IGDA Academic Summit at GDC Company: International Game Developers Association Product: 2003 Academic Summit During the 2003 Game Developers Conference (GDC), members of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) met for the second annual Academic Summit. It was here that established developers discussed where Video Game Development belongs in academia and how to best implement the curriculum needed for the Game Development Industry. Speakers like Warren Spector (Studio Director, Ion Storm) and Frans Mayra (Professor, Hypermedia Laboratory at the University of Tampere) spearheaded several of the talks over the two day meeting. Spector discussed how the industry needed to create a shared vocabulary that would allow for better communication between the different aspects of this multi-disciplinary field, while Mayra explained the different ways to get the industry into the schools. Mayra explained that one of the strategies for getting game development tracks into the college system was to use already existing classes and programs like art, sociology and media studies. Another way suggested was to make Video Game Development its own discipline and create completely new classes. Mayra noted that there were several areas of progress in the industry, one of which was a better understanding of gameplay while another was increased inter-disciplinary collaboration. He also stated that there are three main alternatives to getting a game development degree: getting a technical/artistic degree, a scholarly degree (for critiquing and analyzing purposes) or a separate degree that combines aspects of both. Rob Huebner of Nihilistic Games noted that the industry was looking for more creative programmers, team players, and putting more research into what it is psychologically that makes games fun and to developing an understanding about the cultural differences in games throughout the world. All in all, it was another successful Academic Summit where many new ideas and thoughts were shared between members of both the video game industry and academia. Hopefully, the two sectors will continue to work together to bring the both of them closer. -J.R. Nip, GameVortex Communications AKA Chris Meyer Related Links: IGDA home page 2003 Academic Summit home page IGDA academia page