Apple is looking to hire a full time game and media software engineer. From the job description:
The interactive media group is looking for a skilled software engineer who wants to work as part of a small highly motivated team to work on interactive multimedia experiences on the iPhone and iPod Touch. The position on the team is to help design and implement interactive multimedia experiences on the iPhone and iPod Touch. The position also requires a creative thinker who can contribute and comment on the design process as well as being flexible enough to aid in all aspects of production such as asset management and able to work to a deadline.
The posting goes on to say that candidates should be “passionate gamers” and should have “3-4 years of video game development experience” and have “shipped at least one AAA title.”
To date, Apple has only released one game for the iPhone since the App Store launched, Texas Hold’em. Apple has been marketing the iPod touch as a gaming device and a gaming device with only one first-party game would be hard pressed to compete with the Nintendo DS, whose first-party games are generally the best available for their platform.
Update 12/10/09: Apple has posted another job on their website for a full time “video game artist.” From the job description:
The interactive media group is looking for a skilled artist who wants to work as part of a small highly motivated team to work on interactive multimedia experiences on the iPhone and iPod Touch. The position on the team is to help design, visualize, enable and implement interface, 3D characters/environments, animation, texturing as well as original concept artwork. The position also requires a creative thinker who can contribute and comment on the design process as well as being flexible enough to aid in all aspects of production such as asset management and able to work to a deadline.
Looking for an artist with Maya / 3D Max / Photoshop experience
-ability to model, animate, texture & produce bump/normal maps for 3D scene graph environments
-strong environment & character concept artist
-3-4 years of real world experience, iPhone / console experience preferred
-ability to handle asset pipeline management including XML and source control
I expect to see at least one more first-party titles next year.
