Communications of the ACM
Games Can Actually Become a Career
South Africa's growing gaming industry motivated the University of Cape Town to develop a three-year degree program specializing in computer gaming.
Credit: Dept. of Computer Science / University of Cape Town
In South Africa, recent university graduates with a background in gaming are landing well-paying jobs, both within the gaming industry and in more traditional fields, such as computer science. For the past three years, students studying for a bachelor's degree in computer science at the University of Cape Town have been able to specialize in computer gaming. After graduating, they are able to fill regular roles available to computer science graduates such as developers, system designers and programmers. Moreover, they acquire additional skills allowing them to assist in developing games on mobile devices, desktop computers and gaming consoles.
The course content of the three-year degree at the University of Cape Town includes game genres and history, game design and playability, 2D game concepts and development, software engineering for games, 3D graphics techniques for games, and game engine architectures. The course was developed in response to the needs of the small but growing local gaming industry. In South Africa, successful game designers and developers are constantly bemoaning the lack of technically skilled graduates, showing a need for highly-skilled recent graduates if the local industry is to grow to its full potential. With a specific degree in computer gaming, students believe they will be more marketable than their peers when applying for these job opportunities.
From The Times (South Africa)
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