Abstract:

In the article, the authors presented their thoughts on the discrepancies between didactics and business’s expectations and goals in the game development education. The research, described and discussed in the article, was conducted in order to find answers to the questions: what is the cause of these differences, what they may mean for the future development of professional skills and whether it is related to students’ IT specializations profiles. The authors confronted their experiences as educators and game developers with the observations from conducting academic classes in the field of game development and computer graphics.

The data analyzed in this article come from two sources, related to project-based and problem-based learning of game development. The first source is data on the process of preparing educational materials in the form of scripts and sample projects, as the cooperative effort of educators and entrepreneurs in the role of consultants. The educational materials concerned the use of programs dedicated for 2D and 3D graphics creation and game engine, the use of professional equipment such as virtual reality headsets, motion controllers and joysticks, and the planning and running of a team project.

The second data source related to the work and approach of students come from laboratory classes where the aforementioned didactic materials were presented, carried out as part of the first-degree studies in the field of Computer Science at Lublin University of Technology. Moreover, the research process included collecting opinions from professional game developers (company employees and freelancers) in the form of computer aided web interviewing (CAWI) and computer-assisted telephones interviewing (CATI).

The authors identified differences in the approach to solving issues and coping with changing requirements and environment included in the development of the game. The differences in professional experience, knowledge of technology, area of interest and the project prioritized aspects were analyzed. The authors showed a strong relationship between overall experience with the gaming medium (as enthusiasts and gamers) and the number of completed tasks, large discrepancies in involvement and effort in group work of non-gamer and gamer students.

Keywords:

Game development, virtual reality, problem-based learning, project-based learning.