Introduction

Jamie finished university in 2021 after studying Games Design and Art, and he jumped into the games industry not long after. His first job was as a Junior Unity Developer at Pavia.io in 2022. These days he’s at Play360.ai working on GameCity, which is essentially a TV-based, party-style game in the vein of Jackbox.

When he first started out, he wasn’t just doing programming. He ended up helping with marketing material, bits of sound design, and even some of the infrastructure work—basically whatever needed doing. Over time, though, he moved into a much more focused technical role. That shift from “I do a bit of everything” to “I’m specialised and confident in my area” shaped a lot of the advice he gave us.

Personal Story

Jamie talked openly about how unpredictable indie work can be. As an indie dev, you can’t really say “that’s not my job”—you just pick up what needs to be done. He ended up learning tools like Substance Painter, DAWs, various cloud systems, and programs like DaVinci Resolve simply because the projects required them. It taught him how valuable adaptability is in this industry.

One thing he appreciated from university was how much exposure he got to the whole development process. Because our teams tend to be small, you get pulled into lots of different tasks, which forces you to understand what everyone else is doing. According to Jamie, this helped him massively when he later had to collaborate with designers, artists, and producers in a studio environment.

As he moved further into his career, he found himself specialising more and more. But instead of narrowing his perspective, it actually made him better at communicating—knowing when to get technical and when to keep things very simple for non-technical people. He described this as one of the biggest parts of his growth.

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Communication as a skill

If there was one major theme to his talk, it was communication. Technical skill will get you noticed, but soft skills are what get you hired.

Jamie said employers almost always choose the person who can communicate well over the person who knows more but can’t hold a conversation. Someone who’s easy to work with is simply more valuable to a team.

He broke good communication down into a few key habits:

• Adjusting how you speak depending on who you’re talking to
• Explaining difficult ideas without drowning people in jargon
• Being clear about what you want when you don’t know the correct terminology
• Showing a basic level of professionalism—eye contact, being on time, actually looking like you want the job

Honestly, this matched my own experiences. A team can have extremely talented people, but if no one communicates properly, the whole project suffers. Sometimes a slightly less experienced teammate who communicates well ends up being far more helpful.

Networking

Jamie also encouraged us to get involved in the games community. A lot of jobs come from knowing people, not just from formal applications.

Some of his suggestions included:

• Keep your LinkedIn active
• Make your own portfolio website
• Use GitHub, ArtStation, Instagram—whatever fits your discipline
• Join game jams
• Be active in Discord servers
• Don’t be scared to talk to people already in the industry

Being visible in the community doesn’t just help people discover your work—it also exposes you to advice and opportunities you wouldn’t get otherwise.

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Portfolios

A big chunk of the talk was spent going through what makes a strong portfolio, especially for developers – as Jamie is a developer himself.

Development portfolios

According to Jamie, a good dev portfolio should:

• Have clean, understandable, well-documented code
• Show that you understand object-oriented concepts (inheritance, composition, polymorphism, etc.)
• Demonstrate things like SOLID, KISS, debugging tools, version control
• Be easy for someone else to navigate
• Include builds or releases people can actually play

He pointed out that lots of people upload “cool code” but don’t show finished projects. Interviewers want to see that you can take something from start to finish.

General portfolio advice

He also mentioned a few more general things:

• Focus on your best work, not every single thing you’ve made
• Present it neatly and professionally
• Use proper terminology
• Ask more experienced people for feedback
• Don’t list skills you can’t actually prove

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Questions & Answers

Here are some of the most useful points from the Q&A session:

How do we compete with more specialised juniors?
Soft skills. Studios can teach you their workflow, but they can’t teach you to be someone others enjoy working with.

How specialised should we be?
Have a clear direction, but understand the surrounding areas too. You don’t need to be an expert in everything.

What were interview tasks like?
Things like adding multiplayer to a controller setup or getting a Unity project running on a smart TV. They’re more about problem-solving than prior experience.

Do developers split time between coding and engine work?
Yes. It varies day-to-day, and being comfortable switching between the two is important.

How do you avoid crunch?
Be honest about your workload and communicate early if something isn’t realistic.

Reflection

I found Jamie’s talk incredibly helpful. His emphasis on communication, professionalism, and presenting yourself properly really stuck with me. The games industry is tough and competitive, but his advice made the path forward feel a bit clearer.

Jamie’s emphasis on communication and portfolio quality helped me realise that I need to start shaping my work toward something that actually reflects how I think and problem-solve, not just what I can technically build. It also made it clear that I should be more active in the community—joining more game jams, updating my online presence regularly, and reaching out to people in the industry instead of waiting until I graduate. Building a small set of polished projects, documenting my code properly, and making my work more accessible all feel like practical steps I can begin now. In a way, the talk gave me a clearer roadmap of what studios really look for and how I can stand out when I eventually start applying for roles.

I left feeling genuinely motivated to tighten up my portfolio, improve how I communicate, and start preparing seriously for future jobs.