-Aid), then ensure that what you're criticizing isn't something subjective but something that everyone has had a pop at. Be ready to back up the criticism with proof that it's an agreed-upon flaw, not just you being nit-picky.

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25. Tell me where do you want to be in five years as 2D Game Graphic Designer?

Personally, I love this question because it reveals if a prospective candidate has a plan at all or is just drifting from job to job as so many are wont to do. There's nothing wrong per se with people who drift along the currents, it's just that those with a plan (or at least a desire to move in a particular direction) are generally much more interesting people. Plus, they are almost always inherently more predictable, which is always a benefit for employers.

Having a desire to move forward helps everyone. It helps you measure your progress, and it gives the company a plan to help you get there.

Of course, it does depend on you knowing what you want. Most people tend to know what they don't want, but not necessarily what they do want, which is a problem -- particularly if you express that in an interview. Interviewers would rather have a list of things you want to attain rather than things you don't.

One optimal answer is, "Still working for you making games," but it smacks of sucking up, so I'd recommend saying something a little more generic: "Still looking for a challenge and putting in that extra effort to make great games."

The best response I've ever heard to that question was, "I want your job!" and the individual who said it to me indeed has my old job! But be wary of sounding confrontational.