How can you balance specialization and generalization in gaming industry careers?

Big AAA companies are looking for specialists with particular skills and experience. For example, only in big ones, you will see the role of 3C, Reward, or Customization designer. Sometimes, a company requires previous working experience with a specific game genre, technology, or necessity to work in a selected list of companies. You can even catch phrases in job descriptions not only desired but mandatory or must about certainty.

There are categories video game companies have to see which department and job position you fit. It is important to focus and improve your skills in the category that matches your expertise. These categories include: analytics research, art, animation, sound design, corporate roles, community, marketing, communication manager, game design, engineering, technology, production program, project management, quality assurance, localization, customer service, usability, accessibility, and visual design.

It is easier to find a job if you are specialized on a demanding skill or area. For example, a VFX artist and animator can work on many different game projects even though Visual Effects is a specialized art deparment. Same goes for 3D animator to 2D Motion designer. Product and Programming can all do the same, bigger the project, more disciplined work and less room to learn new things. But you try new things within the project so learning and development comes with the project itself. Its really a natural harmonic flow. All starts with the person.

It's crucial to balance specialization and generalization when pursuing a career in the gaming industry. Specializing in a particular field, such as programming, art, design, or writing, is important to showcase your skills and passion. However, it's equally important to have a broad understanding of the game development process as a whole. This helps in collaborating effectively with colleagues from different disciplines, adapting to changing project needs and making meaningful contributions to diverse projects. By striking this balance, professionals can excel in their specialized field while also being valuable team players in multidisciplinary teams, thus contributing to innovation and success in the dynamic gaming industry.

Specializing in the gaming industry has its advantages, but it can limit career growth and lead to the obsolescence of skills. Collaborating with professionals from other disciplines can foster innovation and lead to exciting opportunities. To stand out, it's essential to develop a broad understanding of the industry and be willing to adapt. Therefore, while specialization can be advantageous, professionals must balance it with a collaborative mindset and a willingness to learn and grow.

Some video game companies have started using AI for writing story, character dialogues, and environmental designs. It is important to note, if your position is impacted by AI you need to improve your other skillsets. Stay up to date in the game industry with departments that are more in demand.

Being a generalist gives you a lot of options and of course will make you a great asset. Don't feel pressure to master every discipline though, there are naturally going to be areas you are stronger in or indeed areas you are interested in more. Think more about how looking at different areas can give you as a designer a broad understanding of design and let you build on your strengths. You can find out more about yourself through looking into different areas, look to chat to others or look for opportunities to learn whenever possible.

Having a broad range of skills puts you ahead of other potential candidates. Video game companies are seeking candidates who are skilled in more roles as it is more beneficial than hiring someone who is skilled in a specific role. As a result, it has the potential to make game development more efficient and to save on game development costs.

In some places, this can be dangerous. Knowing implies can do and should do, which is a bad mindset from management, such as mixing up sales and marketing as the similar scope. Also, being an all-rounder makes it difficult to chart out a path to focus on, you have touched on this aspect of career, but is it something that is desired by you? Cultivate a mindset on this, when you are doing something for work or for passion, think about if you can do it, and then move on to the mentality of should you do it.

It is important to focus and improve on a few skills that you have the most experience with in this case. Do not overwhelm yourself with skillsets or areas where you are lacking. You will find yourself struggling to balance your strong skillsets with your weak skillsets. Just focus on the skillsets that matter and stay up to date with what is necessary in the position.

You want to find what skillsets you are good at and where your passion lies. If you choose to experiment and improve new skills, it is important to balance out what is necessary with your main skills. Identify and analyze your strengths and weaknesses in your skillsets to expand your portfolio.

Well when ensuring that everyone has the basic knowledge of the wider operation and then afterwards specializing in a field of their own and to their strengths the balance will improve by itself.

Depending on the game production size and detail, both generalization and specialization can have benefits and set backs. A talented developer (design-art-program-product) should adapt to every game as fast as possible. While it is easier to work on a smaller game after a big one, the opposite is quite harder. Once you find your inner peace with the project, things start balancing itself. Small project? No problem, room for learning new skills and try things faster. Big Project? No problem, room for discipline and run for a marathon.