Specialists & Development

Every game in Game Dev Tycoon consists of multiple development areas, as your staff become more proficient they are able to specialise in one of these areas which enhances their performance. Each specialisation requires a staff member to accrue 900 points in a combination of design and technology skills as tabled below.

The game provides three criteria by which new staff are hired; Algorithms, Showreel, & Game Demo. These three selection criteria help to influence the skill point distribution of applicants. This means that if you are recruiting with training a specific specialist in mind, you can select an appropriate criteria to help get a head start on the training requirements of your new hire. The specifics of how much to spend hiring staff is specific to the individual financial situation of your game, and not discussed in this guide.

The maximum compliment of staff in any studio in Game Dev Tycoon is 7 (including yourself), so it is not possible to have a specialist to cover every possible development area. You can staff your studio in a way to ensure that the games you want to develop have the best possible coverage across several different genres.

Specialisations which are important for each genre are tabled below:

By balancing both the skills of your staff as you hire them with the specialisations your preferred genre needs to succeed, your studio can produce the best possible games with the help of your well-rounded team.

Here is a copy of all the information combined. I usually 'assign' a staff member to each specialisation as I hire them so that their training remains consistently focused.

All the best.