Games Are Serious Business

One of the things I hear a lot is that teaching game programming is just i gimmick – something to get kids interested but not a serious course leading to serious things. It occurred to me the other day that people don’t have the same reaction to video production courses. After all we know that the movie/TV industry is huge. And there is that whole “news media” and change the world though the arts thing going. But what I think people don’t understand is a) it requires serious computer science to create video games, b) the video game industry is not just huge but larger than the movie industry and c) the same skills involved in video game creation are transferable to other fields.

Colleges and universities seem to get this. See this interesting article More colleges in the US than ever offering gaming degrees. One good teaser quote (highlight mine):

"Today, video games are not only the fastest-growing entertainment medium, they are also increasingly used in education and business for professional training and e-learning," Rich Taylor, senior vice president for communications and industry affairs at the ESA, said in a statement. "These new college programs underscore the importance of the video games industry, which is well-poised to create additional employment and professional opportunities in the coming years."

Writing computer/video games is hard work. It also involves a lot of things that I think open the door for cross curriculum involvement. Graphic arts for images. Music for background sounds. And of course story telling. Every good game has a story. Why can’t students create educational games as well? You know they’ll have to learn it well to teach it to others. They may have fun doing it and they will definitely be after their friends to play it.

There are resources out there too. See this previous post for direct links to curriculum on the Academic Resource Center.

Search using the XNA and Game Programming tags on my blog to find more.

Comments

• Anonymous
  October 07, 2009
  ... and writing GOOD music is a serious business too!

• Anonymous
  October 08, 2009
  I completely agree that the game programming industry is huge. What I find most kids don't understand is that making games isn't the same as playing games. They don't think they have to know the physics, the artistry, the English degree, let alone the programming. The reason I don't make games is because of that very reason, I'm not very interested in physics engines, artistry and so on. I tried XNA a couple years ago and I was totally lost, though I admit that I wasn't trying too hard.

• Anonymous
  October 08, 2009
  Game development is not as easy as a lot of students think. As you ppoint out it requires lots of other things. For this reason it is a real team effort in most successful organizations. This is itself something valueable for students to learn. And it does make it clear that math and science especially physics is iimportant. We do have a lot more teaching/learning matterials for XNA now BTW. Both at creators.xna.com and at the academic sites.

• Anonymous
  October 08, 2009
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  October 08, 2009
  Last year you posted a couple of videos of game company execs talking about what they look for in a new hire.  I show these to my programming students.  The vids open some eyes.  Math, physics, matrices, more math, writing skills, yuck!