Meet the Vancouver alum working on games like Call of Duty

Before joining game studio and Activision-Blizzard subsidiary Demonware as a software engineer, Northeastern Vancouver MS in Computer Science graduate Ria Agarwal had never played their AAA video game series Call of Duty. But shortly after starting her job in 2022 working on their game engines within the telemetry team, she got very excited about the game.

“I have a special spot in my heart for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2,” Agarwal explained. “After work, I’d sometimes play seven hours in a day. All of the employees can put their studio tag on their profile, and we play together.”

Day to day, Agarwal’s work focuses on how data is sent from the game to the backend. She works on the library that takes care of data formatting and connection with the backend.”

“Telemetry means collecting a bunch of data from an application that you can tie together later to perform data analytics,” she said. “It can be something like when a player fires their gun in the game, we can record how many bullets were fired and output that to analytics.”

Agarwal is one of the many software engineers who work for video game companies in Vancouver. Greater Vancouver has evolved into a gaming industry hub with companies like Demonware, Ubisoft, and Electronic Arts, which is headquartered nearby.

Returning to school to pursue new career goals

Growing up in Hyderabad, India, Agarwal studied computer science during her undergraduate degree. After graduating in 2016, she joined Microsoft’s IT services team, where she helped handle the APIs and backend services that power the company’s user interface. She enjoyed working in tech, but wanted to pivot more into the entertainment space

“I left my job, and I remembered there was a graphics course I took in undergrad involving C++ where I made a 3D level to explore,” she said. “That was the most fun course I had taken. I looked at a number of different universities in 2019, and the one that stood out was Northeastern, which offered a game design specialization within a CS master’s degree.”

After completing her first semester remotely due to the global pandemic, Agarwal arrived in Vancouver for her second semester. The chance to join a smaller campus appealed to her.

“I knew that the faculty would have more time for each student,” Agarwal said. “I learn better one-on-one and when I can ask a lot of questions.”

She was also able to solidify her learning through helping other students when she was offered a job as a teaching assistant (TA). She sees this as a great way to prepare for the workplace, where you will need to show other people how to do things, or help them teach you when you need to learn.

“The real essence of what’s being taught, you only really get that from teaching it to someone else,” she explained. “You try different procedures. Some people are more visual; some want to listen and try it themselves. Being able to understand where the other person is and meet them there to walk them through it, that’s the most valuable thing as a TA.”

The internship was a great first step to understand the professional work environment in Canada, I gained a lot of confidence.

Landing a job in the competitive video game industry

Agarwal leveled up her programming and game development skills in her classes, but she also cites the usefulness of on-campus workshops and coaching that prepare students for industry opportunities and internships.

“For me to learn how to represent myself and my brand, how to have a conversation with someone you just met and talk about a potential job, I’d never learned anything like that before,” she said. “I’m quite introverted. Having a good relationship with the professors helped, and Northeastern has faculty invested in developing you outside of just technical skills. Mock interviews also helped prepare me for the Canadian job market.”

Agarwal’s capstone project in her final semester was for an indie game company, which gave her a glimpse of the industry. The summer before that, she did an internship with Nextech AR Solutions, which uses the Unity engine, C++, and Python to create augmented reality experiences and apps.

“The internship was a great first step to understand the professional work environment in Canada,” she said. “I gained a lot of confidence. It helped me narrow down what jobs I wanted to do. I ended up interviewing at Demonware after several mock interviews with Northeastern faculty and got the job.”

Preparing for success in a creative, collaborative, and technical field

Agarwal has worked on three Call of Duty titles and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4. She emphasizes soft skills as very important for students interested in the gaming industry, which moves faster than other industries.

“Clear communication is really important,” she said. “Your programming language fundamentals need to be good, but you don’t need to know everything. Part of your job will be working with others on your team, translating instructions to the work you do. A lot of my job involves providing support to other teams that use the library.”

Agarwal encourages students who are interested in a graduate program and want to work in AAA games to find a program with a specialization in game design, as well as check out the electives and courses listed on the university’s website.

“Try to talk to someone you might know in the games industry and ask if the classes are applicable to their company,” she said. “There are people who work only in Python, on APIs, specialize in different languages, or only do UI. Depending on which area you’re targeting, make sure the degree is as concentrated toward your goal as possible. If you want to work in UI, it doesn’t make sense to take courses in C++.”

Agarwal enjoys living and working in Vancouver. Thanks to British Columbia and Canada’s tax benefits, gaming and film companies benefit from employing people in the province.

“Companies tend to open at least one office here, and there’s a lot of variety,” she added. “People tend to be kinder In Vancouver, too. And I like being near the mountains and the water at the same time. When you go on the ferry during sunset, you get to see everything.”

By Benjamin Hosking