The idea behind RAF Game Dev Club is to encourage students passionate about game development to make the first career steps in the gaming industry, and to support them in the further development of their technical skills.
Game development is a multidisciplinary process that allows young talents, in addition to the knowledge of the core disciplines in gaming, to acquire numerous other skills such as creative thinking, problem solving, and fostering teamwork, as well as many others.
“We are especially glad that the idea for the classroom came directly from students interested in gaming. Self-initiative and entrepreneurial mindset are the values on which Nordeus was founded, and we wanted to encourage them in talented students passionate about making games. All interested students of the Faculty of Computer Sciences now have a multidisciplinary space where their creativity will come to the fore. This is only the beginning of our close cooperation with RAF in both Game Dev Club and lectures where our employees will share knowledge and experience from their fields. Our goal is to showcase students everything that gaming has to offer, as well as to enable them to apply their knowledge in some of the positions and opportunities that the video game industry has to offer”, said Miloš Milošević, Director of Engineering, Football Engine, R&D and Core Systems at Nordeus, at the official opening of the RAF Game Dev Club.
More than 100 students have gone through the RAF Game Dev club so far, out of which 30 are currently active. It is expected in the upcoming period that 50 students will have the opportunity to participate in both curricular and extracurricular activities related to the Game Dev Club. State-of-the-art work equipment will be used, not only by students involved in game development, but for other types of practical work for all students of the Faculty of Computer Sciences.
“It is our pleasure to support the students’ initiative to establish a Game Development Club. From the very beginning, the interest of the students was great. Now, after a year and a half, thanks to a donation from Nordeus, it is getting a modern classroom where students can realize their ideas and show creativity by using modern computer equipment. The plan is to involve colleagues from Nordeus in the Game Dev Club, who will share practical knowledge from this promising industry. In this way, we achieve the common goal of getting students interested in the gaming industry and support them to turn their hobby into a job they love, as the RAF graduates employed at Nordeus are already doing. We are glad that Nordeus recognized the importance of supporting such an initiative at RAF, and it is especially important to us that through the support of the company, a message is being sent to academic institutions to young people that higher education is the right path for a career in the IT industry. We hope that a new globally successful video game will be born in the RAF Game Dev Club.” – added Prof. Dr. Bojana Dimić Surla, dean of the Faculty of Computer Sciences.
The data confirms the importance of the creative industry in Serbia as well as all the opportunities it has to offer. According to the yearly report of the Serbian Gaming Association from 2022, over 2,500 employees work in 140 studios in the local gaming industry, while the 15 largest companies generate more than 150 million euros in revenue.
This is Nordeus’ second donation to the faculty in Serbia in the last 9 months. Apart from the cooperation with the Faculty of Computer Sciences, the long-standing cooperation between Faculty of Electrical Engineering (ETF) and Nordeus has been renewed last year at the welcome ceremony for the eighteenth generation of the Software Engineering students. On that occasion, Nordeus donated eighty computers and monitors and thus equipped two laboratories at ETF.
In addition to supporting young talents through donations, programs at the local faculties and within the community, Nordeus founded the Nordeus Foundation in 2021 with the aim of helping children and young people acquire skills and knowledge through supporting education and developing a stimulating and creative environment.