Jobs in the world of video games are opening up to people with more diverse interests.
One of Australia’s most experience video game programmers, Tony Albrecht, who will be among four guests addressing the Cosmos Science City free public conversation on July 4, says the fast growing industry is looking for designers, and creative artists, as well as the usual hard core logic and science programmers.
(This event has passed. Watch the recording below.)
“I’m from a physics background. Physics and maths go hand in hand with video game making,” Albrecht says.
Albrecht recommends people who want to get into the industry as programmers do a science degree, but adds it’s less and less an industry for young men, and there is growing recruitment through arts.
“There is a strong push in game development globally for more diversity in developers as more diversity means more ideas and broader audiences.”
Albrecht, who lives in Adelaide, has been Principal Engineer at Riot Games, one of the Fortune 100 “Best companies to work for in the world,” where he helps build and maintain game engines for some of the most played games in the world. He’s worked in the games industry for nearly 25 years (16 of those as a remote worker) and has worked on consoles from the PlayStation 2 onwards and on PC, Mac and mobile.
Cosmos Science City is a collaboration between Cosmos and Adelaide’s three main tertiary institutions: the University of Adelaide, Flinders University and the University of South Australia.
Our other guests include:
Dr Abi Thirumanickam, Lecturer, School of Allied Health Science and Practice, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Adelaide. Abi a speech pathologist and will be speaking about her research investigating the effectiveness of using off-the-shelf games such as Minecraft to facilitate social collaboration skills development in autistic youth.
Associate Professor Erik Champion, University of South Australia, who teaches Managing Game Design and an architectural elective in advanced digital media. Erik is supervising a PhD in Australian GLAM collections meta-games/interactive fiction, and another in virtual reality, aesthetics and historical Chinese architecture, an honours on horror game design, and co-supervising a PhD in architectural design and game design (with a focus on Unreal). Prior to academia, he worked for Digital, Compaq, Hansen Technologies, and London Council.
Dr Lauren Woolbright, College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences at Flinders University. Lauren’s research sits at the confluence of game studies and environmental humanities, focusing on how environments and mechanics communicate meaning in games using theories of game design, interactive storytelling, media studies, and environmental communication. Her recent work examines darker aspects of ecomedia in games using ecophobia, environmental mourning, and the monstrous-feminine as lenses. She is co-founder and lead editor of OneShot: A Journal of Critical Play and Games, which publishes scholarly and pedagogical games and essays. She lectures on interaction design and digital media at Flinders
The free lunchtime conversations are being held at The Science Exchange auditorium at 55 Exchange Place (behind 25 Grenfell Street), Adelaide, from 12.30 to 1.30pm.
Cosmos Science City is supported by Inspiring South Australia, making science visible.