Generalist to Specialist

The gaming industry has become a real competition now. As it's grown the bigger companies out there like Ubisoft are just making a heck of a lot of money, and all the spaces for jobs are gone. With bigger companies, they are going to keep those already taught in the ways of us newbies can't even handle. For them it's a waste of time and money. For us it's a job gone. It makes me sad in a way that there are so many game artists out there who are just lingering waiting to be taken in. I just feel like I'm going to be joining them soon!


But what about specializing? Well that could be something. Us students are generalists. We know the basics of just about everything. But we don't know specific things in great detail. This is where we need to start thinking about where we want to lead our lives. What we want to do with them, and how we are going to get there. As a background we all need to learn the general of everything. You will more than likely need to learn about anatomy even though you want to specialize in environments. Because when going for jobs in the gaming industry, you just want to get your foot in the door, or just about every body part there is. Smaller companies such as mobile companies, are probably looking for someone who can take on everything, such as characters, environment, vehicles, that they at least know the basics, but do have some sort of an expertise area. This is where you can grow, where you can lead you portfolio, your work. When it gets to bigger companies, they want specialists. Ones who only work on trees, ones who only work on buildings, ones who only work on engine etc. and the list goes on forever. This is why big companies are so fricking huge! They have a team for one area which specialize in that area. It's just one step at a time when it gets to specializing in areas we want to pursue. We are going to have to go through the nitty gritty, fuck this leg, fuck this wheel to get to the yeah fields, yeah trees!


It used to be one guy could do everything. Now as technology had advanced, how technology has become more in depth, people are needed to become specialized within that particular area. Even though that means more jobs, it also means people with a lot more experience, and they're going to be number one to employ. But as technology advances there may not be any need for people, this is the same with any job out there now anyway. We may be taken over by robots.


But on a serious note, having a team of specialists you are more likely going to have a better output of work in a short amount of time, instead of having a team of “I’m OK at most things” and having a meh output in a light year amount of time. It's this that is vital and this is needed. This is what employers in the gaming industry are looking for, and thus us who are OK at everything are being shoved to the side, and there is more and more of us each year.



But it is difficult at being excellent in every area when it comes to the games industry, and thus specialization is extremely important, not only for the person, for you, but for the company you want to work for, or working for. So by specializing in one area, but being pretty good in others, you can help those who are closely related to you such as being a specialist in environments, you can help those with building, but wont be much help with someone who is doing coding or shaders. But you have some knowledge all around.