With a view to giving developers the skills needed to survive in the modern era, University College London (UCL) has teamed up with UK trade association TIGA to unveil a new 26 part course.
'The Games Quarter' will stretch across evening sessions and is designed to help creatives cope with the games industry beyond coding at their PC, equipping them to deal with the "pace of change and emergent complexity in the tech and games industry."
Bringing in what organisers claim will be experts from top UK studios and leading business practitioners, the course will cover four key areas – business and finance, design, development and production, marketing and public relations and, more broadly, general industry knowledge.
Modern day dev
Breaking it down, TIGA is pitching The Games Quarter as a way for experts to pass on their knowledge on how the different elements of running a games business in 2014 fit together, helping studios in areas where, typically, many fall down.
"The video game sector is one of our most important creative industries and one where the UK provides real leadership," added Dr. Alastair Moore, IDEALondon Governing Board Member.
The videogame sector continues to go through a period of unprecedented change.Dr. Alastair Moore
"Due to both economic and technological drivers the videogame sector has been and continues to go through a period of unprecedented change, in both its scale and speed. UCL believes now is the time to apply the lessons we’ve learned from pioneering a new approach to continuing professional development in mobile, to the games industry."
Indeed, it's the ever-changing nature of the mobile games industry in particular that formed the backbone to The Games Quarter.
The CPD certified course follows on from a push to aid the mobile sector by UCL and Mobile Monday London with The Mobile Academy programme, which ran over the past two years.
Running with it
"We want to help developers and digital publishers to be as good at running a business as they are at making games," added TIGA CEO Dr. Richard Wilson.
"We are partnering with UCL because The Games Quarter offers a new and effective model of continuing professional development for the games industry, which will encourage knowledge sharing and best practice and make a practical, commercial difference to developers and digital publishers.
"The Games Quarter will help game developers enhance both their technical and business skills by working on a real-life project that will have a significant positive impact on their business. It will also involve developers teaching developers and so promote the building of more sustainable and successful studios."
With only a small number of places available, developers are invited to register as soon as possible via The Games Quarter website.
Subsidised by UCL, the course starts at £252.65 including VAT for start-ups and indies with less than five people employees. Further discounts are available for TIGA members.
