Panola College Considering Game Development

Dr. Bob Wilkins, Professor of Business and Computer Science at Panola College, recently returned from a Video Games Curriculum Workshop in Austin, excited with the hope of expanding the College’s curriculum to include Game Development courses. The workshop was designed to encourage Community Colleges to develop programs to train the employees that will be needed in coming years.

According to a technology forecast produced by the IC² Institute of the University of Texas, Texas is a recognized leader in digital games with 93 digital game companies located in the State. “The game industry is not a future market but rather a very dynamic industry at this time and showing promise of sustained growth,” said Wilkins. “While most of the games being developed now are traditional entertainment games, it is expected that there will be strong growth in the field of serious games”.

Serious games include those that are designed for educational purposes, or as training tools.  Many of these simulate a real environment that allows training at a reduced cost compared to traditional training methods.  Another expected area of growth is in the development of games for personal digital assistants and mobile phones.

“The International Game Developers Association Education Committee has specified a curriculum framework for game-related educational programs,” said Wilkins.  “Included in the framework are programming courses that are currently offered at Panola College.  The C++ programming language is currently the language of choice for game development and C++ classes will be offered at Panola College this fall.  We are also working to create a new course called GAME 2342 Game Development to be offered in the spring.”

Wilkins continued, “The future looks promising for individuals with this kind of training. We have heard from several people who actually do the hiring for the game companies.  They look first for those who love to play games and have made modifications to games they’ve played—something that real game enthusiasts seem to enjoy.  If a person like this brings in examples of their C++ programs, they could be hired as an entry-level employee ready to learn the ropes in that particular company.” For information about game development-related courses at Panola College, visit Dr. Wilkins’ website, www.panola.edu/users/bwilkins, email him at bwilkins@panola.edu    or call 903-693-2057.