AGDC 2003 - it only happens once a year, just like Christmas. If a bunch of top, international game developers gathers around your Christmas tree annually, then just stop reading buddy, and go open your presents. However, if you?re like the rest of us normal-folk, then AGDC 2003 was an opportunity to see what's happening in the industry. At this year?s event, there were speakers from NVIDIA, Xbox and Intel. Ian Fischer from Ensemble Studios also made an appearance, as well as Melbourne House's Kevin Burfitt. Seamus Blackley, formerly of Xbox, was also meant to speak, but was noticeably absent. An unnamed source was quoted as saying '... we all knew Seamus would show. As usual, he's all talk and no action.' Click here to read all the juice details. They're juicy.
Nathanael Jeanneret
Have you ever looked longingly out the window while you're at work and wondered why aren't you making games instead of fixing broken inkjet printers and copping abuse from customers? If you've got a passion for technology you may have the skills lying dormant within you to make killer games. At the Australian Games Development conference Nathanael Jeanneret came along and accosted various representatives of the games education fraternity to find out where the best places are to study games, and what each course is about. There are also juicy details on what the courses are about and contact details for each institution so you can get in touch with them if you want to know more. There are two main streams of learning available for games students; you can either train as a coder, or an artist. At some of these courses this means you can work as the artist on projects and work hand in hand with coders - as it is done in the industry. Most courses expect a certain degree of knowledge already, especially within the coding stream. In exceptional cases students have been admitted as art students based on the strength of their skills with traditional media like sculpture and drawing. Like many other courses you may find yourself better prepared if you study a diploma or degree in a related programming or art course to build your skills. But anyone with enough real world experience can apply directly. At the moment, the games education market is experiencing exponential growth. State governments - especially in Victoria and Queensland are getting very involved with funding and development, and our local industry is gaining a great reputation overseas, with many companies setting up shop here to take advantage of cheaper running costs and an abundance of local talent. So lets look at a few of the places you can learn the trade! Institution: The Academy of Interactive Entertainment (AIE) Courses offered: Diplomas in 3D animation for games and film, computer game development and diploma of screen. Contact: (02) 6207 3899 Web: www.aie.act.edu.au If any place was to be the star performer of the gaming education industry, it would have to be the AIE. Since opening its doors in 1996 the AIE has fostered strong ties with Microforte and many other local studios. It runs both art and programming courses as well as short courses. They are a major sponsor of the AGDC and promote industry involvement at all levels. We caught up with Cheryl Kiraly (programming student), Kate Inabinet (Graduate artist) and Rachel Ozerskis from the AIE to chat about their experiences with the course, and to get their take on it. Atomic: Are the courses a complete preparation or do you need to come to it with experience? Kate (Artist): No! I hadn't even turned a computer on when I applied! I went in on artistic merit. I said: 'look I have these ideas and I'm really super keen, this is what I want to do, and I'm passionate about it'. A: Cheryl, did you come to the programming stream with a background in coding? Cheryl (Programmer): I actually started programming before I got into the AIE, I wanted to make a career change, and I went to Swinburne TAFE for a year and half and did software development, and I was 'okay - I don't want to do business apps'. I found out about the AIE and applied and got accepted. Normally they try and get in people with more experience than a year and half, but at the same time, experience against merit for anyone who is willing to buckle down and work their butts off. A: When it comes to the end of your courses, have many of your students found work in the field? Rachel: About 90% of our graduates have found work in the game development or related industries. Of our artists who have done the diploma it's a bit harder to tell as we often see them go off in related work, such as television and post production for that industry. K: My course was aimed at the gaming aspect and I walked straight into doing web movies, and then after that I was working in the commercial industry, doing television commercials. Depending on which course you do, gaming isn't the only avenue available to graduates. A: So you feel the course prepared you for the industry? K: Yes, and not only that, I was trained on one package and went onto two other companies and use totally different software there, and succeed. Once you've learned the general platform you can go anywhere from there. C: The AIE has taken the time to build