UC Santa Cruz professor roleplays gig financial system, publisher negotiation, and layoffs with game operate college students
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The gaming industry—and a significant portion of the American workforce—finds itself in a troubling condition currently. We have witnessed a substantial number of employees, including those in creative, administrative, and technical roles, face extensive layoffs and reorganizations. Even teams behind enormously successful games—such as the Seattle-based group responsible for part of Marvel Rivals— have experienced layoffs.
This is partly why Retora Games founder and adjunct instructor Tyler Coleman has been developing unconventional class exercises and role-play scenarios to assist his students comprehend the types of challenges they may encounter after graduation.
“The greatest lessons are derived from failure, so how can we impart that in a practical manner to our classes?” Coleman remarked, posing a question to an audience during his Game Developers Conference talk. “By not addressing these issues, we are not equipping our students for the worst.”
Coleman has run several of his courses through one of four distinct experiments, each spanning a majority of the academic term, aimed at preparing students for navigating the harsh environment of the gig economy, negotiating with unreasonable publishers and clients, coping with the range of challenges studios typically experience, and managing the emotional toll of job loss.
Encouraging failure with caution
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One aspect Coleman highlighted before delving into each hands-on exercise is that he was seeking feedback and suggestions for improvement. According to him, these experiments yielded “mixed results,” and he was cautious about negatively affecting his students and their perceptions of their own work.
“Coercing individuals to fail should be approached with caution,” he stated. “There is a risk of creating actual trauma if not planned carefully.”
The most notable experiment was Coleman’s Rapid Prototyping class, where a group of students developed several small games in various teams throughout the academic term. This plan culminated in the entire class collaborating on a single project, with different groups representing various teams within a AAA studio.
“Everything was destined for failure from the outset,” Coleman noted. “They were using a five-year-old version of Unity that they weren’t experienced with. The instructor (myself) was purposely uncommunicative regarding design and intention. We frequently altered the design requirements unexpectedly.”
Coleman aimed for his teams to fail and he—portraying a senior figure in this fictional studio—served as the primary antagonist in this scenario.
At the conclusion of the program, Coleman convened all the teams and informed them that they were being released. All the work they had produced was owned by the fictitious company that had employed them. He posed a question to his students: what would you create if you could not use any of the work from the past term? Although the work technically belonged to the students, he challenged them with a difficult prospect they might face in the future.
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Advantages and disadvantages
Several components of the experiment went well, according to Coleman. Some of his students felt the emotional impacts of losing their jobs. Although challenging, it helped them understand that situations like that are often entirely beyond their control. There was nothing they could have done differently to avoid the layoffs. Many students reacted negatively to the situation, but Coleman believed it was beneficial for them to experience it in this controlled environment rather than in the real world, where they would have to manage rent and other expenses.
“It also prompted them to update their resumes and LinkedIn profiles,” he stated, stressing that he was not advocating for layoffs in any way. “It helped them realize that the best course of action is to connect with others and build a network.”
Other aspects did not unfold as positively. Several students felt they had failed the class, which created anxiety. The shock of the layoffs also occurred right at the end of the quarter, which completely dampened any enthusiasm the class had as they approached the term’s conclusion. Fortunately, the class did not fail; they received “gentle A’s,” as Coleman described it. He intends to make it clear to students that they cannot fail this experiment moving forward.