What does gameplay programming mean?
There is not a unique definition for gameplay programming. Of course, it deals with building and developing the game, but for instance, does it include programming artificial intelligence? Or UIs? Or database connections? Or animation machines? Therefore, the definition depends on the context. However, it is interesting to note how the definition changes again, when you seek a job position. As a rule of thumb, based only on experience, the bigger and larger the company is, the better the gameplay programmer job position will be. In fact, in small companies, teams can be resource limited and therefore having a gameplay programmer means that he/she will do everything, whereas in larger teams where there are AI, UI, and animation programmers, the gameplay programmer is likely to be more a coordinator of all such roles, and therefore it is a higher position.
I would like to close this section with a quote from a blog of a game developer (Ask a Game Dev at...