Neither law, nor medicine, nor economics. One of the professions that is making the most progress in Uruguay and receives more and more students every year is video games. This field, which ensures job placement, has grown in at least three institutes that offer courses on this booming industry.
At ORT University, for example, between 2011 and 2016 there has been an almost 100% increase in the four-year bachelor's degree. This young degree has a graduation rate of 20%, Alejandro Erramun, its academic coordinator, told El País. It has a 96% job placement rate, according to its website.
In addition to this university course, there are several technical courses that have emerged in recent years and are very popular with dozens of teenagers and young people.
The A+ school, whose main teacher is Fernando Sansberro - who is also director of the company Batoví Games - started the course with 12 students. The growth was "gradual" but steady, said the man who created one of the most popular Uruguayan entertainments of recent times: Pixel Cup Soccer, a retro football game available for smartphones.
"We had to leave people out because of a location issue. There were about 10 people on the waiting list," said Sansberro. The developer was struck by the speed with which his course, which promises two years, filled up. "In two weeks we had to close enrolment," he said.
The BIOS, which offers a course in Art and Design or Programming of the subject in question, has increased the number of students by 10% in one year. Today there are about 40 who are looking to make video games their livelihood. "If I look at it in a progression of years, it is an area that has been growing," said Mario De León, general coordinator of the course.
At the University of the Republic, there is still no specific degree programme on this subject. "It could emerge later," said a coordinator of the Faculty of Engineering.
Causes
With the aim of stimulating interest in the industry among young people, the Uruguayan Chamber of Video Game Developers (CAVI) was created. "We've done a lot of talks to get kids to study and join our industry," board member Laia Eguren told El País.
In these conversations, they mention the most important success stories such as Pomelo Games, which has already launched two games, one of which has had 2 million downloads, or Ironhide, whose Kingdom Rush saga has been the most successful Uruguayan phenomenon.
"Very few people in the world achieve a million-dollar milestone. But to be able to sustain it is already a great achievement," Sansberro added.
In 2013, the National Telecommunications Directorate (Dinatel), under the Ministry of Industry, created the National Video Games Roundtable, in which several actors of this "ecosystem", as developers like to call their industry, are present.
One of them is Ingenio. It is an incubator whose mission is to help start-ups become "innovative, profitable and scalable". In 2014, they launched a unique initiative to boost start-ups in the field. "We gave tools to many young people so that they can go from creating video games as a hobby to creating a studio," said Rafael García, director of this organisation.
Out of seven groups that applied, five were incubated. And three are completing the incubation process.
"The kids say to you, 'If the Ironhide guys, who were three guys in a dorm room, could make a world game and make a lot of money, maybe I can too. There is that level of reasoning," Garcia added.
Experts agree that it is a vocational issue. "So they say: 'We get three friends together because we like to play games and make them. One of them is a good programmer, another one is good at graphics and another one is good at music. So let's see what comes out," García said.
Data
This interest in video games careers has been matched by national developments in the industry.
According to a survey coordinated by Dinatel, in 2013 there were nine companies registered in the sector. This year there are 19. The study also revealed that 77% of commercialisation is in the export market.
Call for entries for the video game competition.
LATU, the Ingenio incubator, Antel and the ORT University have opened registration for the eleventh edition of the National Videogame Competition.
Participants - who must be residents of Uruguay with a national identity card - can choose to submit their innovations for the mobile version (tablet or smartphone) or for PC.
The competition, for which proposals must be submitted by 31 October, will award the winner USD 4,000 and round-trip tickets to the industry's flagship conference in the United States the following year.
The event will also serve to participate in different conferences on the production of video games and to encourage contact with other developers.
Source: El País
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