Patrick Garratt 18:26 (BST)
02/08/2006

Blitz Games MD Philip Oliver has issued a stark warning to the British development community over failing to nurture homegrown talent, as his open days for both university lecturers and students looking to break into game creation go booked out.

Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz at the recent lecturer's open day, Oliver said that unless the British industry starts to seriously address the problem of bridging university education and the realities of working for a developer in the UK, eastern countries will be left with a clear pathway to future domination of the development space.

"The biggest problem I actually see, and this is a massive problem, is that other countries, particularly places like India and China, will sort it out," he said. "Those governments have no problem pumping money in, and no problem in hiring top lecturers from the games industry to go and educate the next generation. They will become much better than us, they'll become much cheaper than us, and they will win all the work. It'll cost this country an awful lot of jobs. Just look at the car industry."

His comments came after three open days at the developer - two for students and a third for lecturers - proved an instant success.

Claz Gomez, a student from Bradford University who attended the first open day, said: "I felt very lucky to have been given the opportunity to visit Blitz. I was extremely inspired and the enjoyable day has really helped me learn what standards are expected from students in order to be considered for employment."

Oliver added, "We are aware that there is a growing skills shortage in the games industry and are committed to working with educators and students to improve the situation. We've currently got over 20 vacancies at Blitz and are aware that other developers are seeking new staff too. We believe it's important for the future of the business to hire talented, experienced industry professionals while nurturing the up and coming talent of the future."

Skillset, the partially government-funded body designed to liaise between the real demands of industries and university course supposed to train students for them, was on hand at the open days.

"It's very encouraging to see lecturers getting benefit from days like this," said a Skillset spokesperson. "One of the things we encourage is that universities don't just contact companies when they're looking for work placements: it's got to be a bit more involved than that. They can come here and they can meet nine or ten people that work in games. That's a real relationship they're set up."

Blitz is planning to announce more open days at its Leamington Spa offices in the near future.