| PROGRAM
CONTACT:
Frank Agnello
Project Director
Lake Washington Technical College
11605 132nd Ave. NE
Kirkland, WA 98034
360-455-4803
frankagnello@lwtc.edu
Related Documents:
Click here to access the
Electronic
Game Content Production
Skill Standards book.
(PDF - 670 KB).*
Click
here for the entire
Teaching
Gamecraft Curriculum -
(5.7 MB) *
Click
here to access
Downloadable
Scenes and
Teacher Courseware -
(This is a 5.0 MB ZIP of the scene
files and
images associated with
the Teaching Gamecraft courseware.)
Washington
Game Workforce Education Conference
Agenda*
Friday, June 6th, 2003
Lake Washington Technical College Kirkland, WA
*Must
have Adobe Acrobat
Reader to view.
Click
here
to download the free
Adobe Acrobat Reader.
|
Project
Summary
Lake Washington
Technical College, in partnership with Mesmer Animation Labs/Seattle,
a WTB-certified
Private Career school, won a grant convening a SKILLS panel
and SKILLS implementation targeting the growing $9 billion
a year Game Software Development industry. King County’s
industry share is second only to California. This panel
led the partnership in establishing a new skills standard
for entry-level
technical workers hired into the industry. Finally the partnership
designed and produced a new modular curriculum to achieve the panel’s
new SKILLS standards. The skills standards and this curricular roadmap
are now published and distributed to SBCTC members and other educational
institutions, public and private, within Washington for use in class.
Targeted Industry cluster
The software games development industry
in the U.S. has been growing at a steady pace over the last
two decades and recently surpassed the US Film industry in
total annual revenue at about $9 billion in 2001. The Games
industry in the U.S. is geographically clustered mainly in
two places: the San Francisco Bay area and the Seattle/Eastside
area in King county. Washington State was fortunate to be
one of the few places in the world where this growing industry
germinated and grew.
The games business is broken down into
two main categories: Console
games and PC games. PC games are those designed to be played
on a general purpose personal computer like a Windows-based
PC or a
Macintosh. Console games are those developed for a specific
consumer device specialized for playing games, such as the
new Microsoft Xbox, the Sony Playstation2, or the Nintendo
GameCube.
Target Cluster Demand for Workers
Because Game Development is a new industry,
with very demanding and specific job skill requirements,
companies involved in creating game software and related
products struggle to hire sufficient numbers of skilled workers
to meet production schedules. Companies are forced to recruit
at national tradeshows and conventions, and hire foreign
nationals. This competition for skilled workers drives the
salaries of
skilled Game workers up. Current salaries for people working
in game
development range from approximately $30,000 to $90,000 annually.
Our preliminary goal is establishing the Industry Panel Skill
Standards for a $24,000 annual entry-level technical artist
position. This represents a genuine upward wage progression
equation for those entering the industry and engaging in
life-long education and training.
Key Occupations in the Game Development
Industry
In addition to the many positions shared
in common between Game
Development firms and companies in other industries, Game
Development firms employ large numbers of specialized workers.
Generally, these workers can be divided into two skill categories:
programmers and technical artists. The programming staff
is responsible for creating the software engines that drive
the game products, while the technical art staff is responsible
for creating all of the content within the game. While software
development teams have remained similar in size for an average
game title, the technical art staff required has been steadily
growing larger. The growth in the size of technical art staff
is a direct result of both the increasing power of modern
game display systems and the increasing complexity and depth
of current game designs. As games get bigger, more technical
artists are required to build them.
Competencies required for technical artists
currently include:
- Illustration and Storyboarding
- Character Design
- 2D digital image creation and processing
- 3D model creation
- Texture mapping and editing
- Character Rigging and Technical Direction
- Technical Scripting
-Submitted
June 19, 2003 by Anthony Rossano, Program Contact |
