Developing the next God of War?

Isn't OUR Job Bigger Than This?

There is some good stuff in this article, but it really misses one of the key marks that I think differentiates the role of the academy from a strictly trade based educational institution. Teaching students to think. No where in the article is it stressed that we have to teach students to push the envelope, break new ground. Think more broadly about games. Think more broadly about interactivity. That's what really made games like Flow, Okami, or Guitar Hero interesting.

If we relegate ourselves to producing people who can only make blockbuster games, and not people that can actually push the industry further we're missing something. What about students that are willing to push new forms, styles, genres?

Our job as educators is bigger than making people that can make games. We first need to make people that can think.

Bridge Building: Making the People That Make the Games

Our task is most daunting, and very difficult to even pick a good starting point. As all of us are intimately familiar with, schools teaching students how to be game developers are now found in almost every state. With the promise of teaching the skills that will get little Billy into the games industry, comes a seemingly endless flow of over eager and unskilled, hungry for the quick education to get them on their path to developing the next God of War.