Students at a gaming festival in Đà Nẵng City in November 2023. — VNA/VNS Photo Văn Dũng

HÀ NỘI — With the emergence of university-level courses focusing solely on the gaming industry in recent years, Việt Nam is looking forward to a growth boost in the industry for digital economy development in the near future.

According to the Authority of Broadcasting and Electronic Information director general Lê Quang Tự Do, the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) aims to increase the industry’s revenue to US$1 billion in its 2022-27 game development strategy.

Key areas of focus in this plan include expanding the number of businesses in the industry and joint training programmes with educational institutions.

While game design courses have been offered at more than 100 colleges across the world, the major is relatively novel to most universities in Việt Nam.

A majority of the Vietnamese gaming industry’s workforce was trained in information technology (IT), software development or graphic design.

In January this year, tech company Sconnect opened its Sconnect Academy of Media Arts (SAMA) which specialises in animation and game design.

Meanwhile, FPT Polytechnic College announced that its two-year game programming course will be open for enrollment starting this admission season.

The Posts and Telecommunications Institute of Technology (PTIT) is also offering an undergraduate degree in game design this September and is expected to receive 200 students in the first cohort.

Speaking to Kinh tế Sài Gòn (The Saigon Times) online newspaper, the institute director Đặng Hoài Bắc said educational games are a focus of this programme, which has been designed to keep up with market trends.

It will also provide training in creative thinking and knowledge so that students can enter the global gaming industry workforce.

PTIT is the second higher education institution in the country to offer an undergraduate degree in game design, the first being RMIT University Việt Nam in 2022.

Designed based on a similar course offered at RMIT University in Australia, the programme follows a project-based approach to equip students with skills in various aspects of design and production, including digital project management, programming and scriptwriting.

A survey conducted by RMIT also showed Việt Nam’s gaming industry is witnessing exponential growth, but significant investment in human resources is required for sustainable industry development.

According to the study, the industry in Việt Nam reached VNĐ12 trillion (US$482 million) in revenue in 2020, more the twice the figure in 2015.

By number of downloads, Việt Nam is among the top 10 game distributors in Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand, according to a report by the data platform App Annie.

Việt Nam is also considered a major gaming centre in the region with approximately 430,000 game programmers working in local and multinational companies, but there are few designers.

Most of the studios in Việt Nam are operating in a software outsourcing model, carrying out tasks related to graphic design, programming or cloning.

This approach brings back large profits in the short term but does not allow these companies to make a breakthrough in the global market. There is also a lack of designers capable of creating an entire game title on their own from start to finish.

According to an RMIT University Việt Nam representative, many of the locally made games were created without innovative thinking, leading to lacklustre products.

Việt Nam needs to invest and develop a game industry workforce that is capable of identifying and solving problems, elevating the sector to become a pillar of the future digital economy.

Training for designers must equip them with the necessary skills and ability to adapt to the ever-evolving technologies.

Sharing the same perspectives, director of Aptech Computer Education in Việt Nam Chu Tuấn Anh said that a thorough game design course must be based on three factors, which are insights into the Vietnamese and international market; industry experts among the teaching staff; and professional opportunities and support for students.

According to Nguyễn Ngọc Bảo, director general of VTC - a major game distributor in Việt Nam, there is a large demand for human resources in the country’s IT sector, including the gaming industry.

Meanwhile, a gap remains between the capacity of programmers and industry demands, with only 30 per cent of IT students meeting the skill requirements of companies, he added.

With more universities offering degree courses in this field, it is expect that the negative social prejudices on games will change and the workforce demand for the gaming industry will be met. — VNS