Week 1 GameDevHq Internship
Week 1 of Game DevHq Internship
Day 1: Being Selected and Onboarding
Aloha! My name is Mokihana Maldonado and I applied for an internship with GameDevHq to become a gaming/software developer. This is a blog I created to share my daily experiences with you. Hope you enjoy reading my journey, maybe even get inspired to become a gaming engineer.
Receiving the Text:
I remember driving home on Thanksgiving evening with my sister. It had been an emotionally difficult day as we were preparing to say our goodbye to our grandmother — who we were told would not make it through the weekend. Her wish was to come back home and be with her ‘ohana in her last moments. The day consisted of us crying, laughing, and singing songs with our ‘ohana — -surrounding our grandma with love. Sad, knowing this would be our last Thanksgiving with her. Then while in the car with my sister, I hear a ding on my phone…the text read:
Aloha Celestine Maldonado,
My name is Al Heck and I’m the Creative Director of GameDevHq. Back on October 29, you applied through the Aloha Connects Innovation of Hawaii employment due to hardships created by COVID-19. You were interested in becoming a Gaming/Software Developer Intern. We are reaching out to you to see if you are interested in being paid to become a Game Developer?…
My reaction:
OMG!!! I’m going to learn how to become a gaming/software developer. This is HUGE!! Super excited I shared the news with my sister and quickly replied to Al Heck. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity for me to learn a new and important skill set and get paid while doing it. I felt overwhelmed with gratitude to both Aloha Connects Innovation and GameDevHq for making this gaming experience possible.
The onboarding process consisted of getting myself set up with Altres Human Resources system, submitting documents, and watching a step-by-step instructions enrollment video into the GameDevHq Gaming/Software Developer program.
Day 2: Orientation Day and meeting the team!
On orientation day, Dan, one of the GameDevHq leads, called to let me know what a typical workday would look like for us. I learned about the hours I am expected to clock in on HR Symphony (8 am-5 pm)/Slack channel, our daily schedule, where to go to fill out the AM/PM surveys, guidelines for troubleshooting, and how to create a Medium Blog account in which I am expected to do a daily blog to track my experience, and about being the lead coordinator for my group.
Initially, I felt nervous about being team coordinator because I thought the team would get the false notion that I knew all about software development. Not to worry, I soon realized that my main task was to coordinate our AM/PM meetings, notate absences, and do a daily PM check-in with our Senior Lead. It was interesting connecting with everyone on the team and learning about their background.
After doing introductory meetings with the team I explored the various software engines I’d be using. I learned quickly this program was a guided self-starter type of internship. What do I mean by this? When troubleshooting, we are encouraged to take creative control and resolve issues on our own via search, google, discussing, watching tutorials, and as a last resort upon being stuck for more than 15 minutes asking for help from a fellow team member or Senior lead.
Day 3: Trouble installing Unity
My day was filled with troubleshooting issues installing Unity. I found myself stuck and feeling overwhelmed when it came to the installation of Unity 2019.4 LTS version and Visual Studio package. For instance, while attempting to install the latest version of Unity and working online simultaneously, I dealt with constant interruption, laptop freezing up, and silent installation fails. On the bright side, there was no problem downloading Unity hub. That was a success! But installing the Unity editor was a different story. Lots of times I needed to start over from the beginning. I highly recommend reaching out for help when finding yourself stuck on a problem for more than 20 or 30 minutes. After several failed attempts of troubleshooting, dealing with major tech issues, deleting, reinstalling, researching, recreating a new Unity folder, and watching tutorials I conquered and successfully downloaded the program for windows. Phew! A sense of relief came over me. I did it!!
Day 4: Learning Slack
Today I got to learn more in-depth about all the different features in Slack. Slack is a fantastic channel that allows people to communicate basically everything. This is a great device when working in teams and staying organized. I even created a separate thread channel titled — Team J-daily-medium-blogs. Even when making phone calls through slack, you are able to call and make group calls at one time, do screen sharing, and get your questions answered when troubleshooting. In this internship, I found Slack to be the most dependable virtual classroom. I really like that it feels like a community and throughout the day everyone communicates so I don’t feel alone in the learning process. Even the Senior leads are still developing their skills and use Slack when they are stuck on a problem. It’s super helpful.
