Abertay University has launched new lab spaces to support teaching and research in video games design and digital art.
The new Competitive Games Lab and Wacom Cintiq Lab have been added to Abertay’s national Centre for Excellence in Computer Games Education, bringing industry-standard equipment and facilities onto campus for students and research staff.
Kitted out with twenty high-spec gaming PCs, the Competitive Games Lab will provide a space where games can be play-tested by designers and researchers, including a focus on accessibility features for gamers with additional needs.
Academics will use the lab to explore how in-game dynamics can increase the time that online players interact with others of similar abilities, potentially improving both user experience and profitability.
The lab will also be used to lead research across areas relevant to the games industry, including defending esports from cyber-attacks, and strategies to promote an inclusive culture in the gaming sector.
The new Cintiq Lab will provide twenty additional specialist digital arts tablets, from tablet manufacturer Wacom, to teach students how to create and edit their artwork using interactive styli and incorporate their designs into games.
Course leaders say that the agreement with Wacom means Abertay students are learning on the same machines they will use in the games industry after graduation, in what is hoped to be a further boost for the university’s internationally acclaimed game-design programme.
The university claims that Abertay graduates have already gone on to work for leading computer games companies – including Sony, Microsoft, Electronic Arts, Rockstar North and 4J Studios.
“As Europe’s top ranked university for video games design we are committed to investing in the very best laboratories and equipment to support our work in teaching, research and knowledge exchange, and to ensure that our graduates have the skillset that industry needs and expects,” said Professor Liz Bacon, principal and vice chancellor of Abertay.
“The video games industry is an important economic driver for Dundee, Scotland and the UK and it’s vital that we keep investing if we are to keep pace with the many other competitors in games clusters across the globe.”
Abertay is already considered at the forefront of gaming research, having won funding from Horizon Europe in January this year to investigate the impact of video game clusters beyond capital cities across Europe.
Earlier this year it was estimated that the gaming industry adds a GVA of £188.5 million to the Scottish economy, according to the Scottish Games Network. That number is a notable increase of £111m since a decade before, and during the same time employment in the sector has almost doubled.
Source: DIGIT