THE Game Developers Association of the Philippines (GDAP) offers more employment opportunities to gaming enthusiasts across the country in various fields.
GDAP president Alvin Juban said despite the barely 30-year-old gaming industry, the sector offers more and more opportunities for professionals and enthusiasts who are into gaming.
But, on top on the innate enthusiasm for gaming, Juban said proficient knowledge on sciences and math are vital requirements to become a successful as a gaming designer or developer.
Successful gaming developer must have a specific background in computer science, information technology, science or mathematics, and other related fields.
Davao City is among the cities considered by GDAP and the IT-BPO sector as among the "Next Wave Cities" for IT-BPO destinations due to its abundance in raw materials in maintaining a BPO company and considered as one of the city where highly-qualified professionals abound.
"In my company, a simple programmer won't cut it. We need a developer who is very knowledgeable in physics and math. Sadly, most programmers don’t listen to physics or math even in high school. In gaming, it’s everything," Juban said.
As per GDAP record, there are about 3,000 professionals directly employed by the industry or representing roughly 60 IT companies across the country.
Majority of the works in the industry are related on console game services, quality assurance (QA), game design consulting, and game community support, as well as mobile and social games.
Among the vast careers for gaming experts are working game development include Java developers, iOS, Android, and C++ developers, PHP and MySQL developers, and Actionscript developers.
Juban, however, professionals who are relatively proficient on these fields of works are very difficult to find but once they found a promising developer, it has to undergo training on velocity, gravity, and collision, among others.
"That's the biggest challenge. We usually get people who have the initiative to study things on their own. They usually Google it or go to a seminar. They will have to go the extra mile," Juban said.
In Davao City, there are several colleges and universities that offer IT courses that have produced quality IT professionals employed in big IT companies.