I remember back when I was in college on a games course. One of the first things our tutor said was "look around at your classmates, they will one day be competing with you for a job! The games industry is competitive!"

I think that was a bad thing to say.

It's true that jobs in the industry are super sought after, but it's not nearly as impossile as it's made out to be. Plus, I really don't like that we were being primed to compete with each other.

My journey into games was almost entirely propped up by the support of people who already worked in the industry when I didn't. I was given guidance, encouragement, mentoring, belief, sign-posting etc. I wasn't elbowed out the way because I was seen as competition.

Even when I was still a Community Manager, I was being encouraged by Games Designers who helped nurture my passion and knowledge. Back when I was at Rare, @JustTeddii would take the time to show me some Unity basics and was a constant source of encouragement.

Back when I was at @Coatsink, co-founder and designer @pdcrabb would humour me when I asked a million questions about design, and encouraged me to pitch a project to the studio.

If I was teaching game dev students, I wouldn't be saying "get ready to rival each other", I'd be teaching them to share knowledge and encourage each other, because I've only seen that lead to positive results for myself and others.