Student Feature: 'Student Soapbox: Game Degrees - No Soft Option'

In today's Gamasutra student-focused feature, and as part of the site's newly expanded education section, Teesside University teacher Gabrielle Kent responds to the common misconception she's encountered as someone teaching video game development, that game design is an "easy" degree. In this extract, Kent praises the drive of her students: "What drives these students is their passion for games. They’ve played and analysed everything from Pong through to Half-Life 2. Many of them have had a go at working on their own mods or Unreal levels while still at high school and continue to do so throughout their degrees. They have dreamed of working on computer games for a living and most are willing to work hard to get there. I’m learning a great deal through teaching. For one thing, thanks to my students I hear about any new developments before my friends in the industry. Before a product or tool has even left the testing stage I have students begging to be taught how to use it. If I don’t know enough about it yet myself, they simply go away and teach themselves and each other, then come back to me and we share our findings. This is far from the image some people have of lazy students sitting round eating pizza and playing GTA when they should be at a lecture…… although I’m not quite naïve enough to believe that this never happens!" You can now read the full Gamasutra feature, including a detailed look at what students aiming for the games industry go through to accomplish their goals (no registration required, please feel free to link to this feature).