Philadelphia Game Lab’s Nathan Solomon wants to create a pipeline connecting technically-talented students to jobs in the city’s burgeoning creative economy. And he wants the pipeline to look like Philadelphia.
At the Game Lab’s second annual Grassroots Gaming Conference, Schell Games’ Heidi McDonald poked at the hypocrisy of a 90 percent male industry making games for an audience of 45 percent women gamers, while STEM educators stressed project-based learning, and the power of the joy of game development to inspire intrinsic motivation to learn in underserved neighborhoods. In the words of Warren Longmire’s classroom mantra, ‘math is for developing video games.’
Amidst a hub of critical thinking on how to develop a diverse, homegrown gaming economy, Solomon announced Wednesday the Philadelphia Game Lab had been awarded a $384,000 grant by the state’s Discovered and Developed in PA Program to found a program where college students and recent graduates are paid by the hour to develop games under the tutelage of industry professionals, as a part of a year-long mentorship program.
“We proposed a simple and direct solution to a problem, ‘how do we keep top technology students in Philadelphia and Pennsylvania?’” he said. “The purpose is to create skilled people in Philadelphia, so that if an existing game developer or a participant in our program wants to start something here, there’s a pool of people here who participated in the program and now have a professional background.”
Solomon approached Lisa Worden, thre Southeastern PA representative of the state's Department of Community Economic Development one and a half years ago with a few ideas for funding consideration, and Worden gravitated toward his proposal for a mentorship program. To advance his proposal, Solomon, a former VP of Business Development at Electronics Boutique, gained support from companies like Electronic Arts in building a proposal that aligned with the D2PA’s goals to ‘seed innovative ideas that promote entrepreneurship, technology transfer, business outreach, and increased capacity.’
Game Lab will begin hiring students for the program Nov. 1, and $340,000 of the $384,000 will go toward paying the hourly wages of student participants, who will also earn 10 percent of the revenue from any games they sell. The remaining funds will go toward modest mentor fees and operational costs, with the funding expected to sustain the program through its first two years.
Beyond Solomon’s long-term vision of creating a hub of game design upstarts in Philadelphia, he’s quick to point out the program addresses a job market short on candidates with one year spent in the gaming industry. “Companies want to find smart kids with one year experience in the game industry, but really it’s easier to find somebody with 10 years experience,” he said. “They get that year through our program.”
In addition to software companies, according to Solomon, marketing companies also want to hire developers to incorporate gaming elements into their software. Hidden City’s Lee Tusman demonstrated the concept during a panel on civic engagement, when he shared a game modeled after Oregon Trail he’s creating to publicize Neighborhood Bike Works. Rather than replacing a sick ox, Tusman’s game will force users to repair the spontaneous flat tire while cruising around Philly on a fixed gear.
The selection process will support the Game Lab’s inclusive vision by permitting a limit of two students per university and a focus on recruiting female and minority game developers.
“An early university we’ve spoken with has reported a lot of interest from women,” said Solomon, who was inspired by organizations like Tech Girlz and Girl Develop It to design project groups separated by gender, in order to provide women with a ‘safe space’ from the societal pressures that have alienated female interest in STEM fields. “We think we’re going to get a group that represents humanity, rather than what the gaming industry currently looks like.”
At the conference, McDonald, who clinched a job a Pittsburgh-based Schell Games after submitting an unrequested sketch and narrative flow chart of the game, Pixie Hollow, stressed that the interdisciplinary requirements of game making mean there’s a role for all women in the industry. For the musically inclined, there’s audio engineering. For those with an aptitude for art, there’s concept character and UI development. While women should be encouraged to code, there are a variety of ways for them to contribute.
“We need women making games,” she said. “Men are making games where girls are a mother bird with an egg to raise. It’s totally antiquated.”
The 16-year-old founders of unfunded upstart Gamechee are hard at work confronting this paradigm. Judie Thai of Central High School, her classmate Armond Smith, and Lincoln High School’s Alexander Jones are developing a 2D Puzzler called Tamara & Zulu, in which a female protagonist ventures to save her male ‘damsel in distress.’
In a school where budget cuts shut down her school library, Space taught himself programming on a dare from his ninth-grade teacher and has gone on to become the assistant head programmer for the Central Robo Lancers robotics team. Thai has turned to YouTube videos and summer classes at Moore College of Art & Design to learn JavaScript.
Warren Longmire, Thai’s summer teacher at Moore College Art & Design, along with Colin Angevine of Friends’ Central School agreed it’s important to start project-based learning at a young age. “I can get physical students to make robots, and I can get computer science students to program them,” said Angevine.
“What we see in the most useful learners is inherently developed through project,” said Solomon.
And thanks to a $384,000 grant, Solomon has the opportunity to prove the method can make for a richer gaming industry in Philadelphia.
CARY BETAGOLE is a Philadelphia-based freelance writer whose fascination with using civic engagement technology to build community is expressed through a web platform he cofounded, Possible City (possiblecity.co), which reimagines uses for vacant space in our city.