Technology PR:
Auckland, New Zealand May 7, 2008 -- New Zealand computer game development school, Media Design School has signed a deal with both Sony and Nintendo which will provide students access to state-of-the-art, industry-standard game development kits for the Nintendo GameCube and Sony PSP consoles.
Computer games released by Media Design School Students
Both game development kits have opened up opportunities for Media Design School students. Not only will students now be able to design games which can be played on both consoles, they will also be increasing their chances of landing desirable game development jobs after they graduate.
Mr Brendan Burns (Media Design School's Game Development Course Leader) is thrilled with the deal and says, "Game studios need developers who can write code or prepare art assets not only for PC, but for fixed hardware consoles like Nintendo's GameCube and Sony's PSP. In order to meet the needs of these game studios, we are enhancing our game development courses to provide our students with the expertise they require in order to be attractive to the large game development studios."
"All of our industry partners (Game Studios Metia Interactive, Sidhe Interactive, and Straylight Studios) have demonstrated their absolute support for graduates with development kit experience," states Burns.
Media Design School will be the first educational institution in both Australia and New Zealand to have access to both Sony and Nintendo development kits.
The Sony PSP Academic Development Program, courtesy of the Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE), consists of SN Systems ProDG compilers, physical hardware development kits, and access to Sony developer forums, which allows students to interact with top Sony developers.
The Nintendo GameCube Academic Development Program, courtesy of Nintendo of America, will provide the school with physical hardware GameCube T-Dev kits, Freescale CodeWarrior Development Tools, and the Nintendo GameCube SDK.
Both the Nintendo and Sony kits provide Media Design School students with the ability to create games using the very same tools used by the games industry to make Nintendo GameCube and Sony PSP games.
"We are extremely grateful to Sony and Nintendo for making their technology available to our students. It will no doubt help to further develop New Zealand's reputation as an emerging hub for game developers," says Burns.
In addition to the Sony and Nintendo packages, the students have been given access to Industry-Standard Gamebryo Middleware from US cross-platform provider Emergent. Gamebyro is used by AAA studios worldwide and is the preferred game runtime engine for hundreds of games across multiple genres.
Media Design School is currently taking enrollments for the Diploma of Interactive Gaming for April 2008. For more information visit www.mediadesign.school.nz, or phone 09 303-0402.
