If you thought that games developers are typically tech-heads working on the next major franchise first person shooter or jump scare horror gore-fest, then think again. At the National Film and Television School, which runs a two-year MA in Games Design and Development, students come from a wide range of diverse backgrounds from theatre design to physics, film-making to philosophy, and from fine art to psychology. The gender balance for the course also outperforms the norm with women regularly taking up almost half of the places allocated.
Head of the course, Jon Weinbren, who has over twenty years’ experience in the games, interactive media, film and television industries, prefers candidates who are passionate about, say, renaissance history than those whose sole focus is on current consumer electronics technologies. This is because at NFTS, games are all about the creation and sharing of new story experiences. Sometimes the worlds created are recognisably human, sometimes they are more abstract, but the ambition is always to craft an emotional connection between games and their players.
For example, Albert Bentall, who graduated from the Games course in 2014, was part of a team at NFTS who developed a game called Sandman for the virtual reality headset, Oculus Rift. Sandman delivers intuitive and gripping gameplay allowing players to paddle down a ‘magical river of dreams’ combined with a character driven story based on the Mr Sandman fairytale by Hans Christian Andersen. Albert has now taken up a key role at Sony London studios – just months after graduating.
Another great example is Off-Grid, a prototype game developed by NFTS grads, Rich Metson and Pontus Schonberg that has been awarded a grant from the UK Games Fund. Off-Grid is an adventure, satire and stealth game about a mishap antihero. You play an everyman pencil pusher, who is oblivious to the city’s prying and spying, corporate-sponsored government until a series of dark events unfold. The contemporary storyline follows real-world events surrounding data privacy, and gameplay ultising unique mechanics that allow you to manipulate the world and people around you with the data they unwittingly leave behind.
Crucially, games students get the unique opportunity to work with other specialisms at the school including those on the scriptwriting, composing, cinematography and sound design courses. This gives NFTS students an edge over other courses and also enhances the experience of the film students, which is particularly beneficial as the creative industries merge and increasingly need to work together.
If this sounds like you, you can read more, watch the course promo video and find out how to apply here: https://www.nfts.co.uk/our-courses/masters/games-design-development You can also come along to the course open day on the 18th of May from 10.30am to 2pm. The course starts in January 2017; applications are open now with a deadline of the 7th July.
