Software Engineer Intern, Games

Arkadium; Lisboa; On-site; EUR 10,000 - 15,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Meal allowance through Coverflex

Work accident insurance

Transportation expenses

Summer Fridays

Partial internship subsidy

Job summary

A leading gaming company in Lisbon is offering a Game Engineering Internship through its Arkadianship Internship Program, aimed at providing hands-on experience in game development. Interns will work on live titles, learn from seasoned professionals, and contribute to meaningful projects. Ideal candidates should have a solid grasp of OOP principles, familiarity with programming languages like JavaScript, and prior game development exposure. The program follows a hybrid model, requiring in-office work at least three days per week.

Qualifications

• Solid understanding of OOP principles: classes, objects, inheritance, and encapsulation.
• Experience with at least one programming language (e.g., C#, JavaScript/TypeScript, Java).
• Prior experience with game development (academic, personal, or professional).
• Prior game development experience (academic, personal, or professional).
• Understanding of core game architecture concepts: game loop, state management, assets, and components.
• Familiarity with browser environments.
• Experience debugging and performance tuning in games.
• Basic Git knowledge: branching, PRs.
• Self-motivated with ability to research independently.

Responsibilities

• Work on live web games used by millions of players.
• Fix bugs across multiple game titles.
• Implement small gameplay features and UI changes.
• Debug gameplay logic, rendering issues, and performance bottlenecks.
• Collaborate with Git workflows: branches, pull requests, code reviews.
• Learn and follow internal development workflows and tooling.
• Work on configurable games supporting variants and skins.
• Understand shared systems enabling core logic reuse across titles.
• Learn how external services are integrated into the game stack.
• Follow SDLC: tickets, task updates, and releases prep.
• Get exposure to CI/CD pipelines and builds deployment.
• Collaborate daily with QA, Artists, Designers, and Product.
• Participate in standups, sprint planning, and retrospectives.
• Have weekly 1:1s with your manager for feedback and growth.
• Learn how game KPIs drive engineering decisions.

Skills

OOP principles

JavaScript/TypeScript

Data structures

Debugging skills

Game architecture

Git basics

Autonomy

Education

Prior game development experience

Tools

Git

PixiJS

Unity

React

TypeScript

Node.js

Job description

Our mission is to elevate players, partners and general intelligence with the world's best games. Our vision is to create, capture and capitalize 100 billion gameplays.

We are a passionate team of game lovers dedicated to developing engaging, browser-native games enjoyed by millions of players worldwide. With offices in New York City and Lisbon, we bring creativity, innovation, and fun to everything we do.

Everything we do is guided by three core values:

• Fierce Drive - A commitment to excellence
• Positive Energy - Cultivating a collaborative, uplifting work environment
• Living Full Lives - Encouraging balance, fulfillment, and well-being

The Arkadianship Internship Program

The 2026 Arkadianship is a 6-month immersive internship program starting in May. This program gives interns the opportunity to gain real-world experience, work alongside seasoned professionals in the gaming industry, and contribute to live projects that make a lasting impact.

Throughout the internship, you will work on meaningful projects, receive mentorship, participate in feedback and development sessions, and gain firsthand insight into how games are built, tested, and launched commercially. You will also have the opportunity to build your professional network and explore career pathways in the tech and gaming industries. Several past interns have transitioned to full-time roles at Arkadium - we view this program as a pipeline for future talent.

This role follows a hybrid work model. Interns are expected to be in the office a minimum of 3 days per week.

About The Role

This internship is a learning-focused introduction to professional game engineering within a large-scale web games environment. At Arkadium, our games reach millions of players worldwide - engineering plays a critical role in delivering performant, reliable, and engaging experiences across browsers and devices.

As a Game Engineering Intern, you will work alongside experienced engineers on real production games, contributing to live titles that power our portfolio. You will be exposed to MVC-based game architectures, large shared codebases, and scalable deployment workflows. Most of the work will involve PixiJS, with potential exposure to Unity and React depending on the workstream.

Our team is multicultural and international. Collaboration happens primarily in English, and clear communication and openness to feedback are essential.

What You'll Do

• Work on live web games used by millions of players
• Fix bugs across multiple game titles
• Implement small gameplay features and UI changes
• Debug gameplay logic, rendering issues, and performance bottlenecks
• Work with Git: branches, pull requests, and code reviews
• Learn and follow internal development workflows and tooling to accelerate game development
• Work on highly configurable games built to support multiple variants and skins
• Understand how shared systems allow core logic to be reused across different titles
• Learn how external services are integrated into the game stack
• Follow our SDLC: pick up tickets, update tasks, and help prepare releases
• Get exposure to CI/CD pipelines and understand how builds are created and deployed
• Collaborate daily with QA, Artists, Designers, and Product
• Participate in standups, sprint planning, and retrospectives
• Have weekly 1:1s with your manager for feedback and growth discussions
• Learn how game KPIs work and how engineering decisions impact business metrics

Requirements

• Solid understanding of OOP principles: classes, objects, inheritance, and encapsulation
• Experience with at least one programming language (e.g., C#, JavaScript/TypeScript, Java)
• Good Computer Science fundamentals: data structures and algorithms
• Prior experience with game development (academic, personal, or professional)
• Understanding of core game architecture concepts: game loop, state management, assets, and components
• Basic understanding of browser environments
• Awareness of performance considerations in games
• Debugging skills: ability to isolate and reproduce issues
• Basic Git knowledge: branching, committing, pull requests
• Good organizational skills, autonomy, and ability to research independently

Nice to Have

• A game development portfolio (GitHub or playable demos)
• Knowledge of design patterns
• Node.js / TypeScript fundamentals
• React fundamentals: components and state management
• Experience with HTML5 game development
• Understanding of MVC architecture
• Basic knowledge of unit or integration testing

Benefits

• Meal allowance through Coverflex
• Coverage by work accident insurance
• Transportation expenses, namely the cost of the monthly Navegante pass
• Summer Fridays - day off last Friday of June, July and August
• Partial Internship subsidy