the course, and talk to the industry and make sure that you aren't going to waste your time learning things which aren't relevant. Its involvement and the access to the industry really make this the best course possible for games students. K: A lot of students don't know where to go to get a foot in the door of the industry. The only way to do that is by meeting people at events like this, and at AIE often the Industry comes to you. R: They do work with industry a lot, they work on their own projects, for industry, they do work with other companies in Canberra. Our industry links are really tight and it is really important for our tutors to have that constant feedback from the industry. K: When I was at AIE, there were projects that we were putting together as part of the course that were for an actual company, so we weren't just getting marks but putting work out there. Institution: Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) Courses offered: Degree in Computing Science Contact: (03) 9925 3134 Web: www.rmit.edu.au/csit RMIT has a strong reputation as the university to attend in Melbourne, and not without good reason. These guys are serious about being the best. We sat down with James Saul from RMIT to talk about their offering for gaming orientated programmers. Atomic: Tell us about the course! James: It's a standard computer science course, but what we're stressing is the 3D programming subjects that are involved with that course. We are focusing on programming, the artistry is a different thing altogether. This is a computer science course. There are two main subjects: Interactive 3D and Real time rendering and 3D games programming, but we also provide some more web based courses - we have a Java 3D course. We're stressing interactive 3D and real time rendering, both subjects are very 3D focused with the first introducing 3D and how to program OpenGL and Real time rendering, and after that, it gets a lot more intense! A: Sounds good, so how is the course structured? J: The students put together a smaller project and then a major project which is 80% of the mark. As long as the students fulfill certain criteria, they can pretty much do what they want. When I was studying I put together a Scorched Earth style game using Quake Models. Other students have put together racing games, pool simulators, basically anything 3D. The lectures are really focused on teaching the students how to program and getting them interested and motivated. It's a really good subject to do, and gives you a really good grounding in graphics and programming. A: What do you expect from new students, do you get many year 12 graduates? J: Generally its people coming straight out of high school, it is a regular computing science degree. This stuff usually occurs in the third year (final year) of the course. You do need to know how to program, we don't teach basic programming, you've got to know C++ or C before you come, otherwise you'll be totally out of your depth. Which is why we keep this option until the last year of the course. A: Have you found that many of your graduates have gone on to work in the industry? J: We've had graduates work with Tantalus Interactive, Atari Melbourne House, Torus games. There's definitely a career path there. It's a proper computer science degree, the benefit of doing it through RMIT is that you get a fully fledged computer science degree, so if you find that you don't want to do 3D graphics programming anymore you've got that fallback as well - which is applicable in all sorts of applications. Institution: Qantm Courses offered: Bachelor of Interactive Entertainment Contact: 1300 136 933 or enquiries@qantm.com.au Web: www.qantm.com.au Partial to banana daiquiris and a bit of C++? If you're in need of a bit of sunshine and also want to get into the games business, then you could attend Qantm. Apart from having a very solid track record to back up their oddly spelt name, Qantm are producing some mighty fine graduates. We caught up with the friendly Michael Sobek, and Darren Bostock from Qantm and asked them hard-hitting questions about being big wigs in the games education industry. Atomic: Tell us about the course! Michael: We have an animation major and games major. The difference about a degree from us and a degree from anyone else is that this course is purpose built for the games industry - as opposed to a rebadged bachelor degree. It's been extremely successful. Darren: Basically what we have done is gone into industry and asked them 'what do you need?' Within the framework of a diploma, we've developed a course, including things like project management skills, publishing games, programming, and it all adds up to a end of year project which gives them [the students] a taste for the 'real' games industry. This also gives them demos that they can use as a folio piece to try to get into the game industry. A: Are you getting much support from the industry? D: They love us coming to talk to them, they've been giving us a lot of support, coming along to industry nights, it's great! Now a student can have 12 months of the diploma and articulate that straight into a degree. A: How long does it run for? M: We run our degree across six trimesters