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The game industry is a combination of creativity, technology, and business acumen, requiring a wide range of skills to thrive. From crafting immersive narratives and designing intuitive user interfaces to mastering complex coding languages and understanding market dynamics, game development demands versatility unmatched by any other field. It’s this diversity of expertise that Gamebadges, a project led by Metropolia University of Applied Sciences, seeks to capture and celebrate through its evolving Competence Map — a tool for charting the vast and ever-changing skillsets required to drive innovation in the industry. The Competence Map Development Path Currently the Competence Map includes over 190 skill sets and competencies within the game industry. The original Competence Map was published as part of the “Chips for Game Skills” project in 2020. Gamebadges continued its development in 2024, adding new skills and competencies to the map and updating existing ones. The opportunity to share and further co-define the map with European professionals arose at the Devcom Developer Conference in August. Input from European game development experts is crucial for developing a comprehensive Competence Map for the industry and for future work on building a truly useful Digital Badge ecosystem around it. Expert Insights to Industry Competences On the opening day of the Devcom conference the project held “Expert Insights: Defining Game Industry Competences” workshop. In the workshop industry experts from different fields were invited to participate in the co-creation of the European wide competence map of the key crafts of the industry. (1) The two-hour workshop, was structured around nine main fields of the game industry: Design, Art, Audio, Programming, Production, Quality Assurance, Marketing, Business, and Entrepreneurship. The workshop's goal was to evaluate the Competence Map prototype and draft content descriptions for the various skills and competencies represented within the map and across the industry. Industry experts from diverse backgrounds were invited to contribute to co-creating a Europe-wide competence map that highlights the key crafts in the field. (2) The Game Design Skilltree Another reason to join Devcom was to gain insights into industry trends and understand their impact on creating the Competence Map. One of the most valuable sessions for Gamebadges was the panel discussion, "The Game Design Skilltree: Exploring Essential Competencies in an Ever-Evolving Craft," which focused specifically on game design as a field of game development (3). During the panel, it became clear that although design roles can vary significantly, there are shared skills and synergies across the disciplines. Key commonalities included communication and soft skills, with soft skills like emotional intelligence and self-reflection closely linked to effective communication. A lack of empathy or difficulty in accepting criticism, for example, can hinder one’s ability to communicate well. While some people may naturally possess these skills, they can also be developed through practice (3). The Gamebadges Competence Map aims to provide an overarching view of various professions and highlight their commonalities. Soft skills are presented as universal competencies that anyone can develop, while “hard skills” refer to the specialized abilities required for specific roles. According to the panel, essential skills for game designers include conveying information, documentation, iterative thinking, self-organization, continuous learning, prototyping, and visualizing ideas — all of which are represented in the Competence Map, either as soft or hard skills.  Keynotes Shed Light to Real Worklife Experiences Keynotes are usually a good way to understand any conference. At Devcom, both days were opened by esteemed figures from the game industry. The talks were quite different from each other and, perhaps unexpectedly, did not focus solely on sharing success stories. For Gamebadges, there were interesting for understanding game developers journey trough game development process and to see how the different competences are utilized in real work environments. Game Writer and Narrative Designer Kelsey Beachum opened the conference with the talk 'A Case for Better Story Integration — or, I Am Begging You People to Stop Calling It a Story Wrapper,' which criticised the lack of depth in storytelling, particularly in high-budget, high-profile AAA games. According to Beachum, the term "story wrapper" can be likened to a candy wrapper—something wrapped around the actual product (the game or the candy) but offering nothing of substance and easily discarded. In games, this occurs when the story and gameplay are disconnected: players engage with gameplay, then encounter a cutscene where the story is told, before returning to gameplay. Often, it makes no difference to the game's progress whether the player watches the cutscene or not. (4) Beachum's talk was aimed at game developers who do not directly create narratives, to help them better understand the importance of integrated storytelling in games and encourage more proactive collaboration with the narrative design department. Cinematic Director Jason Latino shared a personal story of being wrong in predicting what players want in his talk "Chaos Menu or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Hug the Bear." The talk focused on Latino’s personal development, coming from a different work culture and learning a new style of working and leading through trial and error. Using visual examples from Baldur’s Gate 3, Latino explained how development decisions from other departments affect the work and quality of cinematics, and why it’s important to keep an open mind before declining new features, for example. (5) Both talks, along with the previous panel, confirmed that communication is a key competence in game development. Communication plays a major role in the Gamebadges Competence Map; for instance, four out of six of the soft skill competencies include some form of communication. Communication is also integrated into hard skill descriptions, in phrases such as 'can collaborate with the analytics department' or 'is able to facilitate the relationship between designers and the community,' among others Photo: Audience listens to a speaker. (devcom Developer Conference press images) 17 stages and over 200 sessions Over two days, Devcom hosted around 350 speakers across 17 stages and a new side event area, delivering over 200 talks and workshops. The content was organized into 16 main categories, further divided by experience level: Beginner, Intermediate, and Expert. (6) Filtering the program and planning one’s visit were essential, as the 17 stages, spread across two floors, were accompanied by a large expo area. For a project like Gamebadges, events of this kind offer excellent opportunities to learn, refine, and promote project content. Author Ria Gynther works as a project coordinator for the Gamebadges project at Metropolia. Sources Bizcommunity. 2024a. Workshop: Expert Insights: Defining Game Industry Competences. (gamescom.global) Cited 26.8.2024. Gamebadges. 2024. Greetings from Devcom! (gamebadges.com) Cited 16.9.2024. Hantschel et al. 2024. The Game Design Skilltree: Exploring Essential Competencies In An Ever-Evolving Craft. (gamescom.global) Cited 26.8.2024. Beachum, K. 2024. A Case for Better Story Integration — or, "I Am Begging You People To Stop Calling It A Story Wrapper". Keynote at Devcom 19.8.2024. Latino, J. 2024. Chaos Menu or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Hug The Bear. Keynote at Devcom 20.8.2024. Hartmann, R. 2024. DEVCOM DEVELOPER CONFERENCE BREAKS ALL RECORDS IN NEW LOCATION. Press Release. (devcom.global) Cited 2.9.2024.