BoardBuzz was intrigued this morning by an interesting story from Ars Technica:
It’s hard to ignore just how large the business of video games is becoming. As a result, more and more groups are making the effort to train kids about the industry and provide them with some basic game design skills; game design and creation is a growth business in a slow economy. Even though North Carolina’s politicians don’t seem to quite be on board with embracing the game industry, both Charlotte’s main library and ImaginOn are offering summer workshops which teach kids some design basics.
It is absolutely true that the video game industry is booming–with an estimated $40 billion empire. And the industry is looking to grow their market past the young men that made up 90% of gamers just a few years ago. Today that number is closer to 60 or 70%. Companies like Nintendo have realized the enormous growth potential of mass-market games. Hence, the development of the Wii. Casual gamers, female gamers, and even adult gamers are among new target demographics.
So it comes as no surprise to us that this Charlotte, North Carolina library’s program is popular. The library workshops welcome students between the ages of 8 and 18 and last four days. The small, six-person classes work on creating older generation 2-Dimensional games with a focus more on the big ideas of design than the technical programming. This is not to say that science, math, and tech skills aren’t central to video game design. They are, and there are opportunities for animators, conceptual artists, writers, copy editors, testers, and even musicians.
Students who excel in this program may be able to stay on after the workshop as interns and learn from instructors how to continue their studies and explore the industry’s job opportunities. BoardBuzz particularly likes how Ars Technica sums it all up:
It’s easy to see how these free, public courses could help a young mind get inspired enough to learn more advanced techniques on a home computer or in college level courses.
