Many large studios have internship programs - I believe EA, Riot, Activision, Microsoft, Ubisoft, and Take Two all have internship programs. When we're thinking about what kind of tasks we assign interns, there are some constraints that we must consider:
- Interns are entry level in terms of skill
- Interns are limited in how much time they have to give to the project - a summer intern won't be around after the summer ends, a part-time intern will only be available a certain number of hours a week
Because of these constraints, interns are given tasks that their lead believes a junior dev could reasonably complete within the duration of their internship. These tasks must also be self-contained without significant outside dependencies - because it could take a long time for an intern to finish the task, there shouldn't be any major tasks that need the intern's task to finish before they can begin. Ideally, interns are given tasks that will be visible as part of the game they're working on but also won't hold up any other development on the same project.
For summer interns, that usually means working on some task or feature without any major dependencies that's doable at the entry level within two months or so. This is often translates to handling a small feature like making achievements, implementing a simple mini-game, or working on a combat ability. For full-time interns, it'll be normal junior dev tasks - e.g. build out this feature under another dev's supervision. It is rare for dev studios to hire part-time interns because it's really difficult to find tasks that both fit within our deliverable schedule and can be completed by an intern spending 10 or fewer hours per week.
[Join us on Discord] and/or [Support us on Patreon]
Got a burning question you want answered?
- Short questions: Ask a Game Dev on Twitter
- Long questions: Ask a Game Dev on Tumblr
- Frequent Questions: The FAQ