20 Oct Speaker Spotlight: Dr. Amanda Ford

As the eyes of the world converge on Scotland for the upcoming Scottish Games Week, we want to give you some deeper insights into the incredible speakers that will be appearing throughout the run of events!

Next in our Speaker Spotlight series is Dr. Amanda Ford, Creative & Digital Industries lecturer at West College in Scotland! We sat down with her to discuss the Scottish games education scene, as well as her upcoming presentation at next Tuesday’s Education Symposium.

Briefly describe your role in games education:

“I am a Lecturer in Creative & Digital Industries at West college Scotland, and I teach on the Games Development courses from school classes through to HND.”  

How did you get into games?

“I’ve been a gamer since childhood. Super Mario was my first love, and also the first game I completed. Since then my house has never been without a games console or two.” 

What can attendees of the event expect from your presentation?

“My presentation will talk about how I view games education through the college lens, from students coming straight from school, to them leaving us to head to uni and beyond. I hope to give a better understanding of what we do in college I guess!” 

What do you think makes the games scene in Scotland so special?

“It’s Scotland, enough said! But really, when you think of the important games that have been made here, the answer is clear. For me, Lemmings is a classic (got to play it in school if we had extra time) and so is Minecraft console edition, though I got told off a lot by my daughter when she taught me how to play survival mode as apparently I wasn’t listening enough! I played and did a lot of education work with creative mode before venturing to the console.”  

Where do you see the games industry in general heading in the next 5 years?

“I hope that it continues to flourish, but I also think that we will see a big rise in Esports over the next couple of years, given the new arena being built in Dundee, and the fact that we are now seeing qualifications in Esports as well for schools & colleges.”

Amanda will be speaking at our Education Symposium event. For more information on Scottish Games Week, check out our website.