Tara Teich is currently a lead AI and gameplay engineer at LucasArts. She holds a BS in computer science from Northwestern University. Her game credentials include Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (AI and gameplay lead engineer), several games in the Empire Earth series, Dungeon Siege: Legends of Aranna from Microsoft Game Studios, and a few other titles.

Recently, she participated in a public campaign called Engineer Your Life, designed to make the field of engineering more visible and attractive to high school-aged girls.

Jill Duffy, editor of GameCareerGuide.com, conducted a brief email interview with her about why she got into the field of programming, how she got her first game job, what it takes to make it as a game programmer, and what kinds of game development issues she thinks game programmers should be spending their time on.

Jill Duffy: I know from your biography on Engineer Your Life that you were interested in both video games and technology from a young age. It sounds like you always knew you wanted to get into programming and engineering. What about it is appealing to you?

Tara Teich: I've always really loved puzzles, from jigsaw to crossword puzzles. There's something really appealing about trying to work out how to put things together. For me, that's exactly what programming is like. You have various pieces, and you have to use all parts of your brain to fit things together and achieve your goal.

Having a dad and an older brother both very much into technology definitely lead me to try out programming at a young age. And once I started, I was hooked. I think there's nothing quite like getting deeply into a challenging problem and coming to a great creative solution.

JD: Tell us about your first job in game development. How did you find it? What was the application process and interview like? Why do you think you got the job?

TT: I started out working for Mad Doc Software straight out of college. It was really a great bit of happenstance for me. I was doing undergrad research at Northwestern for Ken Forbus, and he was contacted by Ian Davis who was starting up Mad Doc, asking for recommendations on entry-level engineers.

Ken knew I was looking [for work in the game industry]. I had sent my resume out to some other game studios and had spoken to him about how enthusiastic I was about the game industry. Ian interviewed me on the phone; then they flew me out to Massachusetts for an onsite interview, and I got a job offer pretty much immediately.

I got the job because I worked hard in school, had great references, and had a huge amount of passion for gaming. I nailed the technical questions in the interview, and just as importantly, I got along well with everyone on the team.

I think I really clinched the job when we all played a round of Starcraft and I managed to lead my team to victory against my soon-to-be boss.

JD: Can you share with us something you either found surprising or didn't expect about the game industry when you first became a part it?

TT: Wow, that's a tough question.

I've been in the industry for eight years now, and sometimes it's hard to recall what I felt back when I first started.

I think college really prepared me for my job, though maybe not in the usual sense. Sure, the classes I took and the knowledge I gained were important, but for a woman working in technology, one of the most important things I needed to learn was how to deal with being the only woman in the room. After a few classes [in college] where I was the only woman out of 50 people, I sort of stopped noticing. So I don't think the environment was really a surprise, or anything like that.

JD: What do you find most frustrating about your job? What do you find most rewarding?

TT: Despite the fact that I may be working in one of the coolest industries in the world, ultimately this is a job. And like every job, sometimes there are days where things just don't go your way.

Sometimes I have a problem I just cannot solve, and I'll spend hours trying solution after solution to no avail. Coming up against a deadline with a tough problem that I can't figure out is the ultimate frustration. But that's balanced out by how awesome it feels to come up with a great answer in the end. I work on AI, so putting the controller into a designer's hands and having them play against the character I've been working on and smile is really the best reward possible -- well, maybe having them curse me for how hard it is is even better.

JD: I read on your blog about how you disagree with Jane McGonigal (alternate reality game designer, currently with The Institute for the Future). You were at odds with her overt optimism about the game industry and game developers. You wrote, "if she really thinks games are perfect she must not play enough games. I play games that get me as angry, frustrated and upset as [sic] the real world. I see people acting out in morally bankrupt ways in our games, they're not perfect."

I was hoping you would comment about that -- not how or why you disagree with McGonigal specifically per se, but why you took a stance on being more critical of games.