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5:23pm on Thursday, 23rd April, 2015:
Anecdote
I sent an email out to my final-year games students last week which began like this:
Falmouth University in Cornwall runs a programme called Alacrity Falmouth (http://www.falmouth.ac.uk/alacrity-falmouth). This is a hands-on, games-specific MA in Business Entrepreneurship: you make computer games and you form companies that Falmouth incubates. It has a pile of EU funding that means the MA fees are covered AND you get PAID a stipend of £16,000 for the year you're there.
Last year (its first of operation), four of our students got on the programme. They now have their own companies set up; some already have external investors involved. They won't even formally get the MA until September. This is a tremendous opportunity for games students to break into the industry.
Today, the director of the course, Nick Dixon, visited Essex University to give a presentation to our current final-year students. Two of our former students came along too, to talk about their experiences. They weren't just passing by, as Falmouth is a long way from Colchester (Colchester to Falmouth: 368 miles; Colchester to Paris: 322 miles). We were lucky to have them visit.
One of our final-year students showed up. ONE.
OK, so it was our best one, but that's not the point. Former students outnumbered current students in that presentation!
This course already has four applicants for every place, and applications are still open. They don't need more applicants. Nevertheless, because last year's students from Essex were so good, the programme director made a special effort to come here and recruit more and only ONE came to the presentation.
Here's how I ended the second email I sent the final-year games students, which I sent yesterday:
If you want to work in the games industry, don't have anything fixed up yet, have nothing pressing to do on Thursday afternoon but you DON'T come to this, you should probably reconsider whether you do actually want to work in the games industry after all.
I guess I have my answer.
I'd rant at them in the up-coming revision lecture about this, but I have to hand out the Student Assessment of Courses forms that lecture so it might be a bad idea...
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Copyright © 2015 Richard Bartle (richard@mud.co.uk).