research-article

Defining the expectation gap: a comparison of industry needs and existing game development curriculum

Author:

Monica M. McGillAuthors Info & Claims

FDG '09: Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Foundations of Digital Games

Pages 129 - 136

https://doi.org/10.1145/1536513.1536542

Published: 26 April 2009 Publication History

Abstract

When developing a game curriculum, one of several key areas to consider is the type of skills needed by the game industry. The purpose of this quantitative survey research is to compare the hiring needs of industry for recent college graduates seeking game developer positions against game development curriculum currently available at post-secondary institutions. One survey was given to industry participants and a similar survey was given to academic participants. Four major categories, abilities, technical skills, supporting knowledge areas, and contextual fluency, each had specific subcategories that were rated by both industry and academia. A t-test of independent means was then used to analyze to determine if there is an expectation gap between the game industry needs and academic program curriculum. This paper details the results of the surveys and provides a limited discussion on how these results might impact game developer curriculum.

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Cited By

Robinson RAlvarez A(2024)Toward a Design and Play-Focused Approach to Teaching Technical Game DesignProceedings of the 19th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games10.1145/3649921.3650003(1-7)Online publication date: 21-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3649921.3650003
Sato Y(2024)PBL-Based Industry-Academia Game Development EducationEncyclopedia of Computer Graphics and Games10.1007/978-3-031-23161-2_399(1333-1340)Online publication date: 5-Jan-2024
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-23161-2_399
Bunde DButler ZHovey CTaylor C(2022)CONVERSATIONS: Conversation with a prominent propagatorACM Inroads10.1145/352404513:2(14-18)Online publication date: 17-May-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3524045
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Index Terms

Defining the expectation gap: a comparison of industry needs and existing game development curriculum

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cover image ACM Other conferences

FDG '09: Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Foundations of Digital Games

April 2009

386 pages

ISBN:9781605584379

DOI:10.1145/1536513

Conference Chair:
Jim Whitehead
UC Santa Cruz
,
Program Chair:
R. Michael Young
North Carolina State University

Copyright © 2009 ACM.

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Published: 26 April 2009

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April 26 - 30, 2009

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Cited By

Robinson RAlvarez A(2024)Toward a Design and Play-Focused Approach to Teaching Technical Game DesignProceedings of the 19th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games10.1145/3649921.3650003(1-7)Online publication date: 21-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3649921.3650003
Sato Y(2024)PBL-Based Industry-Academia Game Development EducationEncyclopedia of Computer Graphics and Games10.1007/978-3-031-23161-2_399(1333-1340)Online publication date: 5-Jan-2024
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-23161-2_399
Bunde DButler ZHovey CTaylor C(2022)CONVERSATIONS: Conversation with a prominent propagatorACM Inroads10.1145/352404513:2(14-18)Online publication date: 17-May-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3524045
Sato Y(2021)PBL-Based Industry-Academia Game Development EducationEncyclopedia of Computer Graphics and Games10.1007/978-3-319-08234-9_399-1(1-9)Online publication date: 16-Jan-2021
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08234-9_399-1
Girouard AKang J(2021)Reducing the UX Skill Gap Through Experiential Learning: Description and Initial Assessment of Collaborative Learning of Usability Experiences ProgramHuman-Computer Interaction – INTERACT 202110.1007/978-3-030-85616-8_28(481-500)Online publication date: 26-Aug-2021
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-85616-8_28
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Tavakoli MHakimov SEwerth RKismihok G(2020)A Recommender System For Open Educational Videos Based On Skill Requirements2020 IEEE 20th International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies (ICALT)10.1109/ICALT49669.2020.00008(1-5)Online publication date: Jul-2020
https://doi.org/10.1109/ICALT49669.2020.00008
Tavakoli MFaraji AMol SKismihok G(2020)OER Recommendations to Support Career Development2020 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE)10.1109/FIE44824.2020.9274175(1-5)Online publication date: 21-Oct-2020
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Sato YHanaoka HEngstrom HKurabayashi S(2020)An Education Model for Game Development by A Swedish-Japanese Industry-Academia Alliance2020 IEEE Conference on Games (CoG)10.1109/CoG47356.2020.9231558(328-335)Online publication date: Aug-2020
https://doi.org/10.1109/CoG47356.2020.9231558
Hynninen TKasurinen JKnutas ATaipale OPolycarpou IRead JAndreou PArmoni M(2018)Guidelines for software testing education objectives from industry practices with a constructive alignment approachProceedings of the 23rd Annual ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education10.1145/3197091.3197108(278-283)Online publication date: 2-Jul-2018
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