“The Playful Kraken” – Part 7: Dissecting “The Playful Kraken”
The following sections are reserved for answering the following questions: How can you tackle the topic in a more manageable way? How and what? What about future projects? What is the point?
The Future of “The Playful Kraken”
Based on the discussions and different avenues of approach, the smartest choice would be to break the possible 5–15 years of work into smaller, manageable projects. The first step would be a project that would gather the interested parties based on a preliminary project roadmap and plan. The next step would be to define and categorize the different research path options and questions with a project board. Only then could more detailed project roadmaps and plans be created, and financing acquired. There are different approaches to handling the research or its offshoots:
- Slow: One step at a time, methodical and exceptionally lengthy process (5–15 years, waterfall style project)
- Faster: One big step and several smaller at the same time (more vague and agile project based)
- Fastest: All different topics created as their own entities, but gathered into one (chaotic and fast way to produce lots of results, cooperative style, management and editing heavy)
Possible Question Categories and Outcomes (aka “Tentacles”)
The different preliminary question categories for the Playful Kraken could be:
- The Game Industry Structure
- Finnish Game Industry Education
- Global Game Industry Education
- Game Industry Education in General
- Between Game Industry Education and Work
- Game Industry Institutions
- Game Industry Needs
What could be the possible outcomes (goals) and the end results of future research? Here are some different answers that were discovered based on the available information and discussions:
- Game Industry ABC
- A book that covers the basics of the whole Game Industry
- Currently the Game Industry is mostly seen as the core game development
- What is meaningful in a book called Game Industry ABC? (Game Industry Tutorial / Manual / Basics / LVL1…): Everything from the history of games to the structure of the whole Game Industry (everything under the concept, but unchanging framework structure, because of the highly innovative and changing industry)
- Game Industry Education Portal
- Later all the detailed descriptions of the separate specific areas of expertise (already have mind maps for some of them too)
- A portal that contains collections and links to different online, remote, virtual and IRL Game Industry education providers -> Categories / Skill levels / Expertise / Locations / Connections and collaborations / Relations to the Competence-based open badges…
- “Ludio Intuitio”
- Map for navigating the massive amount of Game Industry related information
- Collaboration and relation to Gamebadges
- Game Industry related education materials (validated mind maps)
- “The EduCannon”
- Network of education providers and Game Industry companies / organizations for defining and guiding next gen developers (Framework creators)
- A pipeline company (Employing graduates and making them seniors in their fields. Financing from education and Game Industry companies? Product: Generated senior Game Industry specialists)
- Question and Reference Bank
- Different questions for future research
- A well analyzed database of the available Game Industry reference materials
Hypothesis of the (Future) Research
The Game Industry is still a new industry field, and game development has assumed (hogged) the term that entails much more. Understanding of the whole framework of the Game Industry will help various kinds of education providers to join forces to provide well-designed pipelines and skilled graduates with high quality expertise to companies that need well-trained employees in the ever-widening Game Industry field. Simply put: a well-defined Game Industry framework will lead to a higher quality education, industry development, and industry altogether.
Writer
Risto Koskenkorva (Certified Professional Teacher (JAMK), M.Sc – IT (JYU), Game Industry Veteran) works as a senior lecturer in Jamk BIT Game Production. Specialized in Game Industry (Game Development, Game Production, Game Programming, Game Engines, 3D Art & Animation, Game Publishing, Game Entrepreneurship, and Leadership & Management).
Read the other parts of ”The Playful Kraken” series: