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GDC07: Curriculum Framework 2
In working lunch II, participants discussed various ways to design a program using the current curriculum framework, focused on typical university constraints within disciplines.
Each group discussed:
Discipline structure: how to offer courses within disciplines and across disciplines
Bridging the gap between disciplines
Problems for one discipline to talk to another, resistance from different sides
Should game programs be in different disciplines or form their own interdisciplinary unit, if so how?
How do you see the courses in the framework distributed across disciplines or within what form of interdisciplinary structure do you see them fit best?
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Beth A. Dillon
Each group discussed:
Discipline structure: how to offer courses within disciplines and across disciplines Bridging the gap between disciplines Problems for one discipline to talk to another, resistance from different sides Should game programs be in different disciplines or form their own interdisciplinary unit, if so how? How do you see the courses in the framework distributed across disciplines or within what form of interdisciplinary structure do you see them fit best?---
Beth A. Dillon
3 Comments:
Programs and Disciplines
What should be included for all students?
• Course in drawing
• Include work in Maya or 3DstudioMax
• Cross-disciplinary design team conversation is essential to starting a program
What take an interdisciplinary approach?
• Art programs have good art and animation
• Programming as only home for game studies is not good
• Tools like VR tools allow artist to gain programming skills
What kinds of barriers to teaching game development?
• Resistance from people about including game design programming
• Interactive media is politically correct term and games are not PC
Instructor skills?
• Industry experience is important, as is industry involvement
• Need people who have shipped games
• Creating teaching positions (or tenure track) to make room for industry people
• Balance between theory and practice
How to offer courses across disciplines?
• Joint course offering
• Interdisciplinary department (with areas instead of majors)
• How do you get kids ready for masters degrees?
• Team teaching
• Cross-listed courses
• “jack of all trades” – take a class or two in each areas
Getting disciplines to talk with one another?
• Interdisciplinary studies
• Research centers (e.g. center for emerging media)
• Serious games
• Faculty from industry
• Institution needs to push interdisciplinary programs
• Inter-media (VR, interaction design, no games courses)
Should game programs in interdisciplinary units? How?
• Lower level courses (first 2 years) then specialized
• The biggest hang up is the technology
• Every school needs one person that “smoozes” the industry to bring back emerging needs
Bruce R. Maxim
What the industry wants in a graduate and how that fits within current
disciplines (given the current framework)
Steve Reid – Managing Director RedStorm Entertainment
Alexander Macris – CEO Themis Group
Juan Benito - Creative Director Destineer Studios
Eric Nofsinger – Chief Creative Officer High Voltage Software
Question: Devri University – If you needed an IS type person in your
company, is their a job available for that individual and if so what
would be the job description, requirements, and possible career paths.
Juan – The individual may work in infrastructure or I.T. in the
beginning, this would depend on the size of the studio.
Steve – Qualities of Entry Level jobs, database engineer, manager, etc
would be a gateway position to possibly create daily builds, protecting
these builds and ensuring backups for these builds. The career path
could allow for one of these type individuals per team which could lead
to other careers once inside the studio.
Eric – The smaller studios may be looking for people with a broader
skillset like a general Information Systems Student
Question: Technical Artists are needed, could you describe some of their
duties and requirements of technical artists.
Steve – New development platforms are requiring more detailed artwork
and therefore the need for technical artists for specific work like
lighting and shadows is highly in need. They are able to speak the
language of two disciplines, both art and programming.
Question: What tools are you using
Juan – We use 3dsMax
Question: What is the level of scripting would you expect from a
technical artist.
Steve – We are open to anyone with the basic skill set, we are able to
teach individual tools.
Question: How doyou hire a programmer.
Steve – We look at the candidates portfolio, we need something beyond
just a letter of intent. An internal review of all applicants occur,
next a phone screen occurs to examine communication ability, interest
levels for our particular studio, testing the candidates knowledge of
the studio, next tests of specific skills occur on site and a large
group of employees screen the candidate to answer if they want this
person to work at our studio. The employees who review the candidate
are not just in the department for which the candidate is applying but
also other departments.
