Mapping of the educational basis for the Danish game development industry 2024

Filmby Aarhus and The Animation Workshop/VIA collaborated to identify the educational basis for the gams industry in Denmark. In the mapping, 75 programmes and their ECTS weighting are evaluated in the context of the games industry and their core competencies.

The Danish games industry is growing. Game manufacturers in Denmark have a turnover of DKK 3.1 billion, which corresponds to 36% of revenue across the Danish digital visual industries such as film, TV, interactive and advertising. It is largely the games industry that is driving the growth in content production within the digital visual industry (Producentforeningen 2023). To ensure a sustainable growth potential for the industry, a focus on education and talent development is crucial.

The mapping specifically contributes with insight and knowledge to the discussion of how the games industry and the educational environments best can support each other to create the best conditions for talentmass, development, growth and professionalization of the Danish games industry. It presents a snapshot of the educational offer for the games industry in 2024. It has been carried out based on a desire to get an overview of relevant educational offers for the games industry in Denmark and to identify opportunities and shortcomings as well as significant coincidences with the industry's current needs and challenges.

The basic purpose of the survey is that it is a tool in the dialogue between the games industry and relevant educational institutions about the role education should play in the games industry and vice versa. The survey is intended as a contribution to the current debate on how we ensure the development of a sustainable and competitive Danish games industry, in which educational institutions play a crucial role.

Through a qualitative review of 74 programmes' curricula and course catalogues, we have found that:
-There are many relevant competence offers for gambling enthusiasts in the Danish education system, but the skills are not targeted at the games industry.
-Competence development targeted at the games industry is primarily found in electives and self-selected project courses. Students must therefore actively choose the playing area for.
-New game developers are not equipped to think in terms of business models and entrepreneurship during their education.