Educational gaming’s future lies in software

“Software is eating the world”. This opening quote by Marc Andreessen spearheaded the content and action of the RÉCIT FCC (Formation conjointe et collaborative) workshop titled “Mon école conçoit des jeux vidéos”. Presenters Yoann Gagnon (RÉCIT FP) and Olivier Chevrier (CFP Val d’Or) explained how a team of eleven employees with various tech dossiers and experience have come together to create an in-house developer studio to answer a need for an industry that continues to go unexploited in the educational video game world.

The vocational training centre makes it a practice to employ graduates in 3D animation from l’UQAT (Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue). They also have their sights on former employees of big industry video game companies, such as Ubisoft, for potential hires. CFP Val d’Or’s development team is multi-skilled: graphic designers, development agent, programmers, animators, and technical support agents, to name a few.

They describe their team as a “pipeline” with various stages of software development. Over the past two years, they have and continue to develop software for VR and computers in-house that is currently unavailable in industry or not available in French. They mentioned that although the video game industry employs over 13,000 in Quebec, the niche titles they have produced, including a mining simulator, are still widely inaccessible in vocational training.

On top of having a state-of-the-art mining computer software simulator, the team has also developed a thorough mining experience for the Meta Quest 2 virtual reality headset, along with another title that includes a routine checklist before mining, paired with items and tasks to review before one begins to mine . Aside from the mining program, the team has also developed a secretarial interview platform for a Windows computer, as well as VR simulator for the auto mechanics program. Some of these projects were made possible by funding from a government grant (Mesures 15081) and a partnership with the Centre de formation professionnelle Polymetier in Rouyn-Noranda.

Before the information session ended and participants headed to the lab computers, VR headsets and laptop for the secretarial interview experience, the team highlighted several advantages for vocational program teachers and students alike:

Advantage #1: Creating a bank of content (GitHub, Unreal, etc.) to use across the software titles during and post production. Materials created are available to be reused across different programs and sectors.

Advantage #2: Becoming owners of said software and thus industry potential is endless. The software is created in a public school and therefore is made available to a public audience.

Advantage #3: Sharing and introducing expertise in other vocational training centres across the province. 

Advantage #4: A “next level” type of training not previously available. Students can be given “God-like” features, enabling them to see what their peers are doing during the simulation.