[game_edu] What would you want from a game company?

[Ali Arya]

A couple of things that I like to see from the industry, and usually ask for
them from people I know and for my game design course, are:

1- Real-world problems to be solved or discussed by students This can be in
coding, art, advertisement, mechanics, etc. The results of students work can
then be passed to the company for evaluation and possible use and/or awards.

2- Behind the scene information, such as the design doc already suggested
but also pipeline description etc

3- Internships needless to say are great opportunities for students

4- Help in setting up competitions and term projects (giving ideas and/or
awards, judging, etc) 

5- post-mortem and product analysis meetings with students

Best,
Ali

-----Original Message-----
From: game_edu-bounces at igda.org [mailto:game_edu-bounces at igda.org] On Behalf
Of Michael Lubker
Sent: Thursday, August 12, 2010 11:55 AM
To: game_edu at igda.org
Subject: Re: [game_edu] What would you want from a game company?

Would be very interesting to see games release with "design doc
attached" in DOC or whatever other digital forms are appropriate.

Now that would be a collector's edition worth buying!

~M

On Thu, Aug 12, 2010 at 10:26 AM,  <game_edu-request at igda.org> wrote:

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> ----------------------------------------------------------------------

>              IGDA Education SIG

> ----------------------------------------------------------------------

>

> Today's Topics:

>

>   1. What would you want from a game company? (Ian Schreiber)

>   2. Re: What would you want from a game company? (Dan Carreker)

>   3. Re: What would you want from a game company? (Simon Rozner)

>

>

> ----------------------------------------------------------------------

>

> Message: 1

> Date: Wed, 11 Aug 2010 17:39:46 -0700 (PDT)

> From: Ian Schreiber <ai864 at yahoo.com>

> Subject: [game_edu] What would you want from a game company?

> To: game_edu at igda.org

> Message-ID: <258762.38248.qm at web39702.mail.mud.yahoo.com>

> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

>

> Hi everyone,

>

> Just had an interesting discussion with a colleague about potential value

that a

> large game company (something like EA, Blizzard, Zynga, etc.) could offer

> schools on a large scale.

>

> I realize there is always the danger that the "value" could be a

thinly-veiled

> sales pitch for "how to educate your students to get hired at our studio,

screw

> liberal arts and screw the rest of the industry"... but for the purposes

of this

> discussion, let's assume it's not like that, that this would be a genuine

offer

> of assistance.

>

> This could be anything: resources for students, resources for faculty,

whatever.

> Assume an offer of time, not money. (Saying "they could give a generous

grant to

> our institution" is too easy and too obvious :-)

>

> What kinds of things could a game company offer that would make you

absolutely

> thrilled if you saw it on, say, this mailing list? I had my own ideas, but

would

> be interested in seeing other opinions.

>

> If you're wondering why I'm asking, it's because I get the feeling that a

lot of

> things that would be of huge value to us collectively are things that some

> companies would be very willing to give in the name of improving game

education,

> and it's just a matter of using the strength of our numbers (and the

numbers of

> the IGDA in general) to make it happen. So far most of these sorts of

> academic-industry collaborations have been between a single school and a

single

> studio, which just means that every one of us has to reinvent the wheel

with

> every studio. It'd be nice to find a better way.

>

> Thanks,

> - Ian

>

>

>

>

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> ------------------------------

>

> Message: 2

> Date: Thu, 12 Aug 2010 02:05:57 -0700

> From: "Dan Carreker" <DanC at NarrativeDesigns.com>

> Subject: Re: [game_edu] What would you want from a game company?

> To: "'IGDA Game Education Listserv'" <game_edu at igda.org>

> Message-ID: <FB1B11E038764A37A4356B73508F5A87 at DanPC>

> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

>

> Hey Ian,

>

>

>

> I'll tell you the one thing that's been on my mind re: resources: Sample

> games.

>

>

>

> I would love to see many of the classic and pioneering games bundled for

use

> by schools. And I believe there are two feasible means for this to come

> about.

