Game development has been on the forefront of emerging industries for several decades, and its combined revenue is surpassing other traditional industries every year, with new companies being founded at an increasing rate. As a future key industry in the economic growth of Europe, educating developers is becoming increasingly important, and new methods are being constantly developed and evaluated to provide the best possible education practices. Additionally, game development is an inherently international practice, with a multitude of companies hiring across borders, and games seeing simultaneous releases on the global market. By being pro-active in the education of workers the industry can remain aggregatory and innovative in terms of new products and technologies. Educating well rounded and socially aware developers is the most important step in establishing this precedent of high quality, on both a local and international level. As such the need for a set standard of transnational education practices have arisen, a need that the partners within this project intends to address. The objective of the project is multifold, and divided into the following categories: 1. The main purpose, when reduced to its core value, is to create better game education. We want to ensure that every education is operating at the same level of competence and meeting the demands of the industry by providing employable and competent developers. A collaboration between schools from around Europe ensures that the talent coming both in and out of each individual country is unanimous in its standards. Every student should be equipped with the same tools, knowledge, and experiences, serving to strengthen the growing market, embracing European cooperation, and making sure that the future games industry has its needs met. Achieving this universal standard will be done by comparing curriculums, methodology, and overall education practice, so that we can identify key elements of a balanced education, and work together to establish a solid qualification framework. We can establish a referential knowledge control system, to ensure every student across the institutions receive the same high level of education. We will also establish a precedent for social values, to combat the currently existing problems, and ensuring a good future climate for the industry. The games industry is still somewhat rooted in a conservative history, as is many tech-related industries. We will investigate what can be done to be more inclusive in towards women, immigrants, and minorities. 2. The institutions will compare methods of industry control; how do the different schools properly satisfy the labour need, ensuring students contribute to society once they graduate. This will be done by analysing the market in each partner country and look at how the respective institutions collaborate with the industry. As part of this we will compare methods for following up on student activities post-graduation to define the best approach in ensuring students become productive members of society on a long-term scale. Additionally, we will consider how the educations work with local incubators, both in terms of internship during studies, and what kind of aid is provided in forming start-ups. Gathering and collating the information above will result in GameEdu - Transnational Education Practices for the Game Industry, a detailed framework for best practices and methods in educating future game developers. By having this framework future schools and institutions will have a helpful tool in creating their own education, and the existing schools will be able to reference their own methods, and easily verify the different aspects of their education over an extended period of time. The framework will be presented in several parts, focusing on specific questions, and gathered and distributed at a dedicated website. 1. A guide to good education practises 2. Business model for game start-ups 3. Education framework 4. Competence comparison between job titles 5. How do we further equality and diversity in the game industry?
See above.