A large part of GameDev market respondents (41%) came to the game industry from other fields. More often than not, they solve creative tasks, in particular art and design. And we can say that the change of industry is successful for them in most cases. This open-mindedness of the candidates gives certain bonuses to employers, such as a fresh perspective on tasks and ways to implement them.
It is also curious that about one in five (21%) come to GameDev from IT, their specialty – game development and logic. Here they find a use for their skills and get to use the modern technology stack. And the employees originally aimed at a career in the game industry (38%), as a rule, are distributed more or less evenly across all types of functions.
What are the functionalities of respondents now:
Interesting nuances were also found in gender – men are involved in game development and logic much more often than women. Many specialists perform multiple functions, and these are also mostly men (an average of 1.9 functions per person), less often women (1.3 functions).
What are dissatisfied and what inspires
The main factor requiring attention in the game industry is the level of salaries in the GameDev market is much lower than in the IT market in general, this problem was pointed out by 44% of respondents. Respondents often noted that GameDev is a very narrow field: it is difficult for candidates not only to get a job, but also to find an interesting project (24%).
Many of them added that the market is dominated by mobile games, while specialists would like to be able to participate in larger projects, which are few in the market.
And as a solution, they suggested merging small studios under one big player, which would eliminate a lot of single-type products and increase the quality of games. It is important to note that in the “other” variant, the respondents also pointed out the problem of rework and stress (“crunch”), which demonstrates the importance and relevance of the issue in this area.
The spirit of the game industry and the opportunity to see the result of one’s work is the main thing that motivates respondents to work at GameDev; they are willing to sacrifice their personal time for the sake of interesting and beloved work. And this is typical for all age groups. At the same time, as we noted earlier, the average age of employees in the industry is growing and they have families. Therefore, the size of income and the availability of a benefits package are becoming more and more important when choosing a project.
Who’s missing.
It is clear that with the young market and the lack of specialized education in the game industry, there is a shortage of personnel. According to the almost unanimous opinion of the respondents (79%), any industry can be a donor for the GameDev market. They named love of games, professionalism and desire to learn as much more important factors. An alternative option is to raise one’s own specialists, of course, if the timeframe allows.
The first industry from which it is worth attracting specialists to the gaming industry is IT. Our respondents pointed out the need to attract application developers, specialists in UX/UI design. The problem of the lack of high level of management in GameDev was repeatedly stressed.
At the same time, rank-and-file specialists are in no hurry to climb the career ladder, preferring horizontal development. Competent managers, in their opinion, could be borrowed from “big IT” which would allow to build business processes, competently plan projects and avoid partly crunches.
To develop art and design, it’s worth engaging specialists from the film industry, comics, board games. These can be artists, writers, musicians and even journalists. With the development of technology and an increasing desire for realism in games, respondents noted the need to involve engineers in this area. Such specialists can simulate the buildings, weapons and equipment more realistic.
Industry Drivers
The last thing we wanted to find out: what factors, according to GameDev experts, would most affect the development of the industry. The survey participants identified three main points. The first is having a specialized education. In their opinion, the basics of the specialty should be taught at institutes, and specialized online schools and courses should be developed.
The second factor is the emergence of new companies with large interesting projects, which will lead to increased competition in the market and, as a consequence, improve the quality of the product. And the third factor is the competitiveness of salaries relative to other donor industries.