The Learning Curve: Can Colleges Teach Game Design?

Electronic Gaming Business, June 16, 2004

Smaller programs like Westwood's may be working at a significant disadvantage because they lack the funding and support of schools that attract the likes of EA. Wagh can only hope for costly developer units of the current console generation for his students to get direct experience with the platforms for which they will program.

"Recently in a course, I taught the same principles and ported it over to a Pocket PC or mobile device. It is not the same level of sophistication, but they go through the same motions." While Electronic Arts is the only game publisher that seems to be underwriting college programs in a substantial way, clearly there is room for smaller companies to contribute both materials and time.

Just as critical as the environment and curriculum is the quality of the applicants, says Moshell. In surveying the field of game design programs, he identified two "gold standards." The Carnegie Mellon Entertainment Technology Center had eight of its 22 class of 2004 graduates placed in EA companies, while the Ringling School of Design graduates are coveted by the likes of Pixar as well as EA. Both schools enjoyed very high admissions standards, and Moshell says EA is helping FIEA determine admissions criteria because "[They] don't want to fool around much with anything lower than A levels."

One problem with the for-profit "career colleges" in game design that have cropped up in recent years is that they depend upon the size and tuitions of their incoming class to survive and so tend to lower their standards. State or industry funding give programs like FIEA the luxury of being choosier, even if it means smaller student rolls and tuition bases. In the end, however, it produces the kinds of advanced skill sets this industry needs. "If you have control of your input, there is a much better chance of producing a better person on the other end," says Moshell.

Academic programs also have the potential to provide the games industry with skill sets that some companies don't even realize that they need yet. As game production gets exponentially more complex with the next generation, Moshell feels that digital asset management will become a critical field not only for managing workflow but for improving the bottom line and recruitment. DAM "will track all of the pieces of a project, all its versions, and the intellectual property rights," he says. "We have several faculty pursuing research who have built that set of skills into the curriculum."

Many game companies are dealing with a code base that goes back many years, and digital asset management can help them assess what intellectual properties and code they have for reuse. In a good DAM system, people, too, are among the most important assets companies should track, so this approach can also circle back and inform game company HR. "It identifies who is at the crossroads of big projects," says Moshell. "These are the lynchpin people you might not have known about but who might be hired away."

Contacts: Mike Moshell, 407/823-6100, j.m.moshell@cs.ucf.edu; Rusty Rueff (via Trudy Muller) 650/628-7323, tmuller@ea.com; Pravin Wagh, 949/857-0907