Mohawk College will use the backdrop of Hamilton’s Comic Con event on the weekend to recruit students for a three-year game design program.
The learning facility is set to offer a Game–Design Advanced Diploma program to take advantage of the expansion in the game design industry expected in the Greater Hamilton area in the next few years.
Angela Stukator, special advisor who co-designed the new program, says design, technical and artistic skills, and an ethics course, will be components of the curriculum they hope will prepare prospective workers in the global industry set to hit $160 billion in 2026.
“So we think it’s a perfect opportunity, and Hamilton is so well situated in terms of its investment in both culture, art and technology,” Stukator told 900 CHML’s Good Morning Hamilton.
The program, accepting registrations in October for a September 2023 start, hopes to create a talent pipeline feeding directly into the growing digital industry in Ontario.
Stukator says a large spectrum will be covered in the program for students with critical problem solving, design thinking and communication skills and patience, since it’s a “very iterative process.”
Mohawk executives say the program is intended to model rather than mirror the gaming industry through an understanding of how content impacts users.
“So we’re trying to blow out the association of games with just triple-A games (from major publishers) and say, look, there is opportunities for us to look at different ways in which gamification and gameplay can be democratized,” said Stukator.
A recent study published by Global Industry Analysts Inc. revised projections for the digital gaming industry in the summer, suggesting the annual market value would grow to $160 billion in 2026, compared with the estimated $104 billion expected by the end of 2022.
The increase has been largely attributed to growth in mobile gaming spurred on by technological advances improving visuals and user interactions as well a 50 per cent increase in mobile app downloads during the COVID-19 pandemic.