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Securing the
Future Through
Skills
Brief biography
Kim Blake, Education Liaison Manager
• 1993 Writing dialogue scripts in the living room for an Amiga CD32 game…
• 1994 Designer at Gremlin Interactive
• 1996 – 2004 Producer/Project Manager at
Gremlin / Infogrames, Particle Studios / Argonaut,
Headfirst Productions
• 2005 Blitz Games Studios
Blitz’s University Open Days
Where and why we started
Why we continued
How we do them
What we’ve got out of them
What we’ve learned from them
Where do we go next?
Where and why we started
Where and why we started
Charity Creative
Sport Career
Blitz Challenge for Creative Thinking
Where and why we started
Where and why we started
• Graduate quality was becoming an issue
• Talks at universities yielded patchy experiences
• 140 miles to talk to a handful of bored students…?
• Something had to be done!
• Something was done – in record time!
Where and why we started
• 2006 Blitz Games Open Days
• 2 for students
• 1 for lecturers
• Registration
• Questions
• Work brief
• Submission
• Invitation / rejection
Why we continued
Over the next 3 years…
• 2007 : 2 student days, 1 lecturer day
• 2008 : 2 student days, 1 lecturer day, 1 lecturer workshop
• 2009 : 2 student days, 1
programming students only day, 1 lecturer day
• We’ve also run similar events for
local / regional careers advisors and teachers at local / regional colleges
How we do them
Basic format of the day
• Pretty intense…
• 11 presentations
• Work in progress videos
• Studio tour
• At least an hour with a professional developer, chance to show
portfolios / showreels / demos and get honest feedback
• Pub trip at the end of the day!
How we do them
• Blitz / industry background
• Industry finances / business
• Game Design
• 2D Art
• 3D Art
• Animation
• Programming
• Audio
• QA
• Serious games
• Everyone gets to see everything
How we do them
Every speaker emphasises –
• Core skills (drawing, life drawing, maths, creativity, problem-solving, etc.)
• Communication skills
• Team work
• The critical importance of a good demo / showreel / portfolio
• The equally critical importance of making it easy for an employer to see
what you can do
How we do them
It’s a LOT of work
• Several staff weeks of admin
• Education liaison manager
• Admin staff
• PR and Media staff
• 1 – 2 staff days for each presenter (updating content, rehearsals)
• At least 2 people who can do any given presentation
• More staff time to review the work samples
• Small actual expenditure but very expensive in terms of staff time
• Estimated cost of first tranche of Open Days: £40k
How we do them
How we choose our presenters
• Sometimes they ask to do it
• Sometimes we suggest they might like to try it
• Good to use previous Open Day attendees
How we do them
How we choose our presenters
• Gains them credit in their performance reviews
• Can be anyone from a Junior to a Manager
• (And indeed the CEO and CTO!)
What we’ve got out of them
Everyone wins! (we like to think ;)
• Actual recruits
• PR for Blitz and the games industry
• Kudos from and for the wider
educational community
• Employee morale boost / confidence
builder
• At least one of our developers has gone into teaching, but comes back to
keep her skills and knowledge current
What we’ve learned from them
2006 registrations:
2006 submissions:
2007 registrations:
2007 submissions:
2008 registrations:
2008 submissions:
2009 registrations:
2009 submissions:
251
242
240
327
79
70
130
168
What we’ve learned
Ratio of submissions to invitees by discipline 2006 (for 2 days)
3D A
rt
Prog
ram
min
g
2D A
rt
Game
Desig
n
Anim
atio
n
Audi
o
23
28
14
86
4
13 13
57
3 3
Submissions Invitations
What we’ve learned
Ratio of submissions to invitees by discipline 2007 (for 2 days)
3D A
rt
Prog
ram
min
g
2D A
rt
Game
Desig
n
Anim
atio
n
Audi
o
2320
86
85
118
5 5 4 5
Submissions Invitations
What we’ve learned
Ratio of submissions to invitees by discipline 2008 (for 2 days)
3D A
rt
Prog
ram
min
g
2D A
rt
Game
Desig
n
Anim
atio
n
Audi
o
48
21
41
8 93
17
10 11
4 5 3
Submissions Invitations
What we’ve learned
Ratio of submissions to invitees by discipline 2009 (for 3 days)
3D A
rt
Prog
ram
min
g
2D A
rt
Game
Desig
n
Anim
atio
n
Audi
o
55
36
24 22 25
6
18
33
9 11 116
Submissions Invitations
What we’ve learned
Ratio of male to female invitees by discipline 2006 - 2009
3D A
rt
Prog
ram
min
g
2D A
rt
Game
Desig
n
Anim
atio
n
Audi
o
48
34
2024
2016
10
1
104 6
1
Male Female
What we’ve learned
Percentage of male and female conversions from registration to invitation
2006:
2007:
2008:
2009:
Male
17%
19%
19%
23%
Female
30%
17%
29%
28%
What we’ve learned
Colleges
• 2006 - 2009
• 109 registrations from 26 colleges
• 15 invitations to attend…from 6 colleges
• 20 colleges had no success in translating their 94 registrations into
invitations
What we’ve learned
Universities
• 2006 - 2009
• 868 registrations from 76 universities
• 178 invitations to attend from 45 universities
• 31 universities teaching games-related courses did not get a single
student invitation
What we’ve learned
Case study: university BY
• 13 students have registered over 4 years (06 – 09)
• 1 student has been invited to attend
• Asked how well their course was preparing them for a career in the
industry on a scale of 0 (poorly) to 10 (well)
• This student rated their course 0
What we’ve learned
Case study: university K
• 28 students have registered over 4 years (06 – 09)
• 5 students have been invited to attend
• 1 student said ‘Partly’
• 2 students rated it as 8
• 2 students rated it as 9
2006
2009
2009
What we’ve learned
Case study: university V
• 4 students registered, 1 invitation• This student said ‘Partly’
• 3 students registered, 1 invitation• This student said ‘Partly’
• 3 students registered, 1 invitation• This student rated it as 8
• 16 students registered, 8 invitations• 2 students rated it as 7• 3 students rated it as 9• 3 students rated it as 10
2006
2007
2008
2009
Where we go next
More Open Days in 2010 and beyond – suggestions welcome!
www.BlitzAcademy.com
Thank you!
Securing the
Future Through
Skills
