What this course will do:
Teach you how games projects evolve from concept to contract
Demonstrate the division of labor on a game project among design, writing, art, programming, and management
Provide a hands-on experience dealing with important industry concerns including schedules, budgeting, marketing, documentation, and intellectual property (i.e., copyrights, trade secrets, and non-disclosure agreements)
Place you, complete with a job title and description, in a fictional startup company that has found a client seeking your game proposals
Provide a practical exercise of both leadership and cooperation skills by having your company make an actual product pitch to the client
Instruct you on industry journalism and have you write a game review
Provide useful insights for breaking into the game business (including a quality Letter of Recommendation)
Game Project Management is a ‘how to’ course designed to teach you the fundamental processes of collaborative creation in the game industry and apply them in a hands-on manner using a course-long role-playing exercise. This exercise places you in a team that forms its own startup game company (including its own corporate identity); each member has their own individual job responsibilities but must also contribute to the overall success of their company in making a pitch presentation to their client. Individual class lessons focus on what makes for individual and group success (because no one succeeds alone in the game business).
What this course won’t do:
Tell you how to write, design, make art, or program a computer (you must bring those skills to class)
Teach you how to actually publish games yourself (although a great deal of insight on this subject is provided, this is not a specific course goal)
Education without application is worse than worthless; it's a waste of time and money. This course in Game Project Management provides carefully targeted classroom lectures, supported by provided instructional materials (including this web site), to provide your education. But the Graded Course Project of forming a startup company and applying these lessons to the creation of an actual project pitch to an interested client will cement these lessons, plus the life lessons of individual excellence and team success, into an experience whose whole is greater than the sum of its parts. This class provides a clear window into the world of making games ― a world that you seek; look, learn, and live what a life making games is really all about.
Here's the news that drives this class from the 2003 Game Developer's Salary Survey:
“All positions are highly competitive, and none of our clients wants to settle for less than the best-qualified candidate,” says game industry recruiter Mary Margaret Walker, president of Mary-Margaret.com Recruiting and Business Services. On the other hand, “it is equally true that our candidates are not desperate, and expect a lot from a potential future employer.”
So what puts a candidate in the most-qualified bracket? Understanding the business of game production with a big-picture perspective on a project is a big advantage. “Everyone wants talent that can understand a production schedule, people that are able to stick to a common goal, from programming to art to design,” says Alzahov. Now that teamwork and flexibility are key assets, some companies’ layoffs are opportunistic, according to Jill Zinner, president of game recruiter Premier Search. These layoffs might target people who have a lot of experience in the industry but aren’t willing or able to adapt to new technologies and production models. These castaways are then having a tougher time finding new homes as the game business matures, according to Zinner. “They’re going into other industries, business and edutainment industries. A lot are going into cell phones and handhelds.”
