The Escapist posted a complete issue dedicated to education related topics One of the articles, for which I was interviewed in, looks at the challenges and pitfalls with schools offering dedicated game development education.

Of course, this is something the IGDA has been wrestling with for years. And, as I note in the article, “we want to be a valuable resource to all educators interested in game dev education and provide the resources and guidance they need to not suck.” Indeed, the IGDA’s Education SIG is working on a knowledge base project to catalog course syllabi, among many other worthwhile efforts.

The UK has been pushing heavily for a much more formalized approach with full on accreditation standards. This has largely been fueled by negative perceptions around game programs that were initially set up to exploit the newfound demand. (With the infamous quote that grads are not fit to work in QA, adding more spark to the debate.) Though, to be fair, there are indeed many great programs in the UK.

At a recent industry/academia summit in Montreal, many of these challenges were explored. From finding and teaching the teachers, to establishing more robust internship programs, or even addressing the resistance of parents towards a career in games.

Anyway, this all leads back to the question of talent. Will be interesting to see when the industry as a whole (especially the bigwigs, execs, managers, etc) wake up to realize we need to pay a lot more attention - and resources - to talent (and I don’t just mean compensation). From acquisition to retention and continuous improvement. Education is one small part of that overall equation - but a very important one.