A lot of subjects/courses are not available in Pakistan that can help creative people to put their skills to better use. One of those non-available courses happen to be related to Video Game Development.
Until now that is.
PixelArt Games Academy (PGA) has officially opened its doors in Pakistan. And it will offer courses for those who want to take their love of gaming well into the realm of video games development.
PixelArt Games Academy (PGA) offers courses in video game development for those interested in gaming, or developing games. It has now officially launched in Islamabad.
It is the brainchild of Sadia Bashir and her brother-in-law Umair Hameed, who wished to establish a world-class facility for nurturing Pakistani talent for video games development.
PGA will provide courses for all facets of video game development and will give students hands on experience to give them practical experience on development.
Video games are not built by just one skill or department; it’s a collaboration of multiple skills blended together. We will not only be teaching our students courses, but we will also be training them to be professionals. We will be providing them hands-on experience mentored by renown international game developers. – Sadia Bashir and Umair Hameed
This certainly rings true as game development is not as simple as just writing a bunch of code, it requires a team of artists, voice actors, sound engineers, story board and many others in a major game development company. For smaller indie studios a small team of animators, artists and coders can make some pretty good games, but it requires a lot of time and effort on their end.
For those who are interested in pursuing a career in the video games industry, PGA can serve as the first step towards learning the basics.
Beginner courses are offered for Rs 25,000, which consist of “Intro to programming” and “Training in Drawing and Digital Painting”.
If you already have knowledge of the basics, you can opt for the advanced courses.
The advanced courses will cost Rs 55,000 each.
‘Training in 3D Visualization and Animations’, ‘Training in 2D Visual Art and Animations’, and ‘Training in Game Development (Level 1)’ courses will be offered after launch as well.
PGA will also be providing fully and partially-funded scholarships for women.
In Pakistan, we have seen no dearth of game studios, with Caramel Tech Studios, Folio3, Cubix Labs and more. But what we’ve seen is the lack of dedicated educational institutes that can offer the prerequisite skill sets for people who just want to make their own fantasy worlds come alive with vibrant characters and lush game worlds.
The entry of PGA seems to be a step in the right direction, and it is hoped that it ends up kickstarting games development-related educational initiatives in Pakistan.
We wish PixelArts Games Academy all the best.
You can visit their Facebook page or their website for more details.
Note: Their website is under maintenance right now, and will be back up soon.
Via IGN