over two years. It's usually a three-year degree, but it's done in two. They can continue on from any other course, and of course they can move to sunny Brisbane! A: You've been running for a while now, do you have any success stories that you want to share? D:> Our latest and greatest success story, our diploma students took home third place for 'Next years game' competition, which was run worldwide by local company Auran. Those two students were then employed by Auran. We have a very good success rate with our students especially with firms based in Queensland, which is probably 45% of the local industry. We have ex-students in virtually all of those companies, and many of the startups are ex-students. Companies like Half-Brick Studios (Fuzz & Rocket) are ex-Qantm also! Institution: Mad Academy Courses offered: 3D Artists Animators Course, Various Short courses. Contact: (08) 8221 5816 Web: www.madacademy.com.au Duking it out for the 3D crown are Discreet's 3D Studio Max, and Alias Wavefront's Maya - both are very expensive packages, and both attract devotees who swear by one product and won't touch the other. Each has quite steep learning curves. If you want to get into 3D Studio Max, then you should consider Mad Academy. They are a recognised discreet training centre, and focus on shorter 3D animation courses. Their packages are short and punchy, offering 'five-month intensive courses equivalent to a four-year degree course and two year's industry experience.' A very big claim, but they certainly have some very professional looking work coming out of their studios. Institution: Computer Graphics College (CGC) Courses offered: Diploma 3D Graphics and animation Contact: (03) 9510 1244 Web: www.cgc.com.au If programming isn't your thing and you want to get into 3D graphics, you could well be suited to the Computer Graphics College. With campuses all over the world, the CGC features excellent facilities and a low student to teacher ratio. Because of their size, they can also offer access to good hardware and software packages that are regularly updated. If graphics is what makes you tick, you should check these guys out. Institution: School of Multimedia Systems - Monash Courses offered: Bachelor of Multimedia Systems Contact: (03) 9904 7070 Web: www.infotech.monash.edu.au Monash are a relatively new player in the games education field, but with the establishment of the School of Multimedia Systems they are signifying that they take games and new media very seriously. We crash-tackled and shone the white hot light of investigative truth in the direction of Andrew Owen from the School of Multimedia Systems (SMS) Monash University. Atomic: Tell us about the course! Monash: In 2004 we will be running one main degree, the bachelor of multimedia systems. It's broken into four majors, the first thing applications; video, 3D, Flash, web editing. Then there is programming, which is similar to our business programming stream but will feature in-depth 3D. Of course there is enterprise and marketing, which is more about the business of games. Finally there is our newest component which is dedicated to game development. A: So how is the course structured? M: The first year of the degree is the same for everyone, they all do the same units, and then it depends which majors you have selected, or have been accepted into, will dictate where you go next. With games development you are put into the industry as part of the course. A: Do you have any success stories you'd like to share? M: One of our lecturers, Damien Scott, is a graduate who used to work with the guys who did Half-Life and did a mod called Cannonball. Which actually won at AGDC in '99. One of the other guys here has gone off to work with Paul Steed. We also are getting a lot of international students, especially from Europe. We're finding that we're getting a lot of students from Norway, Sweden etc. If you came out to our campus you'd find hundreds of Norwegians - you'd think you were in Norway! People now come to Melbourne to gain from our expertise and facilities. Sharpen up your pencils its time to go back to school! If you want to get involved in the games business, there's never been a better time, with quality courses and unparalleled support by the industry, games are big business in Australia. Packages like G-max, Maya Personal Learning Edition and Borland C++ BuilderX personal edition available for free download and tutorials freely available on the net, you've got the tools to get started, and with the help of any of the places listed above you're well on your way to making it in games. Linky goodness: Aussie Game Companies: Auran: www.auran.com Blue Tongue: www.bluetongue.com Atari Melbourne House: www.atari.com.au Krome: www.kromestudios.com Micro Forte: www.microforte.com.au Ratbag Games: www.ratbaggames.com SSG: www.ssg.com.au Tantalus: www.tantalus.com.au Torus Games Pty Ltd: www.torus.com.au Get into the tools of the trade: Alias-Wavefront Maya PLE: www.aliaswavefront.com Discreet G-max: www.discreet.com Borland C++ BuilderX Personal: www.borland.com Other: Game Developers Association of Australia: www.gdaa.com.au Australian Game Developers Conference: www.agdc.com.au
Issue: 107 | December, 2009