Liverpool wants to build 'games academy'

by Alexander Sliwinski on Jul 10th 2009 2:00AM

City councilors in Liverpool (England, UK, EU ... sorta) are planning on creating a "computer games academy" in the city. The Liverpool Daily Post reports the £5m facility would train students in art, coding and tech. As Develop notes, the area is home to SCEE Liverpool and Bizarre Creations, with 1,500 developers employed in the area.

The city's enterprise leader, Councilor Gary Millar, hopes the academy will become a hub for well-trained potential employees and inspire people to "up-skill and get involved." It's a good thing for the UK, as the region continues to fight for tax breaks and develop more skilled labor for the industry.

[Via Develop]

[Image]

Source

Tags: business, computer-games-academy, education, england, labor, labour, liverpool, skilled-labor, uk

Reader Comments (46)

Seeing the headline AND the pic, I thought Negima. There's something very, very wrong with me.

You're a weeaboo, that's what's wrong with you.

Did someone say weeaboo?

I think I just heard someone say "weeaboo."

http://pbfcomics.com/?cid=PBF071-Weeaboo.gif

WEE-A-BOO! WEE-A-BOO!

Man, I love PBF...

Got beaten to it...speaking of beatings *grabs paddle*

WEE-A-BOO! WEE-A-BOO! WEE-A-BOO!

I just left Liverpool and moved to London to study game design .____.

Damned

I'm going to Liverpool John Moores University in September to study Computer Games Technology, I was originally going to switch down to Computer Science after my first year but this sounds very promising, might stay on if they make the course sound employable.

id love to join up i live in liverpool but im crap at art and maths lol rele wish i wasnt lol

I don't know who is more respectable.
The useless advertiser,
or "jordan", who really seems like he could use another English class or two.

What's wrong with programming?

As Mr Ford once said, "If you say you can't draw, you're probably right."

Maths isn't necessary for games design, particulaly if you're the design and art side of things. Being able to draw or paint doesn't have that much influence on art in terms of games art as games art is all about attention to detail, understaning the anatomy and mechanics of things.

Don't give up on the idea because you struggle at art and maths - practice! There are many thousands of tutorials, articles and programs on the web to help you get started in games design.

maty: What. A solid foundation in drawing is critically important for most any artist, even if it's something they don't have to do as a part of their job.

It certainly helps but it isn't imperitive.

What is more important is a grasp of anatomy, muscles, bone structures, material and fabric, understanding edge loops, range of movements, fixtures, fittings...

I know. I'm a games artist and I graduated with First Class Honours in Computer Games Design from university. I can draw, sure, but being able to hasn't helped drastically in grasping 3D modelling and game art.

lol

So what happens when all of society becomes about making and playing video games? Huh? Why will young adults want to study Science, Math, History, Sociology, etc. etc. Everyone will be making games, and playing them.

It's a great industry, sure... but do we really need developers to the point where we need whole schools for them?

(Sorry, I'm just bitter. I'm a programmer by trade, writing useful software that fulfills business logic and related use cases, that keeps the world turning. Now we're going to be flooded with XNA programmers, iPhone devs, and flash "developers" who won't know the difference between a pointer and a thread. Get your own career!)

But I like games. :(

So do I. I play a lot of them in fact. And I have nothing against game developers either, as I know a few personally, and the majority of them are smart, intelligent, artistic people with a lot of skill in what they do.

To be more succinct: I'm mostly worried about the market becoming over-saturated with "wannabe" programmers, either forcing me out of a job, or making my hard-earned credentials somehow less valuable, now that they can be compared to a 2-year (or less!) mostly art and design degree that is passed off as a pitiful excuse for a programmer.

I studied ARM assembly, for Christ's sake. Don't tell me that isn't worth something!

if they get a degree in art and design, wouldnt they get a job in art and design....and not programming?

Well, a degree such as a Bachelor of Fine Arts in the focus in Game dev in my school takes about 4 yrs and a Masters 5yrs. Of course, I attend an art school, so its really heavy on the artistic focus.

you sound like a big massive whopper to be honest. give ya head a wobble and stop marking peoples english on a games website TOOL!!!

You don't need to worry too much
Most developers won't take on graduate artists or coders other than for graduate positions, of which there are limited numbers.

This I know....

Too bad I'm already attending college for both Architecture and Game Design here in the us. Liverpool seems nice.

[FYI, yes, that's my blog, :( ]

*US

Serious....I mean...are you kidding me....I'll get you Irony, and your little dog too!!

WOW I liked your blog. Hell I'm lying I loved it your five points to a perfect game were dead on, and I can't but help notice you mentioned some of my favorite games. With that said keep up the good work.

I don't like your job....

wat

As a proud inhabitant of Liverpool since birth, I can honestly say I did not know Bizarre Creations were based here. Might go say hello.

Rare used to be here too, before the MS money hat.
Also a big Sony QA (game testing) centre is here, i worked there for a while, good times.

Meh. Abertay still offers the best games degrees in the world :)

Woo Abertay :)

Judy. GTFO....

He aint handsome any more.

Liverpool, and I make no apologies for this, is the absolute a*sehole of the UK. It is a cesspit of despair, out of which nothing of value can ever emerge. I have seen small villages in Equatorial Guinea with more cultural significance than Liverpool. I have known goat herders from Tibet that have contributed more to the progress of this world than Liverpool.

I generally advise would-be travellers to stay away from this 3rd world country masquerading as a modern society at all costs, but if you must visit, keep away from Liverpool. And for those foolhardy enough to ignore my warning: all hope abandon, ye who enter.

Are you stoned?

No, but he's obviously never visited Milton Keynes, the TRUE arsehole of the UK.

Previous comments from James Lockwood include a post on a recent iCarly game announced by Nickelodeon:

"I came so hard"

Clearly, James Lockwood is the true 'arsehole of the UK'.

"I generally advise would-be travellers to stay away from this 3rd world country masquerading as a modern society at all costs"

Wait till I tell the Queen about this. You just wait, you sell out.

Oh come on, it can't be as bad as Birmingham.

(Disclaimer: I've never actually been to Liverpool...)

u fukin wot m8

ile fukin merk u lad

Hmm. Is today an "off" day?

Judy, if that is your real name! I will call you a bot.

Dear bot,

Gamers don't need money, we sustain on the power of spare change, doritos, and the gamma radiation from our monitors and TVs.

anyway, half of us are already dating our systems....

Love,

PS36Wii fanboy

*insert The Beatles: Rock Band joke of your choice here*

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Liverpool wants to build 'games academy'

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