71–80 of 114 posts
Everyone says that to get ahead you need to specialise, but this does not come naturally to me.
I think the points people have raised about CVs of generalists often losing out to those of a specialists is true, mostly in terms of getting through the initial screening by the non-technical HR person.
I’ve worked in games for twenty years and can safely say there are way more generalists today than there have ever been. Better tools and more awareness simply mean there are way more people making games. Even within large game teams you’ll also find loads of generalists. The issue has never been a lack but that the industry itself crushes you into a box and insists you don’t exist. I’ve sat in meetings where general…
A generalist is a threat to the organization as a concept.
Organizations rely on power and information flowing in well defined ways. Information flows up, control flows down. A generalist might disrupt that by passing information and instructions sideways. Which is why, no matter how often leaders go on about cross team working and matrix organizations, things tend to revert to micromanagement every time.
Is it even possible nowadays to be a generalist? In science something similar happened. There was a time where some people knew pretty much in every science field, chemistry, physics, biology etc. but the amount of knowledge grew and it become impossible to know enough in every field. Maybe game development isn't any different. You either become an expert in on field or your knowledge is to superficial to actually he…
I tell you what, the Diablo 4 game is a perfect example of disjointedness that comes from pure specialists with little to no one who is a generalist that can bridge departments together in a way that makes for a better game and experience. And while they have made strides to implementing much of the community feedback for Season 2 many months later after much of the gamers have left, it isn't the same thing as having…
Like even when I make a small scale RPG, my damage formulas and scaling and so on are my bread and butter. I obsess over them. I would accept being wrong about the resulting experience and having to adjust, but to me it's really unacceptable to have oversights and mistakes there.
So something like how broken resistance was, or different types of scaling implemented wrong. That's not disagreeing about the outcome. That's clear oversight in what I consider the heart of the game.
Or for example how the mount's controls with mouse were just remapped from joystick and you have to put your mouse at the edge of the screen to go fast.
I don't understand how to reconcile such a big and well made game with many baffling oversights in the game's core systems. Feels competent and amateurish at the same time.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think this harmoniousness operates in more subtle ways, too. I'm playing through the new Zelda game, Tears of the Kingdom, and it's a lot of fun, but there's something that doesn't quite click... like the UI is a behavorial engagement layer over the game, and not part of the game itself. Like you can never be completely in the world because something outside is holding your hand all the way. The 16- through 64- bit…
Yup, games abandoning skeuomorphism and UI animations is arguably even worse than regular UIs abandoning it. The game UI should feel part of the game (good examples: SimCity 4 and Sid Meier's Pirates) and not feel out of place. In-game advertisements are also off-putting unless they fit thematically and stylistically into the game. edit: your comment was much better when it was more verbose!<3
When I read a book in a modern typeface, it does not remove me from the story in the book. I do not need to read a world war II history book in Fraktur to get into it. Maybe, like typography, it has more to do with what one is used to?
I’ve worked in games for twenty years and can safely say there are way more generalists today than there have ever been. Better tools and more awareness simply mean there are way more people making games. Even within large game teams you’ll also find loads of generalists. The issue has never been a lack but that the industry itself crushes you into a box and insists you don’t exist. I’ve sat in meetings where general…
I think it's simply a choice made by these big title publishers. If you want more generalists, give them more freedom, more leading roles.
Mind you, I don't work in the industry, so I could easily be wrong, but this is my impression as an outsider.
Is it even possible nowadays to be a generalist? In science something similar happened. There was a time where some people knew pretty much in every science field, chemistry, physics, biology etc. but the amount of knowledge grew and it become impossible to know enough in every field. Maybe game development isn't any different. You either become an expert in on field or your knowledge is to superficial to actually he…
Yes. I'm a fella who has a smattering mix of - systems engineering, systems administration, network engineering and administration, database administration, software development, analog and digital communications systems design and administration (from the circuit level up), UI/UX design, process engineering, documentation, RF Engineering, project management, and a little bit of marketing. The only thing I'm missing…
Some humans would find immense happiness trying to be the queen themselves. Others, to live like a cat. By themselves, with no one to tell them what to do. But our entire modern society is built upon and favours the busy, mindless drone. The education system shapes you like one, and isn't concerned to help you figure out your ideal place in the ecosystem.
I just got done reading Sid Meier's Memoir! He also touts the importance of being a generalist. You can have programming as your primary expertise, but you should have a bare minimal competence in both audio and graphics. On a number of occasions, he'd have a vision for one aspect of his game that the whole team was against, and the way he would convince them would be to make a working prototype of that feature. The…
This article came in a suspiciously close time frameas Timothy Cain's (Fallout dev) youtube video ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ihX2e9dnYM&t=624s )
I just got done reading Sid Meier's Memoir! He also touts the importance of being a generalist. You can have programming as your primary expertise, but you should have a bare minimal competence in both audio and graphics. On a number of occasions, he'd have a vision for one aspect of his game that the whole team was against, and the way he would convince them would be to make a working prototype of that feature. The…