GamesBeat: What sort of person are you looking for in a department chair? Is it not necessarily who you think people would expect?
Lorenzo: We want someone who understands games, and who also understands where it’s all moving to. How it’s going to overlap with different disciplines. I’m looking for a unicorn, but they’re out there.
GamesBeat: I’ve paid attention to some of the reports that come out of Indeed.com, the big job site. They do a good job of aggregating statistics, and they come up with things like, “Here’s the demand for game jobs by city.” They did a report on that a couple of years ago, and it was fascinating to me, seeing where game studios are popping up. One thing I’m not sure about, though, is that they showed a huge increase in the number of jobs related to VR and AR in the last few years. Those industries feel like they’re not exactly taking off yet. Maybe there are more jobs in companies that are struggling, but I’m not sure.
Lorenzo: I think your assessment of that is right. We’ve been doing this for a while. How long have VR and AR been around? We’ve been reading and talking about it for a very long time. It’s getting closer. It’s getting better. It’s coming around. But we haven’t seen the silver bullet yet that will make it something everyone is going to use. That said, we’re going to continue to see companies and people begin to use it.
Again, from a curriculum standpoint, our students have to understand it, understand how to work in it and what it’s about. We partner here — Magic Leap has a big operation here in Austin. They’re here once a month doing demos and having students work with the technology. We want to keep them informed, because things are going to happen there. The technology and the products will get better, and then the content will get better.
It’s less about VR and more about AR. I think about gaming, but I also think a lot about the training stuff. You’ve probably seen this, but there was an article just published on training doctors in how to do back surgery? That’s fascinating. We’ll see more, I think, but it’s not quite there yet.
GamesBeat: It seems like those are the kinds of skills you want to have, AR and VR, but your expectation may not be that this is where the jobs boom is. You might not be getting a VR job right out of school.
Lorenzo: You may. We know a bunch of companies doing this in Austin. We certainly teach that, and we want our students to know about it. I think if I could teach the students anything, though, it would be how to pivot. It’s not about any one technology. It’s about how you create something desirable that people want. That’s a basic design principle. Giving them the skills to do that is important.
GamesBeat: Are you finding that places like Ideal or Frog Design are hiring game people?
Lorenzo: They are, yes. You know who’s hiring game designers, though, it’s people like [name – 22:35]. It’s interesting. People who understand how to do that kind of immersive artwork are needed. You’re seeing more organizations like that hiring people. In my days at Frog we saw a lot of people from the game industry, because they’re good storytellers, and they work fast.
GamesBeat: That’s another example of the game engines being used to make TV commercials and other kinds of things?
Lorenzo: When you look at companies like Epic and Unity, they’re going to be making more games, but really they want world domination with their technology. They really want to get out there and make all kinds of different things. They’re breaking it out there. It’s amazing what we’re seeing. It’s going to be interesting. This could be a pivotal moment for all kinds of creative people.
Having worked in the creative industry for so long — as AI becomes more and more of a presence in our lives, and we see jobs being taken away, creative critical thinkers become super important in the marketplace. AI isn’t going to take that over. Critical thinking and creative skills aren’t going to be taken over by a bot. We have to prepare students for that. I think their credibility and their value has the potential to rise in the marketplace.
GamesBeat: This might change every day, but what’s your prediction for where the jobs are going to be four years from now? What should a student get ready for?
Lorenzo: You’re going to see a lot more in this immersive space. When you look at the larger architecture firms now, they’re using all these types of technology. If you’ve been to the Museum of Ice Cream or Meow Wolf, or any of that stuff, there’s that kind of experience. How do you create this kind of micro-experience, whether it’s for people in their homes or in their workplaces and other environments? We’re going to be seeing more of that play out. How do we create a better patient experience, or in education? That’s going to play out. We’ll see more in those areas.
Gaming will always be there. Entertainment will always be there. But we’re seeing the shifts in the entertainment world, and it’s dramatic. If you look at moviegoing, things are moving toward the small screen and in the home. That will begin to change as we get more immersive experiences. It’s a matter of taking what we know and using it in unexpected places.
I think about this all the time, because I feel so responsible for these students. I want them to go out there and do fantastic work.
GamesBeat: You mentioned this top position, but do you have a lot of other positions to fill in the program as well?
Lorenzo: Yeah, we’re always looking for good talent. We’re looking for an immersive designer, as companies hire for more of that kind of work. I don’t want to just hire somebody. I want to hire the right person. You need a visionary for these kinds of positions, because it’s about thinking about the future and applying that to really bright minds. It’s very exciting.
GamesBeat: Are there some well-known folks that are already teaching with you? I remember Warren Spector was at UT-Austin at one point. Is he still doing that?
Lorenzo: Warren was there. He was in the radio, TV, and film program, and he’s now an advisor. Richard Garriott is here. He’s come in and done some lectures and classes. We have some wonderful people from the games industry who’ve come in, like Michael Baker. He’s a 20-year veteran. David Cohen, another 20-year veteran. MJ Johns, she went through the program and has her own game company. We have industry experts, but also people who are educators. It’s kind of a hybrid there.
This is a big public university. Building something like this at a big public university is hard. There are 51,000 students here. It just doesn’t move that fast. But they have been amazing. They’ve been so wonderful about wanting to get this stuff done. Academia by its nature is bureaucratic, so it’s been a lot of fun to watch the university move so fast and jump all over this.