>

>

>

> One is to release education bundles. In 2000, PC Gamer Magazine released a

> free CD in one of their issues with 12 classic games (X-Com, Ultima I,

Wing

> Commander, Duke Nuke-em, etc.) Each of these were tested by the developers

> to make sure they were compatible with modern hardware and treated -- by

> Activision (where I worked at the time) at least -- as an OEM product. I

see

> no reason why a curriculum publisher could not arrange a similar deal. It

> would likely be easiest to release one bundle per company, i.e. an EA

pack,

> an Activision pack, etc. but as long as the games are older than 3-5 years

I

> doubt it would be very expensive. Furthermore, it could be done as a

license

> agreement based on the number of computers encouraging bulk sales of games

> that are doing nothing but sitting in a vault somewhere.

>

>

>

> Alternatively, a service such as Steam could host games that the schools'

> could license. Of course they do this now, but most of the games are 1)

> fairly new and 2) priced a little more expensive than I think most schools

> could afford (once you start talking about multiple accounts for dozens of

> games.)

>

>

>

> The REAL crown though would be samples of builds at various stages. I know

> these are usually VERY guarded by the companies, but you can learn a lot

> about the design challenges and the design process when you see how the

game

> evolve over their development and having various sample buggy versions of

a

> the level from game would be fantastic.

>

>

>

> There are plenty of other things I think would be beneficial to school I

> teach at, but this would be the one thing that would get me the most

> excited. I've even been toying with the idea of looking for investors to

> pursue this, but all the entrepreneurs I know are very tight with their

> finances right now.

>

>

>

> --Dan Carreker

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>  _____

>

> From: Ian Schreiber [mailto:ai864 at yahoo.com]

> Sent: Wednesday, August 11, 2010 5:40 PM

> To: game_edu at igda.org

> Subject: [game_edu] What would you want from a game company?

>

>

>

> Hi everyone,

>

> Just had an interesting discussion with a colleague about potential value

> that a large game company (something like EA, Blizzard, Zynga, etc.) could

> offer schools on a large scale.

>

> I realize there is always the danger that the "value" could be a

> thinly-veiled sales pitch for "how to educate your students to get hired

at

> our studio, screw liberal arts and screw the rest of the industry"... but

> for the purposes of this discussion, let's assume it's not like that, that

> this would be a genuine offer of assistance.

>

> This could be anything: resources for students, resources for faculty,

> whatever. Assume an offer of time, not money. (Saying "they could give a

> generous grant to our institution" is too easy and too obvious :-)

>

> What kinds of things could a game company offer that would make you

> absolutely thrilled if you saw it on, say, this mailing list? I had my own

> ideas, but would be interested in seeing other opinions.

>

> If you're wondering why I'm asking, it's because I get the feeling that a

> lot of things that would be of huge value to us collectively are things

that

> some companies would be very willing to give in the name of improving game

> education, and it's just a matter of using the strength of our numbers

(and

> the numbers of the IGDA in general) to make it happen. So far most of

these

> sorts of academic-industry collaborations have been between a single

school

> and a single studio, which just means that every one of us has to reinvent

> the wheel with every studio. It'd be nice to find a better way.

>

> Thanks,

> - Ian

>

>

>

> -------------- next part --------------

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>

> ------------------------------

>

> Message: 3

> Date: Thu, 12 Aug 2010 23:19:59 +0800

> From: Simon Rozner <infonaut at gameonaut.com>

> Subject: Re: [game_edu] What would you want from a game company?

> To: IGDA Game Education Listserv <game_edu at igda.org>

> Message-ID: <75F4B964-37DF-4517-836C-7F163F63BED9 at gameonaut.com>

> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="cp932"; Format="flowed";

>        DelSp="yes"

>

> Hi Ian,

> thanks for bringing this up. And Dan, gret suggestion.

>

> One thing I think would be hugely interesting to have are design and

> technical docs at various stages. Even though same great ones are out

> there many are either incomplete and never show their evolution. To my

> students this would be fantastic to see and discuss and show design

> decisions. Also pre beta builds before and after a change was made

> would be superb so show changes in action. Now surely that would be

> difficult for copyrights and licensing etc issues.

