Mobile gaming a huge industry, and it’s going to need engineers for years to come. That’s one reason why Japanese publisher Gree has struck a deal to help a San Francisco game-development organization with its curriculum and instruction.
Gree announced today that it is partnering with the MakeSchool softtware-creation program in San Francisco. The deal will have the publisher working to design a curriculum that will help students understand the important modern tools that go into making an iOS or Android game. As part of the Gree course, participants will build and release their own mobile game after eight weeks, and the Japanese company is promising to send over some of its top engineers to help teach people how to accomplish this. MakeSchool provides courses for people as young as high-school-aged kids as well as college students, and now Gree has a hand in grooming this next crop of engineers for the jobs that will exist tomorrow. Mobile gaming generated $25 billion in revenue in 2014, and it’s only going to get bigger as more people come online with smart devices in China, India, and elsewhere.
In a statement, senior vice president Naoki Aoyagi said that Gree is “committed to making an investment in the people” who will make tomorrow’s mobile games. The MakeSchool partnership enables the company to impart up-and-coming engineers with skills that will immediately apply to real-world jobs.
Gree and MakeSchool have already put in place the first eight-week program that will teach student the Cocos2D-swift/Cocos2D-x game-development tools. Cocos is a common engine that powers a number of games, and it is popular among young people learning to make their first apps. But Gree and MakeSchool aren’t just going to show people how to make a game, they also want to help students understand the planning process before as well as the release process afterward.
MakeSchool chief executive officer Jeremy Rossmann said that the Gree partnership provides students with the “right teachers” and the “right curriculum.” He added that Gree also enables MakeSchool to reach “global audience,” since the publisher has tons of experience releasing games in markets worldwide.