So, I am going to somewhat mirror Stephen Fry’s most recent blog post in declaring that, ladies and gentleman, boys and girls, “I’ve just returned from America”, where, as most of you know, I spent the last 6 months on the Kauffman Global Scholars program.

I actually feel rather terrible for not blogging more regularly throughout that time as I’d originally intended – however, I do owe this blog a summary post of some sort, so rest assured that will be up soon! For examples of fellow Global Scholars who weren’t quite as inept as me at keeping up with their personal blogging duties, visit Stuart‘s and Tony‘s blogs. They’re good.

Anyway – interestingly, as I sat in Terminal 4 (Starbucks, of course) upon my arrival, using the wifi (free only when limited to the BBC website!), I happened across this brief report by Rory Cellan-Jones on the state of the UK video games industry and the current shortage in talent it faces – causing it to fall behind in the international market: The report is here: The UK Games Industry Needs Brains.

“The games industry should be a posterboard for the UK’s future economy.”, says one developer he interviews.

It then goes on to describe computer games technology courses offered by many universities now – and how Northumbria University “struggles to find students with the right kinds of skills”.

I find this an interesting point, especially given the rise in the number of specific computer games technology-focused undergraduate courses on offer at UK universities today – whilst I’m unable to find specific figures, so many courses didn’t even exist five years ago.

Courses such as this are very popular – indeed, I am waving the flag for the University of Portsmouth‘s very well-regarded set of games-related courses, parts of which I’m closely involved with.

However, whilst the enthusiasm is clearly there – after all, isn’t it the dream of every video-game playing child to end up in a career developing games? – is there indeed a lack of real, quality talent, and people with the right skills?

Later that day, another post hit me, by Keith Stuart of the Guardian Games blog: “Is UK game development in trouble, and can women save it?”

“When talent emerges,” Keith reports, “it’s being tempted out of the country.” Indeed, as also claimed in Rory Cellan-Jones’ report – the tax breaks given to game developers in Canada, and Michigan and Georgia in the US, are named as factors luring our British talent away.

However – he goes on to acknowledge that indeed, perhaps there is a lack of real fundamental skills in science and mathematics, which needs to be addressed earlier. Indeed, is this something that games-related degrees cannot do anything about?

Keith writes:
“David Braben of Frontier Developments and spokesman for Games Up said last week, “95 per cent of video gaming degrees are simply not fit for purpose.”

…Again, this is something developers talked to me about. It seems university courses are often far too broad, offering a range of skills, but not enough depth in any of them.”

Clearly, some sort of enthusiasm for games development exists amongst the increasingly high numbers of eager students taking such courses – however, what’s happening to the talent?

Does the talent lie, as the Keith’s post suggests, with those not in the traditional ‘geek’ demographic? Does it lie with girls? Girls who are shying away from, – or not even considering – entering games development, particularly programming – despite the fact that girls are outperforming boys at GCSE-level mathematics? Is it seen as ‘too geeky’, or perhaps even too male-dominated for them to think about as a career choice?

Obviously, this is a topic which is fairly close to home for me – so I can’t address such issues without sharing my own personal experiences. I’ve been fortunate enough to be raised not to see gender as a barrier to anything I wish to pursue in life, whether it be in terms of career or hobbies – indeed, I’ve secretly always had a desire to decidedly smash any gender barriers I encounter. :)

Unfortunately, this isn’t the case for many girls, of course. So how can this be solved? As mentioned by Keith in his blog post, the ‘mainstream’-ing of gaming in general is definitely helping in dispelling the myth that games are just for geeks. So, it stands to reason, then, that as more girls are becoming interested in gaming as a whole, the more girls will also become interested in actually developing games too?

I think that further to this however, girls need to be shown that games developers – not just gamers – aren’t necessarily of the stereotypical “geek” demographic. What the UK games industry, and the games industry in general, needs, in my opinion, are more strong female role models. Women who do not fit the traditional ‘geek’ mold – and, perhaps, even, can show that being a geek is not necessarily a bad thing. (After all, geek can be chic, and even glam, as this upcoming Hollywood documentary shows).

I really look forward to discussing these issues further at the Women in Games Conference this September – how we can convince more of us girls that it’s okay to want to get into games development is something I feel very passionately about!

Edit: In fact, I want to open this out to the floor for discussion – what do you think on the issue? Why isn’t there already enough talent in the UK? And in the worldwide industry at large, what do you think needs to be done to urge more girls into game development?