Games Courses: Do they produce good developers?

As the video game industry grows, countries start offering game development courses. The UK, for instance, has more than 80 educational institutions catering aspiring developers. TIGA, a trade association representing games software developers with 157 members, says that “Very few graduates of so-called ‘games’ courses are fit for purpose.”

TIGA’s CEO, Fred Hasson, expressed his lack of trust in these courses actually producing game developers. He quoted a company saying “We don’t even know if we’ll use them for QA”. Apparently, Hasson is not happy with these courses. According to him, “Basically, these courses are a little bit of this and a little bit of that, but no basic foundations for a skill set.”

To address this problem, he asked the government for help. “We have contributed quite significantly because it’s the best thing we’re going to get. If we don’t tell the government what we want, they’re not going to listen.”

As the video game industry grows, countries start offering game development courses. The UK, for instance, has more than 80 educational institutions catering aspiring developers. TIGA, a trade association representing games software developers with 157 members, says that “Very few graduates of so-called ‘games’ courses are fit for purpose.”

TIGA’s CEO, Fred Hasson, expressed his lack of trust in these courses actually producing game developers. He quoted a company saying “We don’t even know if we’ll use them for QA”. Apparently, Hasson is not happy with these courses. According to him, “Basically, these courses are a little bit of this and a little bit of that, but no basic foundations for a skill set.”

To address this problem, he asked the government for help. “We have contributed quite significantly because it’s the best thing we’re going to get. If we don’t tell the government what we want, they’re not going to listen.”