A third-party recruiter working for me suggested I apply for this position. He was in contact with a recruiter from King.com, who called me shortly after. We had a 30-minute, non-technical talk about my interests and experience.

He then asked if I could complete a technical test as the first stage of the interview. I had to implement a clone of Mindas Miner (some type of Bejeweled game). They provided a few images and best practices in a text document.

This discussion was on a Thursday, and I told them I was unable to start the test before Monday due to other commitments that weekend. They agreed.

I provided a full solution using SDL within four days. The solution comprised over 3,200 lines of code, featuring physics-based animations and a carefully engineered game loop. It addressed every requirement in the game specification and more. I was aiming to achieve "extra or better features" rather than completing it in "a day". It was a robust solution from many perspectives: careful C++ design, correct code, great implementation, and a smooth gaming experience.

The project was implemented on a Mac with Xcode. Written interactions with King.com hinted that they were developing on Windows. My code was portable but used Mac-dependent SDL scaffolding. I never would have thought that might have been a problem!

None of this was sufficient for me to move to the next stage. After a while, I enquired with my recruiter about the status. He contacted King.com and was told they were unsatisfied, but he could not offer any further details (were none given? Did no one remember my application?).

I have serious doubts whether they actually reviewed my solution.

Note that I am a Senior Software Developer with over five years of experience in advanced C++ development on multiple platforms, including mobile development.

I'm going to detail some of the guidelines I received:

1. When the game is submitted, please let us know the time you spent developing it.
2. Even though the spec suggests that it should take a day to implement a basic game, we appreciate that there will be time required to learn SDL. It is fine to spend longer, especially to implement extra or better features. Feel free to dazzle us!
3. The game should be compilable by us; please include any libraries, including headers, for us to build it.

While the spec emphasizes that the structure of the code is important, please note that we are interested in both the game and the code.

We're looking for people who can create a good game but who can also create readable & maintainable source code.

Please return to us by next week, or sooner. Feel free to ask any questions.