Eric – Our studio is similar to RedStorm in size and process used to
hire employees. Once a candidate makes it to the on site candidate they
have already passed the qualification requirements and the job is
theirs. However they may then loose the job if they do not fit properly
with the studio or rub a interviewer the wrong way.
Juan – Destineer does background checks as that last step to ensure the
candidate is well suited for the job and will be reliable.
Question – What are you looking for in a portfolio
Eric – It must look like a real game, it must be on the same level as
current games being produced.
Steve – From the art perspective the student should target their
portfolio to the studio for which they are applying.
Eric – It is very important to focus on what you are good at when
creating a demo reel and ensure the simple mistakes do not occur, blank
reels, no contact info, etc. Build on your strengths and showcase
those.
Steve – School experience will not build the best portfolio, you need to
create your own specific assets.
Juan – Have very high quality examples only, do not place poor quality
work in a portfolio just as filler.
Eric – I’d rather have a 15-30 second reel than a very long low quality
reel.
Steve – Give students a model to use, show that they may throw away
these default models, especially if they are learning animation not art.
When teaching a concept divide the skill from the creativity so that
they learn the concept and don’t waste time being creative. This will
also keep students on a very equal level while working early on and
learning.
QuesEric – We have a healthy internship program and benefit’s the studio by
providing an extended interview.
Question: What percentage of interns do you hire?
Eric – About 50%
Steve – 50 Artists, 25 Engineers/Programmers, 6 Producers, 6 Audio, 6
Management, 12 Q&A, 5 IT and Data management
Engineer Breakdown: 3-5 Tools, 3 A.I, 5 Graphics, 3-5 Networking, 2 UI
Engineers,
Question: How do you break your teams down to work on multiple project.
Steve – One point person will lead a project and coordinate the two
teams so that the codebase can be shared between projects.
Eric – Teams are shared between products, then we add specific teams
that are dedicated to a given project. A project team could be 10-40
people.
Question: How do you manage the priority between projects
Steve – The managers practice scope control the ensure that the features
can be implemented by a given number of people.
Eric – Product reviews occur daily and directors work directly with me
to evaluate the product and process in which it is being done. I act as
an outside eye to ensure teams run smoothly.
Question: What do students who are learning Production or Design need
as a skillset.
Juan – Systems Designers and Experienced Designers are two of our
designations. We like to see designers with programming backgrounds to
work on scripts etc. Also producers who have a art background are
beneficial. Renaissance producers and designers are much more valuable.
We want to see their design docs before we hire them, good
communication skills are also great.
Alex – Game Masters and Community Masters are also important and
sometimes we must use customer service type people for these roles.
Question: Students sometimes can not pass the first calculus course
(aprox 50%), they may love games, they seem very motivated, what can we
do with these students? They will not make it through our program
without passing basic algebra courses, but is there something in the
industry that does not require math.
Eric – Q&A, Production, most jobs do require a math background.
Alex – If you want to make games you are limited, but if you just want
to work in the industry, marketing, customer service, game reviews,
online management.
Question: Could the industry benefit from instructors and professors
going back to the industry to work during summers or part time to
increase their knowledge of the industry.
Juan – The bottom line is that they would be evaluated as an experienced
candidate.
Steve – An elaborate shadowing program could be developed for
individuals
Eric – Some schools want game developers to instruct courses, which they
can not do, but they could speak or help with schools.
Juan – Your role is not to tell an individual exactly how to make a
great game, the best thing you can try to do is facilitate the students
learning and create an environment so that they can explore the industry
and how to create games.
Question: Is there a consistent limitation that employees from the game
design programs have?
Steve – The value of the dollar in a programming project, Communication
skills, the fact that education is a life long task that is unending. A
lack of thick skin so that when something they created is thrown away or
not used that it is NOT the end of the world. Understanding that the
only thing that is relevant is the customer experience.
Question: Are there opportunities at your studios for research support
from academia.
Steve – It would require a level of formulization that would be
required, but yes most likely.
Eric – Proprietary equipment may not be available for use at your school
but if it was then yes.
Juan – Some companies who do simulation might have more needs for
research and R&D opportunities between companies and academia.