>

> Will think of more.

>

> Cheers

> Simon

>

> DigiPen Singapore

>

>

>

> Sent from my iPhone

>

> On 12-Aug-2010, at 17:05, "Dan Carreker" <DanC at NarrativeDesigns.com>

> wrote:

>

>> Hey Ian,

>>

>> I?ll tell you the one thing that?s been on my mind re: resources: Sa

>> mple games.

>>

>> I would love to see many of the classic and pioneering games bundled

>> for use by schools. And I believe there are two feasible means for

>> this to come about.

>>

>> One is to release education bundles. In 2000, PC Gamer Magazine

>> released a free CD in one of their issues with 12 classic games (X-

>> Com, Ultima I, Wing Commander, Duke Nuke-em, etc.) Each of these

>> were tested by the developers to make sure they were compatible with

>> modern hardware and treated -- by Activision (where I worked at the

>> time) at least -- as an OEM product. I see no reason why a

>> curriculum publisher could not arrange a similar deal. It would

>> likely be easiest to release one bundle per company, i.e. an EA

>> pack, an Activision pack, etc. but as long as the games are older

>> than 3-5 years I doubt it would be very expensive. Furthermore, it

>> could be done as a license agreement based on the number of

>> computers encouraging bulk sales of games that are doing nothing but

>> sitting in a vault somewhere.

>>

>> Alternatively, a service such as Steam could host games that the

>> schools? could license. Of course they do this now, but most of the

>> games are 1) fairly new and 2) priced a little more expensive than I

>>  think most schools could afford (once you start talking about multi

>> ple accounts for dozens of games.)

>>

>> The REAL crown though would be samples of builds at various stages.

>> I know these are usually VERY guarded by the companies, but you can

>> learn a lot about the design challenges and the design process when

>> you see how the game evolve over their development and having

>> various sample buggy versions of a the level from game would be

>> fantastic.

>>

>> There are plenty of other things I think would be beneficial to

>> school I teach at, but this would be the one thing that would get me

>> the most excited. I?ve even been toying with the idea of looking for

>>  investors to pursue this, but all the entrepreneurs I know are very

>>  tight with their finances right now.

>>

>> --Dan Carreker

>>

>>

>>

>>

>> From: Ian Schreiber [mailto:ai864 at yahoo.com]

>> Sent: Wednesday, August 11, 2010 5:40 PM

>> To: game_edu at igda.org

>> Subject: [game_edu] What would you want from a game company?

>>

>> Hi everyone,

>>

>> Just had an interesting discussion with a colleague about potential

>> value that a large game company (something like EA, Blizzard, Zynga,

>> etc.) could offer schools on a large scale.

>>

>> I realize there is always the danger that the "value" could be a

>> thinly-veiled sales pitch for "how to educate your students to get

>> hired at our studio, screw liberal arts and screw the rest of the

>> industry"... but for the purposes of this discussion, let's assume

>> it's not like that, that this would be a genuine offer of assistance.

>>

>> This could be anything: resources for students, resources for

>> faculty, whatever. Assume an offer of time, not money. (Saying "they

>> could give a generous grant to our institution" is too easy and too

>> obvious :-)

>>

>> What kinds of things could a game company offer that would make you

>> absolutely thrilled if you saw it on, say, this mailing list? I had

>> my own ideas, but would be interested in seeing other opinions.

>>

>> If you're wondering why I'm asking, it's because I get the feeling

>> that a lot of things that would be of huge value to us collectively

>> are things that some companies would be very willing to give in the

>> name of improving game education, and it's just a matter of using

>> the strength of our numbers (and the numbers of the IGDA in general)

>> to make it happen. So far most of these sorts of academic-industry

>> collaborations have been between a single school and a single

>> studio, which just means that every one of us has to reinvent the

>> wheel with every studio. It'd be nice to find a better way.

>>

>> Thanks,

>> - Ian

>>

>> _______________________________________________

>> game_edu mailing list

>> game_edu at igda.org

>> http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu

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