The design documents will use examples from games such as Angry Birds.

By Anand Holla

Calling all gaming enthusiasts. For four days, from November 30 to December 3, at Katara Building 19, Katara Art Studio, a workshop on introduction to game developing and prototyping will be hosted by the Doha Film Institute and sponsored by the Qatar Animation Centre, an initiative of the Ministry of Youth and Sports.
For two hours every day, from 6pm to 8pm, about 15 chosen candidates will get to learn a great deal about gaming. “The themes of the workshop are broad and serve as a general, semi-professional introduction to the gaming industry. The workshop will include presentations and insight into how to enter the game-development industry and produce a first game, be it as a developer, producer or business owner,” the DFI says.
While the first day will be focused on presenting the gaming industry and the process involved in delivering a first game, the second and third days will focus on designing documents for games and going through some basic coding for programming game prototypes.
The design documents will use examples from games such Angry Birds and Clash of Clans, while the prototype game coding will introduce participants to concepts including basic movements, jump, double jump, adding and defeating enemies.
The final day will be a wrap up and a guide to giving a good elevator pitch for games. The workshop is also a launch platform for participants to pitch their ideas at the Ajyal Pitchathon – a competition presented in collaboration with ict Qatar’s Digital Incubation Centre. The Pitchathon winner will be eligible to join the Idea Stage programme of the Digital Incubation Center.
The mentor for the workshop is Marius Badita, a Development Director and Partner at Shenandoah Studios. A veteran of the gaming industry, he has worked in numerous gaming studious over the past five years. Marius started as a programmer for Gameloft Romania, then went on to work as a consultant in Gameloft India a year later.
The following year he became the programming teamleader at Gameloft studios in South Korea. He then launched his own studio and worked as an independent developer at 88mm Studios, where he worked on Frontline: Road to Moscow and Frontline: Longest Day. His current project is an iOS, Mac and PC game called Battle of the Bulge.
The deadline for submission of entries is November 25. For more details, check out DFI’s website.