Game Development Coaching Program

Introduction

The Game Development Coaching Program is directed to 17–29-year-old young people living in Oulu who are interested in game development generally and its different sectors, such as coding, graphic design and audio production. The coaching program lasts for four months and is organized twice a year, primarily as a work trial. During Pelifarmi, you will develop an extensive understanding of game development, project work and teamwork in a video game project.

Goals

In the coaching, you can develop your game development skills independently, with peer support and in practice with other group members. 2–3 game teams will be formed from the participants. In the teams, you will get to develop your skills in different areas of game development. During Pelifarmi, you will be able to take a video game project from the design phase all the way to a finished, published video game if possible. The game projects are demonstrations of the young person’s skills and support their future employment and studies.

On top of game development, experienced game developers visit Pelifarmi to train young people in game graphics and game design, for example. Through workshops, young people get to develop their skills in technical areas to support game development. Additionally, we will visit different video game industry businesses and participate in possible video game industry events where young people get to meet other people working in the field and network.

Equipment

Pelifarmi uses the Byström One-Stop Guidance Centre’s Gaming and Media Room computers which include the needed game development programs, such as Unity, Visual Studio, Blender and Adobe programs, such as Photoshop and Substance 3D Painter. The equipment also includes four pen tablets. The games developed during Pelifarmi will be published in the itch.io service.

Participation

Applications for the Game Development Coaching Program are opened twice every year, in January and August. Detailed application periods will be announced separately and it is easy to apply via the link where you can fill in the application form. The applicant must be between ages 17–29 and an unemployed job seeker living in Oulu. Pelifarmi is organized as a work trial and the applicant must determine their work trial right before filling in the application.

We work on four weekdays every week in the Byström One-Stop Guidance Centre’s Gaming and Media Room: Hallituskatu 5.