Play Your Way Into Production: Game-Based Skills Development for the Screen Industries

"Play Your Way Into Production" presents the design and initial evaluation of a game-based learning intervention intended to develop entry-level skills for UK screen industry roles. Motivated by employer reports of graduate skills gaps and by the barriers that unpaid work experience poses to under-represented groups, the authors argue that simulation-based learning can widen access to competencies traditionally acquired through unpaid placements. The game was co-designed with 27 industry stakeholders around four identified gaps: attitudes, industry knowledge, wellbeing, and professional soft skills. Players occupy a virtual film or television studio in one of three entry-level roles, namely runner, sound trainee, or trainee grip, and receive line-manager feedback at the end of play. The intervention is supported by VR elements, character cards, interviews, and an Educational Resource Package, and draws on game-based learning principles including probing, stored simulations, agency, reflection, and situated cognition.

The evaluation involved 16 mostly non-experienced media students across three seminars at two UK universities, using interviews and autoethnographic accounts. Feedback was broadly positive, with students finding the game useful and engaging. Lecturers recognised its value in addressing industry skills gaps beyond technical roles, such as working on set, and in supporting communication and assertiveness teaching through the accompanying resource package. The authors identify notable limitations, including underuse of supplementary resources, language barriers for some international students, and the small sample size. They conclude that further data collection is necessary before firm claims about long-term effectiveness can be made.