[gameprogrammer] Re: AGD Educational Panel Discussion



A person with dual skills like this would be very valuable to me. In a small company they could help out with either art or programming and would feel highly valued and able to contribute more meaning to the game. In a large company they could switch gears if needed. If not, they have a much better understanding of the tools the artists use. This is extremely useful for programmers that interact closely with artists, such as importing or exporting animations. To me, how dedicated they are to programming isn't an issue in relation to how dedicated they are to the company. Programmers quit quite frequently as it is anyway.


For "indies" multi-faceted people are invaluable. But I think the industry wants highly specialized, team-oriented people. They have art departments, design departments, and programming departments, but I'm not sure where you would find the "artist who knows some programming" department. Or the "programmer who also writes fiction" department. To be the best at one thing typically means you have to specialize, and so there's some merit to the argument that broadness of skills implies a shallowness in any one particular skill, or at least more shallow than the person who specializes in that one thing. That's not always the case, but I can see it making sense to management.

I don't deceive myself. I would never want to work in the industry for a big company unless I viewed it as an apprenticeship. People say the age of the single or two person development team is over, but I disagree. There's a lot of market that the AAA games don't cover, or don't cover very well. Like, doing something different.








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