Let me start this off by saying I'm not a trained educator
and I have no experience within the Games Industry.
What I do have, however, is experience within the education
system, and experience on a Game Art Course.
The question asked to me is essentially:
Do graduates need to be highly trained individuals to get
employed within the industry or do they just need to be creative with a good
liberal arts background?
Different developers require
different skill sets when it comes to the Games Industry, and Game degrees are
a point of great controversy among many developers. I've read multiple articles
telling me how unbelievably useless my entire degree is. Then I've read others
that have told me it's a great idea. "When hiring junior developers, I
can't think of a single time where their educational background has been a factor
in choosing to hire them." says Raphael Van Lierop, the Creative Director
at Hinterland Games, in an article from gamesindustry.biz, " I'm often
asked whether I think aspiring developers should go to the game degree schools
vs. getting a traditional education in a field like computer science or fine
arts, and I always say go for the traditional degree, because you're going to
get a much more well-rounded experience and it's more about building the
foundational skills you need to problem solve, communicate, and apply critical
thinking skills". I suppose this line of thinking is true. You can,
technically, learn how to be a games designer in your bedroom. Get hold of the
software, watch some internet tutorials, read through forums; it's relatively
simple to get started and that is why the indie games market and the mobile
markets are booming. People are just making games for fun in their rooms.
However, there are many benefits
to a degree, depending on the quality of the degree I suppose. In fact, I'm a huge proponent. Then again, I
haven't gone into the industry yet so, my tune may change.
Sure, I could learn all of these
things in my bedroom. I could just sit away from the world, learn how to model
some stuff and that would be it. BUT. I would miss out on such an experience,
and that is really what Games Design courses, or at least my Game Art course,
offers students. It's all soft skills.
The fact of the matter is,
learning how to model and texture doesn't prepare me for what the industry will
be like. The studio environment that I can immerse myself in has helped me more
than any internet tutorial. Learning from my peers, talking about our projects,
sharing interesting articles and blogs with each other and critiquing each other's
work. It's a great learning experience that really gives you something that
bedroom learning won't.
As well as the 3D skills, there is
a huge emphasis on art. The masters are important, we learn about colour
theory, composition, life drawing and anatomy among other things. We are
encouraged to be creative, to think outside of the box. To make the briefs we
get and the projects we do fit us so we can show our best work.
Working in my bedroom is not going
to improve my knowledge of project management. It won't improve my ability to
schedule. It won't teach me how to work in a team. It won't teach me how to
delegate jobs. It won't encourage me to be creative and innovative, teaching me
new ways to problem solve. I will miss out on all of this if I just sit in my
room. My University degree, however, has taught me all of these things, with
the help and support from those who have been in the industry. Those are things
you don't get from working alone or doing a different degree.
It is true that many of these soft
skills can, perhaps, be learnt from other courses. But then there are the
industry connections we have through the University. The great thing about
being on our course is we are surrounded by people who have worked in the
industry and worked their recently. They understand what is expected of
graduates, they know the current techniques and newer workflows. The briefs we
are given are professionally written and some are even given to us by
developers. These prepare us fantastically for the industry and what it will be
like when we go into industry because we understand the standards and what we
can expect when it comes to briefs. We are also lucky to receive talks from developers
currently in the industry. They will often come around the labs and talk to us
about our work and give us tips. This can also allow us to network, one of the
most important things within the industry.
So, returning back to my original
question:
"Do graduates need to be highly trained individuals to
get employed within the industry or do they just need to be creative with a
good liberal arts background?"
Why can't we be both? Why can't courses teach both? My
degree is doing it, so it's clearly possible. I'd like to think of myself as
relatively highly trained for 2 years of experience with any 3D software at
all; I can use 3DS Max, Zbrush, Cryengine, UDK, Photoshop and numerous other programs.
I can express my ideas and come up with interesting concepts an ideas as a
response to a brief. Sure, this is stuff I probably could have done before, but
being in the community that is my course, I've received so much support and
help that I can tell you right now, I'm infinitely more skilled that I was 2
years ago and I've learnt so much more about people. I can now present in front
of people, a couple of years ago I would have rather died, but now I almost
look forwards to talking about my ideas and work. I can actually schedule and
I'm working hard to improve my time management skills with the support and help
of my classmates and tutors. I'm also creating networks and I'm exposed to
developers who offer internships and jobs. I've had my creativity and my
knowledge of the arts improved tenfold over the space of a year. It's crazy.
These things are all things I wouldn't have been able to do in
a different course. So, the answer to the eternal questions of whether or not
Games course are actually useful and whether or not they are teaching the right
things, just follow my course.
Of course there are still people who will argue "Well
you can learn project management ANYWHERE, come on". I say one other word
to you.
Portfolio.
Developers will hire people for their portfolio. If your
portfolio is good then you probably have a job. So why would you turn down
three years of constant portfolio improvement with advice and opinions on that
work from industry professionals? It's the perfect time to improve your skills
and work on your portfolios while not having to worry about getting a job or
going to work.
Look, in my opinion, we should be encouraging both. Both the
liberal arts and important 3D technological skills are both important and, at
least from my experience, my university course has helped me with both.
It can be done, I swear.
Sorry this has been a little... ranty and not very picture
heavy but I have a lot of opinions on this... especially after reading repeated
articles about how I'm wasting £27,000 and 3 years of my life.
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