The gaming industry entered a state of sustainable growth in recent times, mainly due to the impact that COVID-19 had on indoor activities. The industry-wide revenue grew with rampant profitability due to both video games and e-sports reaching new heights during the pandemic.
The outcome of this substantial growth can be seen in a report which showed that the global gaming market would achieve $159.3 billion in revenue in 2020, which would be a 9.3% YOY growth. With that, the gaming industry is estimated to grow over $200 billion in 2023.
This growth has led to increased competition between tech companies in hiring skilled game developers. In addition, the need for these individuals has also grown due to how games no longer rely on traditional programming but rather use advanced technologies such as Virtual reality, Unreal Engine, and blockchain integration.
With the rising complexities of hiring game developers, many tech companies might ponder how they can find and hire skilled game developers. Fortunately, these questions will be answered in this blog today!
But first, let's take a look at what these developers do.
What Does a Game Developer Do?
Game development combines several talents, including technical knowledge of programming languages and a heightened level of creativity, allowing developers to juggle back-end and front-end development seamlessly. Thus, they are involved in numerous aspects of the game creation process, including level creation, sound design, storyline creation, character development, and gameplay mechanics.
The major responsibilities of a game developer are provided below:
- Conducting a logical approach to problem-solving
- Reviewing the game design plans
- performing troubleshooting in the case of errors
- interpreting the code and design into a product
- Making sure that the game function optimally
Game Developer's Skills
Game developers require an ideal combination of technical and soft skills to perform the aforementioned tasks. These are explained as follows.
Strong Software and IT skills
The basis of skilled game development is strong IT skills; succeeding in today's competitive landscape will require you to anchor your knowledge and expertise in software programming. But robust code isn't the only thing, as you'll need a flair for design as well!
Familiarization with level design and character design is integral, so that game developers know what game elements they need to code and design. In addition, these kinds of IT skills can result in games that provide smooth animation and framerates along with crisp and realistic graphics, which make the game stand out from competitors.
Creative Thought Process
A creative mind can allow game developers to conjure up novel game mechanics and virtual worlds, giving your games a heightened level of uniqueness. With today's gaming market plagued with lookalikes and copycats, a spark of creativity is needed, which can bring about new trends and technologies that can keep the player's eyes glued to their screens.
Not to mention that creativity allows game developers to create gaming experiences that are much more intimate and personalized in terms of cultural tastes, which can enable tech companies to attract certain target audiences with their games.
Problem-Solving Ability
Resolving technical glitches and overcoming development challenges requires problem-solving ability of the highest caliber. A skilled game developer will be able to face logical problems head-on and will embody patience when debugging code.
Problem-solving further entails the game developer's ability to look at a certain problem from a plethora of perspectives, allowing them to overcome both their colleague's problems and organizational challenges.
Overview of Hiring a Game Developer
With so many skills to look out for, you might think that hiring a game developer is quite daunting. But we're here to end your worries by giving you an all-exclusive overview that'll have you breezing through the hiring process in no time!
Identifying Needs
Having a clear understanding of your game development needs will allow you to assess candidates based on those specific technical skills that can fulfill those needs of yours.
Looking for Experience
A complex job such as game development requires a mind well-versed with the problems and solutions related to this field; you'll have to scout the most experienced of the bunch to gain the right kind of expertise.
Considering Portfolios
Why take their word for it when you can look at the projects they've completed? By assessing the candidate's portfolios, you can see whether they've worked on projects that are similar to what you want your game to look like. The candidate whose portfolio can match these similarities can be a perfect choice.
Start Negotiating
Once you've selected the perfect candidate for your game development project, you have to start negotiating with them regarding your contract. This can include salaries, benefits, budgets, timelines, and the project scope so that you can set clear expectations before finalizing the hiring.
A Marketplace for Remote Game Development Talent
Knowing what to look for in candidates is only half the work; you still need to know where to look and let's not forget the wide number of candidates that you'll have to go through just to find that one perfect piece of the puzzle.
But what if you had direct access to a marketplace for remote game development talent? Imagine if such a marketplace could give you not only one or two but an entire game development team filled with talented and skilled individuals that could take your game development project to the next level.
Well, you don't need to imagine anymore! Aspired is a remote staffing agency that can provide you with pre-vetted remote resources at your beck and call. In addition, our remote game development teams will ensure that your project is embellished with immaculate attention to detail and creativity while being completed in a short timeframe as well.
Conclusion
With the problems companies face in hiring game developers these days, it's a smart choice to let the experts do your hiring for you! And now that we've given you the key to your problems, what are you waiting for? Connect with Aspired today and start hiring away!