Should you be a generalist or specialise?

Pocket Gamer Connects Jordan 2024 kicked off today with a panel of industry experts, hosted by The Powell Group head of business development Charly Harbord, offering key tips on how to get into the games industry.

One topic, particularly relevant for industry newcommers, is whether you should be a generalist – learn skills across a raft of roles – or specialise in a particular area.

Mad Hook CEO Hazim Al-Hanbali said developers starting out should learn about everything – but master one thing. He said developers have a limited time to learn, so should aim to perfect one area, but ensure they keep learning to stretch themselves while understanding what their co-workers are working on.

Chickmania Entertainment product manager Shehab Porscha said testing and experimenting with new things is key to understand where you stand in the industry and within a company itself.

“Learning is an option and you have to keep trying and learning new things,” he said. “If you stop at the point where you know it all, you’re going to get stuck.”

He added that once you think learning stops, that’s the first step in failing.

Skilling up

Tamatem technical lead David John advised that when starting out, aspiring professionals should try to be a generalist. “There are so many things to learn,” he said, adding the importance of being able to understand the various parts of game production work.

Overall, he said developers new to the industry should focus on generalisation at the start, but specialise in a specific area in the long-run.

Starvania CEO Meaad Aflah said that at an indie studio, sometimes you have to wear multiple hats at the same time. She advised newcomers to the sector to explore what you’re good at.

In her experience, she started out wanting to be a programmer and then game design, before discovering project management was what she found herself most adept at.

In the early stages it’s really important to explore to learn where your passion is,” she said.

Golden Lynx game developer Farah Nizar said that fom a newcomer’s point of view, the biggest misconception about game development is thinking that you need to be a coding expert to be involved in game development.

“The reality is there are many roles,” she said, including professions like art, marketing, community management and others.

Whether you’re passionate about storytelling, production, art, “there’s always a space for you”.