Thursday, February 05, 2009

BPN 1298 Hyper modern game studio to be realised in Leeuwarden

In the city of Leeuwarden, in the North of The Netherlands, a new games studio is under construction; it will open officially in May. It will be run by the company Gameship and will have the latest devices. The company will offer employment to 50 students. Companies from throughout Europe have shown interest, especially in serious games.

The studio is intended for the students of the NHL University, department of Communication & Multimedia Design, as well as for companies. Dutch companies such as the regional newspaper company NDC, theFactor.E, MOTEK and the Gerrit de Jonge Multimedia have contributed towards the studio, while grants were received from the national government and the European Regional Fund. The studio will cost 4 million euro.

The studio complex will consist of hyper modern games, animation and sound studios, where the students, but also the companies will realise professional productions. One of the eye catchers will be the motion capture studio, in which a series of cameras record the movements of people and animals for animations.

The gaming industry has in the meantime a variety of games such as standard videogames, arcade games, quiz games, sports games. In Gameship special attention will be given to serious games, which can be applied to training and education, but also to health and business.

The NHL University has built up its expertise in games over the years. Recently they finished the first instalment of the project A Perfect World, in which no less than 19 well known companies like Creative Industries, IT Works and the Noordhoff Publishers co-operated. The companies offered 7 different assignments related to gaming. Students could apply to work on the assignments with their instructors and the external creatives. In the framework of the project A Perfect World, a game concept was realised for educational publisher Noordhoff in which high school students can check their subject knowledge. For the internet company theFactor.E the students developed a game for searching proper company offices in the real estate market.

Blog Posting Number: 1298

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