By IAN ROSS
The creative spark behind a next generation video game just might be among the fresh faces in Jay Rajnovich’s first-year computer science class.
When the Algoma University College (AUC) professor conducted an impromptu survey of his undergrads in September, eight of the 42 students had enrolled specifically to get into the new master’s of science in computer games technology.
Last fall, the first six students were accepted into the 12-month program to start the inaugural classes.
But Rajnovich wonders if many of these would-be game developers will find jobs in their chosen field.
These days, he thought, it takes more than some whiz kid with the natural programming skills and big dreams to make it in the multi-billion dollar games industry.
Enter Dwayne Hammond.
He’s the Sault Ste. Marie Innovation Centre’s newly-hired gaming guru on campus.
As a strategic advisor specializing in games technology, Hammond sees no problem with Algoma U grads finding employment either through their own start-ups or working for one of the major studios.
“It comes down to what your interests are and finding a good match in the workforce.”
Hammond should know. His experience with companies such as Pseudo Interactive, Gameloft and Rockstar Games developing console and mobile games has taken him internationally.
Among his credits include design work on the award-winning “Derek Jeter 3D Baseball 2005.”
Hammond was attracted by the idea of creating a game design culture in the Sault. He was brought in to mentor students, get them job-ready and use his contacts to grow the industry locally.
The master’s degree program running at AUC belongs to the University of Abertay Dundee. The Scottish university provides the curriculum, instruction, collects the tuition and delivers the degree.
For Algoma, a small undergraduate university, it is able to collaborate with a successful, one-of-a-kind international program, to lure graduate students into a sparkling new facility.
The fully-wired $6.1 million Information Communication Technology Centre houses an information technology business incubator patterned after one at Abertay with a game lab and video conferencing capabilities.
Every day between 10 and 11 a.m., AUC students connect with their overseas counterparts and a professor five time zones ahead in Scotland while sitting in a virtual back row of a lecture hall on the Dundee campus.
The games technology program is one of the building blocks behind Algoma’s drive for independence.
For those students that don’t break into the big game companies, there’s still a myriad of career choices. There are opportunities to build systems for educational software, training simulators, forensic investigation, forest insect pathology and medical research.
“I see the possibilities of our graduates as unlimited,” says Rajnovich.
But what Abertay University has that the Sault doesn’t, is a home-grown successful entrepreneur.
Dundee, Scotland has David Jones, an Abertay drop-out and game developer whose start-up company helped spawned major games including Lemmings and the Grand Theft Auto series.
Today, Dundee is a centre of game action with technology companies located within a few blocks of the campus.
To elevate the Sault, Rajnovich says, the city needs its own David Jones.
Hammond believes that could happen, since the industry, particularly in the emerging mobile gaming market, is exploding globally. Canada has become the world’s third largest producer.
“Video games can be made anywhere,” he says.
Many companies began with a bunch of guys brainstorming out of their basement and coming with something they can show to the right person, at the right time.
“That’s how a number of companies I’ve worked for have started.”
He says it’s too early to bring a major studio to the Sault, since there’s no supporting workforce, but there could be small scale projects done locally. There could be a testing studio for the large game developers or some local entrepreneurs could develop a game prototype that’s marketable.
“The first big hit in mobile gaming could be made in the Sault. There’s no reason why it couldn’t.”
Algoma U has been cleverly marketing itself for five years as the place to be for games technology training.
Five years before the master’s degree program started, Algoma University created its own buzz by staging a computer games conference in 2002.
Now known as Future Play, it’s changed venues over the years from the Sault, to Michigan State University, to the University of Western Ontario, and last November was held in Toronto.
As the master’s program grows in popularity, Algoma plans to cap classes at 30 students to deliver a high-quality program that turns out only the best and the brightest.
www.auc.ca
http://mastersingaming.com
www.futureplay.org
www.ssmic.com
