BREDA UNIVERSITY
Harnessing industry support to prepare students for big-time development
Breda University of Applied Sciences, to give it its full title, places students in a simulated development environment for its Creative Media and Game Technology course, which is taught entirely in English. It’s designed to help undergraduates develop a strong foundation in visual art, programming, design or production, before allowing them to further specialise as their game projects expand in scope. A string of successes demonstrate the benefits of its vocational approach, as head of programming Robbie Grigg explains.
What are Breda’s key strengths?
Our industry lecturers are focused on giving students professional aptitude and experience of triple-A development. Our high standards and production values lead to students creating great portfolios, helping them achieve that dream internship or job within the game industry. We also host the Global Game Jam each year. This falls perfectly in the middle of the academic year, inspiring and reinvigorating students and often leading to interesting games, some of which end up as full published titles. Through Games’ FRU on Xbox One is a great example that uses Microsoft’s Kinect in a smart new way.
How have the partnerships with Sony and Ubisoft shaped the International Game Architecture and Design course?
The partnership with PlayStation First has given students the chance to experience development on Sony hardware and tools, making them more attractive to the top game studios. Students also get the chance to showcase their achievements to Sony developers. Ubisoft provides input on project briefs and development progress, and offers feedback on programming, design, art and production, as well as guest lectures.
Breda prides itself on presenting students with complex problems or challenges to solve. Can you give examples of this?
We look into important industry trends that will help make our students more employable. Our annual Everything Procedural conference has worldleading developers sharing new game-production practices. This has led to a Houdini outsource team that services other projects – for example, creating procedural tools to build a railroad system and tunnels for a battle-royale game called The Survivors. This also had the challenge of hosting up to 100 players in a single session. VR is another example: The Red Stare, inspired by Hitchcock’s Rear Window, released on Steam VR to very positive reviews and won two Dutch Game Awards.
Is the aim to get more placements with larger companies rather than working as independent developers?
That’s our target. Our aim is for students to experience development cycles of larger studios to prepare them for this. But the knowledge and experience we give them of different development cycles also supports students in starting their own companies and indies.
Kabounce, by Stitch Heads, which recently launched on PS4, began as a third-year project. Twirlbound, recent Breda alumni, had the second-biggest game Kickstarter in The Netherlands for their title, Pine, which uses procedural generation and AI in exciting ways.
What lessons do you hope graduates take into their future careers?
An understanding of what’s needed to be a great developer and a great team member. We hope that our graduates can land in any studio and be immediately effective, that they’ll apply their craft professionally, and always be looking to improve.
“Our high standards and production values lead to great portfolios”