Birmingham University's smartphone-focused Gamer Camp Nano open for registration

UK-based graduates looking to gain some experience working in a studio atmosphere and on real projects take note - Birmingham University's Gamer Camp Nano course, due to take place in February 2012, is now open for registrations.

The full-time course, co-designed with partners such as Blitz Games Studios, Codemasters and FreeStyleGames, runs over one month, and gives its students the chance to develop their own iPhone game.

Big break

"Having a degree alone isn't enough these days," said Gamer Camp studio manager Iain Harrison.

"A person wanting to break into the industry needs to show that they have something that most university courses just can't provide, and that something is experience.

"Gamer Camp: Nano provides an opportunity to work in a development team of other like-minded individuals, and work on a small-scale project that will actually be published. This is pure gold for anyone with real, serious intentions of working within the games industry."

Get involved

The course costs £950 and includes a week intensive training in programming or games art by DJ Hero series veterans Harrison and Alex Darby. This is then followed by a three week development process using real tools and hardware.

Games produced on the course are then published on the App Store, pending Apple approval. Aliens vs Humans was one such previous submission, managing to pick up 10,000 downloads in its first two weeks.

Places on the course are limited and subject to an interview process, so if you are interested in taking part, we recommend you visit the Gamer Camp website to register.

Or you can get the views of attendee Anthony Todd below.