The New Game Maker: what companies are looking for in new talent.

The New Game maker.

This session focused on the skills and knowledge that today's game
developers are looking for in new members for their team. The session
was lead by Ben Sawyer who took on the task of herding the panel
towards the more philosophical aspects of the new game maker. His
goal was not to focus on the technologies and tools that drive so
many of these conversations. Here is what I was able to capture from
the flurry of information that the panel was eager to share with the
audience. Understand that this is my paraphrasing of their comments,
not a direct quote of their statements.

What are the trends you see in the gaming industry?

Greg Zeschuk (BioWare|Pandemic): gap fillers are great, multi-purpose
type of person who can play easily in a variety of areas but also
able to be a specialist... a team player who does one thing great,
but can pinch-hit as needed.

Alan Yu: smaller teams that are more nimble and more innovative,
teams less than 7 seem to be the magic number.

Christopher Erhardt: neat new ideas; average gamer is 29-35 broader
age base; it is getting more challenging for small developers to
tackle new titles on AAA environment, the new game maker needs to use
a whole bunch of tools effeciently;

Sarah Branscom: challenges are about getting content into the games,
resources outside of the game industry to help, communications is a
challenge, potential skill set shortage in areas of communications,
writing and content creation

Amy Bendotti: layering, production team based as opposed to single
person, created more opportunities.

Haden Blackman: interested in how stories are told, simulation based
gameplay is a focus, caused a re-tooling, changing the way that they
think about what a game is

Where is the current state of talent? Where are we lacking?
What new skills?

Greg: Academic background, find a physicist to do game physics,
moving towards more specialized knowledge bases, attracted to a
biologist who codes rather than a coder who knows biology.

Christropher: wants students to have skills that go beyond gaming,
what happens when a person no longer wants to (heaven forbid) be in
the game industry? What transferable skills do they have?

Amy: DigiPen is preparing their students really well for the industry

As a sidebar a discussion ensued around process of game development
and how game developers are meeting the challenges of large team
based projects.
Agile Methodology & Scrum meetings are taking the spotlight in terms
of how teams organize and manage themsleves. One of the panelists
remarked, "I don't know how we ever got by without the scrum."

What can a person do to get attention from potential employers?
Number one: do mods, go do stuff with existing games to show your
passion for the industry.