Life Changing or Career Building

More than ever universities across the globe are claiming to have courses that teach aspiring young gamers, the tricks of the trade when it comes to the games industry. This has led to a whole generation of academically taught game artists, games programmers etc. With the games industry growing, more and more people want to work within the industry. It’s a field getting highly competitive, with jobs being sought out by hundreds at a time. Even though employers are looking for portfolios and proof of what the applicant can do, the increase of educational courses giving people a qualification in the field, is growing fast. With this increase, there are hundred upon thousands of people applying with freshly taught skills and portfolios bursting with work. It makes it harder to stand out, especially when they are all taught the same things and therefor have very similar work for portfolio.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2014-04-17-education-vs-vocation

A big thing for me when I started studying on a Game Art course was that it shattered a lot of misconceptions that novices tend to have. For instance, the myth of Concept Art. A lot of what is shown to be ‘Concept Art’ is nothing of the sort. Those images are publicity paintings used to advertise the game; created by illustrators. The real concept art in the gaming industry, very rarely sees the light of day. So the Games courses tend to reveal a lot about the industry, that otherwise, may go unnoticed. This can also teach people whether they definitely want to continue on the path to the world of games. For me it was a little bit of a shock, but I stayed open minded to the industry as it was still something that interested me.

The technology within games is always evolving. This raises the issue of whether educators can keep up in teaching what is needed, for an industry that is forever changing. It’s also crucial that educators are aware of what companies are looking for when it comes to potential employees. More and more members of the industry are turning their hand to teaching, to share their experiences of working in industry for several years. They have much needed advice on how to cope with, and what to expect when working for either a large company, or smaller more personal projects. Obviously not all companies claim to look for the same thing. Some claim they want a person who is highly skilled in the field, well trained and can work in many different areas and skillsets to a high standard. Yet there are others that want a creative individual with an arts background, which they can then mould and teach how to do what is expected of them. This is obviously a risky investment and not many companies would be willing to do this, it’s just not cost effective.

(Insert generic photo of job interview situation here)

The latter is the dream option for anyone starting out. Just to get that foot in the door, and to have the opportunity to grow in the environment you’re craving to be a part of. Education in this field is needed and it wouldn’t make sense if education didn’t jump at the chance to start up these courses, seeing how big the gaming world is becoming. There may be some negatives to Games education, outdated teaching, creating a bigger generation of people all going for the same jobs. But on the whole, they teach a lot and can help gain so much insight into such a world so sought after, by so many people.