Goldsmiths joins Tiga

The Department of Computing at Goldsmiths, a University of London college, has joined Tiga.

The partnership will allow the department to establish new collaborative research schemes with studios, as well as ensure that the material taught on the course is relevant to the industry. The department already has research partnerships in place with the Technology Strategy Board, the Department of Computer Science at UCL, and Oxford-based developer Rebellion.

It’s also working with ITI Techmedia on a report focused on the effect of middleware in games and a second project to do with Human Computer Interaction.

Professor William Latham from the Department of Computing at Goldsmiths said: “We are delighted to be new members of TIGA. Having previously run a UK game development studio, I feel that Goldsmiths with its rich technical and creative history by coordinating with other TIGA members will supply AAA new employees and cutting edge games research to the UK games development culture.

“It is my belief that by having the UK commercial and academic sectors working closely together this will lead to even smarter creative technology for the UK to reassert its games development position world wide. Tiga gives Goldsmiths a framework and the cross over routes to industry for this knowledge and people transfer”.

Richard Wilson, CEO of Tiga, added: "The UK video games development sector has been held back by skills shortages. Games developers need to recruit highly skilled people, particularly computer programmers. I am delighted that talented people from sectors such as finance, medicine and engineering are seeking to graduate in courses relevant to a growing industry and one of the UK’s modern economic success stories. Work in the games industry is challenging, satisfying and rewarding. It is a great career choice."