JOB OPENING:

Game Development Intern – Programming (SUNY IMGD Students only)

Cyborg Interactive is partnering with SUNY Polytechnic Institute to launch a paid summer fellowship for IMGD students. The program places students inside an active indie game development studio, working on a real project alongside the core team.

YOU CAN DOWNLOAD THE JOB DESCRIPTION HERE:

Game Development Intern — Programmer

Type: Paid Internship (Summer 2026 Fellowship Cohort)
Term: 10–12 weeks, mid-May through August 2026
Compensation: Pay determined by SUNY Poly
Location: Hybrid — Combination of Rome NY in-person and remote work
Eligibility: SUNY Polytechnic Institute IMGD students, junior or senior standing preferred (exceptional underclass candidates considered)

About This Opportunity

Cyborg Interactive is partnering with SUNY Polytechnic Institute to launch a paid summer fellowship for IMGD students. The program places students inside an active indie game development studio, working on a real project alongside the core team.

This is not a watch-and-learn internship.

As the programmer on the intern team, you will work inside our existing Godot codebase, own meaningful features from design through implementation, and ship work that ends up in the final game. You will have a mentor, regular code reviews, and clear ownership over scoped deliverables.

Responsibilities

• Implement new gameplay features in Godot 4.x using GDScript
• Read, understand, and improve existing code written by other developers
• Participate in weekly sprint planning, standups, and code reviews as a full team member
• Collaborate with the artist(s) to integrate assets and systems
• Maintain technical documentation for the features you own
• Flag blockers, scope creep, and risks early
• Own at least one feature or vertical slice from start to shipped state

Required Qualifications

• Proficiency with Godot (4.x preferred) and GDScript
• Experience working on at least one game project — coursework, game jam, or personal project all count
• Demonstrated ability to read an existing codebase and make improvements to it
• Junior or senior standing in the SUNY Poly IMGD program (exceptional lower-year candidates considered)
• Comfortable using Git and working on a shared repository
• Comfortable using Jira/Confluence or other project management/wiki tools

Bonus Skills

None of these are required. Any of them strengthens an application, and we encourage you to apply even if you only have one or two.

• Experience with databases such as SQLite
• Familiarity with physics engines or physics-driven gameplay
• Shader development
• UI design and implementation
• 2D or 3D animation implementation
• Level design
• Narrative or dialogue system development
• Social media or community marketing experience

What You’ll Gain

• Shipped work on a commercial indie game project, with public attribution where release timing allows
• Direct mentorship from working industry developers
• Hands-on experience with professional version control, reviews, and sprint planning
• A portfolio-ready case study documenting the work you owned
• A resume-defining production credit anchored in Central New York

Compensation & Logistics

• 10–12 week term, mid-May through August 2026
• Full- or part-time schedule, determined in partnership with the selected candidate
• Hybrid work arrangement — Combination of Rome NY in-person and remote work
• Paid W-2 position administered through the SUNY Poly fellowship structure
• Pay determined by SUNY Poly

Important

We are a lean studio. Reliability matters.

If you commit to a deliverable, it needs to be tracked, communicated, and executed. In return, you will be treated as a real contributor — your work will be in the game, not in a throwaway sandbox.

This is hands-on production work in a real studio, not an observational internship.