What it's like teaching video game design

Slowly but surely the gaming industry is earning more and more respect as a medium. This is no surprise considering the gaming industry out performs the film industry in terms of earnings. Total box office revenues from films came in at $11.6bn in the US in 2016, compared to $30.4bn in the video game industry.

Video game design graduates are “uniquely equipped to combine your technical and creative skills to play a part in the happiness of millions of people around the world”. A video game design teacher at further education (FE) will, therefore, be charged with cultivating the creative spark of students.

Effective FE video game design teachers will have the desire and the necessary skills to pass on their knowledge and experience in the field to the next generation. There is huge satisfaction to be had by seeing the skills of students develop throughout the course. In this role you will also be expected to share standard working practices in digital creation.

The trainee lecturer in digital design and games design role at Bury College requires the candidate to possess great communication skills, as well as “drive and enthusiasm”.

To get to interview stage, it will usually be expected that you have a degree in digital/games design or a related subject and previous experience of working in a digital/games design-related role.

Day in the life of a video game teacher

Daniel Welsh, games design lecturer at Uxbridge College, explains that his main role involves focusing on specialist and applied theory. He says he gets “the most buy-in from the students when they are building games. They’re happiest when left to work on projects, and it’s here that I can draw the most out of them.”

In terms of a typical day, he states that his students were tasked with examining the construction of a video game design document and he looked at how his students’ specialisms fitted into the task.

As is currently hugely popular with the advent of Minecraft, his students were also expected to create an adventure game that involved world creation, creating the back store and the people systems for roleplay gaming.

He stresses that game design is his passion and that “passion is something I try to inject into my teaching, the students enjoy it and it helps me create a really strong bond with them”.

It is apt that Daniel describes the process of watching students develop as “addictive watching”.

Incentives

There may be incentives available to candidates taking on this position at trainee level. For example, the aforementioned role at Bury College encompasses the 50% funding of the required teaching qualification up to a maximum of £4,000. As this role is a trainee position, the job specification mentions that the “programme is designed and delivered in a way that will ensure you obtain all the skills that are required to become a teacher”.

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