The Heart of England in the West Midlands is a hub of talent and knowledge when it comes to the gaming sector, so it’s only natural that Birmingham City University has become a leading light in supplying the industry with job ready graduates. And now, the educational institution is set to further support the sector by launching the very first Gamer Camp.
Gamer Camp is an innovative course which condenses games development, a historically lengthy process, into a four week programme resulting in the creation of a game for the Apple iPhone / iPod touch platform.
The idea behind Gamer Camp was developed after a delegation from Birmingham City University, BBC and Channel 4 took part in a fact-finding mission to Hyper Island in Sweden which runs a hugely successful graduate training operation.
Oliver Williams, from Birmingham City University, comments: “When we got back to the UK we wanted to adapt the approach we’d experienced from Hyper Island and add to the existing talent base here. By collaborating with leading gaming companies in the Heart of England - Codemasters and Blitz Games, as well as working with Apple and games industry veteran Guy Wilday - we have been able to design a training and mentoring programme that we believe will have a positive impact on the region’s games sector.
“According to a report published by Digital Native Academy, commissioned through University of Wolverhampton, 25% of the games industry is based in the Heart of England, meaning that the region is a hot-bed of innovation, collaboration and expertise when it comes to the future of the UK gaming industry. Gamer Camp further helps us to feed local companies with an abundance of this new talent year-on-year.”
Gamer Camp will fast-track learning and give people the skills they need to go into the industry locally, or help local companies to offer a service to their clients to develop games to sit on applications.
Twelve applicants will take part in the inaugural Gamer Camp in November 2009. The main application criteria included an experience of game developing – but not necessarily a degree – and living in the Heart of England.
“Successful applicants receive one week of professional training in either game programming or interface designing, followed by three weeks of mentoring in which they’ll work with other participants to produce their game. Topics covered during the week include; game design principles, advanced tuition in the iPhone software development kit, and special skills such as optimisation techniques and cool tricks,” explained Rebecca Ashby, commercial Project manager at Birmingham City University’s Screen Media Lab.
Course attendees will reap a number of benefits including the chance to be mentored by a leading light in the industry - Guy Wilday, Codemasters and Sega Racing Studio veteran, who was responsible for much of the Colin McRae Rally series. Guy will also lead separate workshops for coders and games artists, along with three evening master-classes on games industry topics which will be open to people outside the course.
iPhone games produced as a result of Gamer Camp will be free for anyone in the world to download via the massively-popular iPhone store (publication subject to approval by Apple). Teams of budding game-makers will also present their game to a panel of industry experts - including a representative from 4iP (a fund for interactive media projects with potential public good), at the culmination of the four weeks.
For more information on Gamer Camp, visit www.ntibirmingham.co.uk/training/course.aspx?id=80