Walter Rotenberry
Wake Technical Community College
Developing a Program for K-12
Roundtable Tuesday, March 6, 2007
Facilitator: Catherine Wyman, Curriculum Manager, DeVry University
Participants:
Robert Rosenberg, editor, John C. Wiley
Matthew Bivens, Video Game Design teacher at Leuzinger High School
David Martz, VP of business development at Muzzy Lane – “Using Games in Education” online
Alicia Sanchez, VMASC, Old Dominion University
Kathleen Harmeyer, Director, BS in Simulation & Digital Entertainment, University of Baltimore
Suggested Premise:
What does developing a program for K-12 look like? As Doug Whatley mentioned this morning, games give us an opportunity to fundamentally change the way we teach. In developing a program for k12:
• Are we talking about changing the way we teach K12?
o What about parental resistance?
o Budget?
o Student resistance?
• How can we create a meaningful gaming program for K12?
o Content?
o Expectations?
o No Child Left Behind
Discussion:
First we talked about using games as a teaching technique.
Muzzy Lane took all the research on supporting using games to teach. They consolidated it into a 3 page document because they feel like they still have to justify what they do. There is a lot of mainstream resistance.
Teachers aren’t necessarily gamers and Muzzy Lane believes that you don’t need to be. The teacher does need to be a SME in the content of the game. eg. For Making History, they need to know WWII Europe history. Their model is Brief – Play – Debrief. Traditional education is all brief.
The Futurelab study showed that teachers need a better way to collaborate with other teachers using games as teaching tools – even if those other teachers are dispersed at other institutions.
A high school in Southern California has staff development days where they collaborate with teachers from other schools. Academy conferences happen to allow teachers to work together. Their school has a collaboration day every other Wednesday. Kids go home early. Different cross functional teams collaborated on these days through advocacy teams in which they show how games can be used in education. Grade-level teams, department-level teams, and district-wide teams that are subject based.
Teachers with resources have used role-playing games for a long time. Perhaps we should not teach content with games but process and form. Are the people who have never had the inclination or the responsibility to use role playing games going to be able to use video games in the classroom?
Perhaps role playing is part of it. But some things are hard to role play. They are expensive and cumbersome to implement. In order to facilitate the teacher getting the most out of using a game to teach, alignment with state standards must be done in advance.
As a result of “No Child Left Behind”, schools are restructuring if they aren’t performing. These plans – building the academy – are part of responding to the NCLB act.
Building a K12 Gaming Curriculum:
NSF grant funded UB to pair middle schoolers with information architecture graduate students to create games. How can we grow this effort?
ODU has two programs – one for games to teach and another for creating games. They focus is on STEM tools. By teaching them how to create games at this level, we show them what is possible. They use GameMaker – 4th grade to 12th grade. They believe there is a point at middle school in which they will go towards STEM or they will move away from it. Next term they are doing a study on Dimexian next term to see if it improves teaching effectiveness.
Game design contests help encourage students – give them team work and workplace skills. High School students are applying for summer internships at NBC/CBS. They are starting a multimedia contest. Video game design is going to be “example of play”. They haven’t done any programming at their school yet.
Parents will object to games rated “M”. Parents will object to occult images in Neverwinter nights. (UB was able to get the company to put a new opening screen on to omit occult images.)
Students may have better computers at home than at school. UB students use Flash. Planning is most important. With a relatively small amount of effort you get a huge payoff. Usually the story they are working on in social studies. Literacy skills.
Second grade teacher came asking for help with problem solving skills and staying on task. Kathleen thought this sounded like MineSweeper, but they couldn’t use it so the upper school students built Troll Trapper for the 2nd graders. Kathleen taught the teachers how to use the game – respond to a question with a question, etc.
Muzzy Lane – “Using Games in Education” online. UT Austin is using it.
Pitching a subscription based service to sell a nursing avatar on SL to stay with the nursing student through their entire course of study as a nurse. $10/month
Final Thoughts:
How many teachers does it take to change a light bulb? CHANGE?!
It’s no easier at K12 than it is at the university level.
The potential for games in K12 outweighs the risk right now.
Can flow up to higher ed – we have an opportunity to prepare students better for higher ed.
People want to learn.
It’s our best chance to get people interested in technology.
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