The Halo Effect
Imagine this: a room full of Xboxes and PSPs; big screens; secret software – and tutors urging you to play with it more! At the Faculty of Computing, Information Systems and Mathematics (CISM) childhood fantasy is becoming reality.
The video games market is a fast-evolving multi-billion-pound industry and, in a couple of years, big retailers such as HMV predict they will be selling more games than music. Kingston already has a significant reputation for reacting quickly to the market and it has jumped to meet this challenge too. It has opened a new state of the art games laboratory to prepare the next generation of games developers to propel gaming into the future.
Gamer’s heaven
The new lab is located in the Sopwith Building where 30 workstations have been built around cabinets holding Xbox and PSP hand-held games consoles, as well as development technology that links the consoles to the PCs on every desk.
Darrel Greenhill, Games Tech Field Leader, said "The set up makes group working easy. Students can now work together, taking on different roles in development and using multiple pieces of equipment simultaneously. This reflects the experience of working in the real world."
Strictly confidential
The laboratory gives students an intense, hands-on experience with technology and specialist software from gaming giants Sony and Microsoft. Much of it is so sensitive that students are warned about confidentiality issues before lectures start. Andreas Hoppe, Senior Lecturer, said "Having access to the most up to date hardware and software means that Kingston students are working to industry standards while still in the classroom."
For the first time three pairs of large projector screens give students a view of the code and the graphic. Jarek Francik, Senior Lecturer, explained, "It solves one of the great problems we had with teaching game code. With one screen we had to first show the code we had written then switch to a view of the graphic. Now we have the two screens side by side, showing both at the same time."
These screens are also linked to the PCs so that students’ work can also be displayed for discussion with their colleagues and lecturers.
Playing the market
Games development degrees are becoming an increasingly competitive market as more universities try to keep pace with the flourishing industry. The Faculty of Computing, Information Systems and Mathematics offers courses in games programming, technology and development at both BSc and MSc levels.
With courses like these and the new games lab, Kingston has put itself firmly in the front line of the market, showing that it is doing anything but playing games.
