2. Reminder of the stakeholder and the problem he is facing
The stakeholder is an American soon-to-be graduate from a famous
video game high school, passionate by the industry. He hopes to
seize his dream job through an active search thanks to his degree.
But no positive results thus far and he suffers from a clear
inadequacy between what the he was waiting from the school,
what the school provided (in terms of knowledge, mindset,
internships and realizations) and the videogame market.
There is an issue in the “bridge” between this video game school
(and many others are in a similar case) and the concrete job
market/the industry. The school isn’t suited for the job market with
its theoretical courses and lack of links with the real world.
The problem to which we will propose solutions is: How to make
the transition “videogame school >>>> videogame industry” a
success for soon-to-be or fresh graduates.
3. IDEAS SELECTED
1) Accompany the students in the early stage of the creation of their own company
With the evolution of the videogame industry, featuring a lot of independent studios made of
less than 10 employees, the exponential growth of mobile gaming, and other parameters,
NOW is the time to create its own studio. This idea is the most practical and the best, as it
will encourage students (and former ones who are graduated since, we could say, less than
two years) to gather their complementary skills and talent, to create their own company,
publish their first game and make a living from their passion. The school will have to provide
them an accompanying structure, an “accelerator for seed stage videogame studio”.
2) Partnerships with big publishers that are producing hundreds of titles per year, to
subcontract to students and former students their less ambitious titles.
We all know that in the videogame industry, there are a multitude of “filler games” that are
primarily designed to make money, especially for mobile platforms. With this idea, instead of
giving already trained and skilled employees these games to develop (which is decreasing
their passion for the industry), they will be assigned to students (or former students who are
unemployed) who, before even having their degree, could be proud of having already
released a proper game. Considering the fact that videogames are an art as well as an
industry where the emphasis is put on the realization, this idea is disruptive yet powerful.
4. Seed stage
structure
inside the
school
1 - Provide the
room inside
the school for a
dozen of game
start-up to
begin working
Network the
pool of talents
from the school
(graduated
recently or
soon to be)
Provide the
teams with
the
equipment
(computers,
software)
Weekly
monitoring of
their first
commercial
project by the
school staff
Promote the
concepts to
publishers
(through
internet, visits
of the seed
structure)
Facilitate the
finding of
backers,
investors,
business
angels
Support to the
launch of the
game through
traditional
publishers or the
school publishing
platform
Once the first
game is
commercialized,
help to set up a
business
autonomous
from the school
Follow up from
distance.
Successful
teams become
mentor of the
next batch of
seed company
STEP 1 – IDEA 1 - Prototype of the accelerator, its structure and how it’s working,
built within the game school (read clockwise from 1)
5. Visual concepts of the game company accelerator
Some of the different aspects of the seed stage structure, such as the granting of room,
equipment, software, support from mentors, networking and promotion efforts through
events and meeting with professionals and publishing. (photo sources: Intel Azure accelerator and GDC)
6. 1 -
Partnerships
with publishers
with high
output
(especially
mobile
gaming)
Identification of
the publishers’
needs (2D/3D
modeling,
programming,
gamedesign, or
whole games)
Matching their
demand with
the appropriate
school talents
through an
efficient
database
Provide work
channel (in
situ if the
studio is close,
distant in the
school if it’s
remote)
Monitoring
from the
school staff
of the first
student
outsourced
work
Delivery of
the
production
Capitalization
phase: placement in
the company that
outsourced the
students, or
efficient promotion
of their realizations
through networking
Outsourcing
Project (aka:
bring the
industry work
to the school)
STEP 1 – IDEA 2 - Prototype of the “outsourcing project”, its organization and functioning
(clockwise read)
7. Visual concepts of the outsourcing project
Several stages of the outsourcing project, like local work in studio or distant work in the
school (+mentoring from the staff), or work at home, leading to the commercialization of
the student first game, a very useful realization for their entry in the job market.
8. STEP 2 – Testing the prototypes and feedback
Due to obvious logistical and practical reasons (the prototypes are implying
noticeable changes in the videogame school structure), the test method
here is firstly through submitting the previous abstract/paper prototypes as
well as concept arts to the stakeholder. I have presented him both solutions,
their structure (how they would be integrated within the school), their
functioning (the different aspects of the support they will bring to the soon-
to-be or fresh graduates). Secondly, we did a role playing game, where we
assumed various roles involved in this problem statement, the graduates,
the school staff, as well as the head of a game publisher, a producer and a
human resource specialist, to try to picture how both prototypes would
work in real conditions, how the different stakeholders would react to their
implementation, how they will use them, what will probably pleases them
or not. The resulting feedback is primarily derived from the stakeholder
quotes, but some of the roleplaying is also included (for example in the
questions).
9. What worked
- He was enthusiast by the entrepreneurial and
pro-active skills he would gain through the
accelerator built within the school.
- Also pleased by the networking aspect of this
prototype, and how his own friends and school
acquaintances will become complementary
colleagues.
- He and the role played stakeholders liked that
this idea shift graduates from job seeker to their
own job creator (not passive but active approach)
- He appreciated how this prototype fits with the
current trend of the videogame industry, favoring
small teams, “indie studio” of less than 10
employees.
What could be improved
- He would have wished more precisions
on the transition between the
commercialization of the first seed studio
game, and their installation,
autonomously from the school.
Question
- What will be relation between those seed
studios and the school in terms of
ownership, intellectual property and
revenues?
Ideas
- The publishers could intervene directly in
the first step of the accelerator program to
literally order or back a project of one of
the seed studio if the concept pleases both
parties.
STEP 2 – PROTOTYPE 1 – Feedback of the stakeholder
10. What worked
- The “jump directly into the heat of the
action” aspect of this prototype. Instead of
doing theoretical and/or not enough
ambitious and/or not sufficiently suited to
the industry pet projects, the graduates will
have their diploma AND a completed and
commercially released game as a far more
concrete and valuable realization.
What could be improved
- The stakeholder was afraid that this
system may use the students as a cheap
work force and abuse of their rights. This
feedback will obviously push me to
strengthen all the legal aspect of this
prototype.
Question
- Will there be enough need from the studios
for the thousands of students in gaming
school?
- How the payment works?
- Like for the prototype 1, what about the
rights of the graduated related to their
outsourced work? (I answered that as they
are contracted by the studios, the material is
the property of the latter, but their name
must be shown in the credits)
Ideas
- If the studio is too distant from the
school and the graduates, in addition to
the suggested distant work,
representatives from the studios could
visit the school
- A special price (lower) and a sticker could
be created for those products to push the
consumers to support this burgeoning
method.
STEP 2 – PROTOTYPE 2 – Feedback of the stakeholder
