Software Engineer Intern - Game Development (Creative & Party)

Nex is on a mission to help families rediscover the joy of movement. Created by parents for parents, Nex combines technology and play to deliver fun, social, and interactive experiences powered by natural body motion, encouraging kids and adults to move more, play more, and have fun together. Nex Playground, the company’s award-winning active play system, is purpose-built to get families moving year-round, with safety and privacy as core considerations in its intentional design. It is certified kidSAFE+ COPPA compliant and built to support healthy, active play for all ages and abilities.

Nex Playground features a growing library of 50+ experiences, including motion and dance games, fitness and educational experiences, and Nex Originals. Content includes collaborations with partners like Hasbro, Sesame Workshop, and NBCUniversal. Nex has been recognized by Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies, TIME’s Best Inventions, and Parents’ Best Entertainment System for Families, and has earned Red Dot, IDEA, and Core77 international design awards. We encourage you to explore Have Fun and Is Motion Gaming Back?, as they offer a deeper look into our culture, values, and explain how our approach to motion gaming differs from previous generations.

To protect yourself from recruitment scams, please note that Nex communicates through official company emails ending in @nex.inc. If you receive a suspicious email or message, please do not respond and report it immediately to us.

Location: Hong Kong
Type: Full Time Internship (June 1, 2027 - August 31, 2027)

The Role

We are a passionate team of highly skilled engineers and top-tier designers. We develop a diverse range of games, across genres such as:

• Rhythm: Starri
• Action: *Tumbobots, Doodle Heads*
• Brain & Puzzle: *Brainy Inc., 2048 Arms, Cookie Monster*
• Party: *Mirrorama, What on Earth, Barbie Dance Party*
• Kids: Bluey, Elmo Says
• … with RPG and action titles coming in 2027!

You will work as a game engineer under the guidance of senior engineers, participating in feature development for production games, joining game design discussions, creating mini-games, and exploring research projects. The goal of our internship program is for you to learn from senior engineers, deepen your engineering skills, showcase your creativity, and explore how to solve hard problems.

What You Will Do

• Software & Game Engineering: Build game architecture, create UIs, improve UX, implement game logic, explore motion control algorithms, and build internal tools.
• Product Design: Participate in game design discussions, design game mechanics, rapidly prototype, and iterate based on playtesting feedback.
• Learning & Research: Improve your software engineering skills by working closely with senior colleagues. Explore new technologies and share knowledge with the team to drive collective growth.
• Creativity & Soft Skills: With guidance from experienced colleagues, create your own game and improve your presentation skills by pitching your demo to the team.

Should Have

• Must be currently enrolled in an undergraduate or graduate degree program at an accredited college or university.
• Growth Mindset: Humble and eager to learn. Active participation in side projects (open-source software, indie games, etc.) is a plus.
• Passion for Quality: You care deeply about details and aim for world-class quality.
• Engineering Best Practices: You write clean, maintainable, and robust code.
• Troubleshooting: Able to fix compilation and runtime errors effectively.
• Communication: Clear expression of technical details. Experience teaching or mentoring others is a plus.
• Innovation: Creative and loves exploring fresh ideas.
• Love Playing Games: The more games you play, the better ideas you may have. More importantly, you should have fun working with us!

Nice To Have

• Solid CS foundation: A computer science or engineering background is preferred. Experience in competitions like ICPC, CTF, hackathons, or code/game jams is a big bonus.
• Game foundation: Having built a game before is a big bonus. But you can also learn from scratch with the team’s help.
• Tech-Savvy: Broad interest in technology (app development, web, databases, UI/UX, animation).

We Offer

• Competitive compensation package.
• Flexible working hours and vacation policy.
• Product-driven culture that treasures talents and individual growth.
• Front-row seat and hands-on experience with cutting edge technologies in the evolving gaming field

Nex is located in San Jose, California, USA and Hong Kong. Learn more about us at https://www.nexplayground.com/about.

We encourage applications even if you don’t meet more than 50% of the requirements — we believe that experience comes in many forms!

Nex is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, gender identity, and sexual orientation), national origin, ancestry, age, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, military or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law. This policy applies to all individuals at every stage of the employment relationship, including all current and prospective employees, and covers all employment decisions including recruitment, hiring, job assignment, promotion, compensation, benefits, training, discipline and termination.

We are committed to providing a workplace free from discrimination and harassment and to fostering an inclusive environment for all employees.