- Philip Bratt Ørum
- Ansat siden marts 2016
- MSc in Computer Science and Engineering
-
How would you describe your field and main tasks?
I am a Backend Programmer working on a multiplayer online game. When the game changes or a new feature is added, my job is to figure out how the underlying systems should work, and then create those systems. In addition to that, I am responsible for making sure that the game is always working, and for fixing any issues that occur.
-
What are the most exciting and challenging parts of your job?
There are plenty of interesting challenges associated with getting the servers to perform well as the player base grows. What I personally find most exciting is taking a new game feature or design idea and figuring out how best to realize it.
Even systems and features that seem simple from the outside can be quite challenging when you factor in things like how the performance scales with the number of players and the amount of data that needs to be processed.
-
How do you use your education in your position?
Apart from the obvious things, like knowing how to code, what has been most useful is having a good understanding of algorithmics and how to work efficiently with large amounts of data. This is something I focused on during my studies, and I definitely feel that it has helped prepare me for the kind of problems I work with now.
Something else that has been quite helpful is understanding parallel programming, and knowing how to solve the kinds of problems you inevitably run into when a lot of processes are accessing the same data at the same time. These kinds of problems are notoriously difficult, so I am glad to have a theoretical foundation to work from.
My education was more focused on theory than on putting things into practice, but I feel that it has served me well and that I was quickly able to make up for any lack of practical experience.
-
What are the three most important things for you in your job at MovieStarPlanet?
The most important thing is getting to make games for a living. I play a lot of games myself, and I am very interested in game design and development, so getting to work with that for a living was always a goal of mine.
I also really like the work itself, since there are plenty of interesting challenges associated with things like performance and reliability.
Finally, I like that my job often requires me to learn new skills so I can continue to get better at what I do.
-
Why is MovieStarPlanet an attractive company for you?
I get to work with a lot of smart people on something we are all passionate about.
I get to be responsible for my part of the project and make my own decisions about how best to solve the problems i encounter, but at the same time there are always people who are ready to help me if I need it.
And, of course, I get to make games for a living.
