You're aiming to advance in the Gaming Industry. What technical skills should you prioritize acquiring?

I would have to say from what I have seen over the years is that programing is important. Making a game that has is hi volatility and low liability seems to keep players engage from what I have seen. Don't get me wrong sometimes graphics will sell a game but a player getting a lot of little wins to keep them playing van tend to make a machine acquire more play from my experience.

As you aim to advance in the gaming industry, adding marketing-related tech skills can greatly boost your career. Knowing how to use data analytics, SEO, and digital advertising helps you understand player behavior, improve your game's visibility, and better manage sales strategies. Skills in managing social media and creating engaging content, especially videos, are also crucial. These skills help you reach more players and keep them interested. If you want to not only make games but also effectively promote and sell them, these marketing skills are essential.

In my experience, problem solving and troubleshooting. This skill help me against many issues that happen when multiple tools are required to make them work together. Be able to think out of the box is really helpful to decrease the amount of time when trying to understand: Why this is not working!

Its always better to go with some engine either its unity or unreal engine or any other engine out there like godot, game maker and cry engine etc. Because engine give you full tool set to create what you want. You dont have to create everything from scratch. These engine handle most of deep layer tech side wo you as a dev only have to care about what you actually want to create. For unreal engine its better to start with blueprints to get understanding of engine. Its always good to master c++ because studios with big and complex projects prefer c++ over blueprints.

When someone mentions game programming, I used to always think about cpp. But I was wrong. Because to understand game programming, first you have to start with the basics like (regardless of which programming language you choose): variables, loops, if condition and function. Think about how can you create a game interaction with those basics (e.g walking, hitting, scoring..) then move into more intermediate game programming like classes and inheritance.

Mastering game design principles, including mechanics, dynamics, and aesthetics, is crucial for creating engaging and enjoyable games.

Understanding of game balance and player profiles are crucial for game designers. Although it might be overlooked, a good game designer always has the target audience in mind when designing mechanics, UX/UI, and levels. Game balance is not only about statistics, but it is across all decisions, like level difficulty and progression

The core components of game design are mastering mechanics, dynamics, and aesthetics. For instance, in a puzzle game, mechanics involve how players solve puzzles, dynamics address how the game adapts to player skill, and aesthetics cover the visual and auditory design. Similarly, in a role-playing game (RPG), mechanics include character progression, dynamics involve the balance between combat and exploration, and aesthetics encompass the game’s artwork and music. Effective game design also requires conceptualizing and refining ideas, crafting engaging narratives, and developing intuitive user interfaces.

Let's say that design is the core element of the game development. Even more important than art and programming. Because if you don't hold a clear design for what your game will look like, eventually you will get lost especially when you start to program and create art. Learning design principles can save you a lot of time. And cut a lot of unnecessary features and art creation way early in the development process.

A strong understanding of UX/UI ensures that games are not only visually appealing but also easy to navigate, leading to higher player satisfaction and retention. As games become more complex, good design streamlines interaction, making gameplay more enjoyable. Additionally, UX/UI skills are increasingly in demand, offering diverse career opportunities in the ever-growing gaming market.

Creating shaders is crucial in game development as they enhance the visual appeal of models and textures, adding depth and detail that prevents scenes from appearing bland. Shaders can also substitute for complex coding solutions, handling visual effects and optimizations directly on the GPU. This not only boosts performance but also allows for more sophisticated and efficient rendering techniques, making them essential for both striking visuals and smooth gameplay.

Art creation for a video game can be challenging, especially if you don't possess the necessary artistic skills. So here are some key elements to help you in your game art journey, first have a big imagination to help you visualize the art style you want to create, second imagine the game environment (this and level design can be used interchangeable but they're completely different from each other. The game environment is the art that used in the game scenes/levels, while the level design is the game mechanics and how the level is structured) sorry for this big comparison but I had to. Third, draw the character. And now you have a game concept for your game. Doing that will enhance your artistic skills.

We experienced many innovations in technical art, so we should not forget to stay up to date. Specializing in one field is fondamental, but you must be ready to adapt your workflow with new tools, and keep searching for opportunities to experiment them

Audio is 20% that can give you 80% of the output hence figure out what kinda audio mood suits your game well and like level design do audio design for the levels to give depth and immersion to the game

One neglected aspect of game development is sound design, maybe this is because most developers focus on design, programming and art and leave the game sounds to the end. But a good game must have good music and sound effects. So you should start the sound design process as soon as you're finished with programming and art. Because only then you have your full game with all objects, enemies, player, and environment interactions. Then you can start thinking about sound design which interaction need a sound effect and what this object may sound like.

Strong networking knowledge is vital for developing multiplayer and online games. For instance, understanding network protocols and client-server models ensures smooth communication between players and game servers. In a battle royale game, efficient data exchange is crucial to keep the action synchronized for all players. Similarly, in a massively multiplayer online game (MMO), managing databases and network tools is essential for handling vast amounts of player data and interactions. Proper infrastructure supports seamless gameplay and prevents disruptions, making robust networking skills indispensable for success in the gaming industry.

In the gaming industry, knowledge of networking and multiplayer systems is crucial for creating seamless online experiences. Understanding how to sync players, manage data transfer, and ensure secure communication over the network is essential. Concepts like floating origin shift are important for maintaining precision in large-scale worlds, while ensuring that each player sees a consistent game environment. Mastering these fundamentals helps create smooth, synchronized multiplayer gameplay.

Implementing artificial intelligence in video games can add new challenges to the game and open new opportunities to the developer to rethink the game logic. Thus resulting in better user experience, enhanced interaction with the game and possibly better game performance. Artificial intelligence can be used to make decisions, create dialogs, control Non-player characters (NPC) Or generating new contents for the level (AI in combination with VR can result in some amazing game levels/scenarios).

AI is revolutionizing the gaming industry by making games more dynamic and responsive. For example, in a strategy game, decision trees can allow AI opponents to make smarter tactical choices, adjusting their strategies based on player actions. Machine learning further elevates the experience by enabling AI to adapt and learn from player behavior, creating unpredictable and engaging challenges. Mastering these AI techniques can significantly improve a game's depth and player engagement.

In the gaming industry, understanding AI fundamentals is essential for creating engaging and responsive gameplay. By mastering basics like behavior trees and pathfinding, you can design smarter in-game characters and systems that adapt to player actions, enhancing the overall game experience without needing deep AI expertise.