Video: Why Romero, Spector and other AAA legends became educators

"With freedom to fail comes tremendous freedom to experiment, and to innovate."

- Brenda Romero highlights the value of teaching and practicing game design in educational institutions, away from the vicissitudes of the industry. Brenda and John Romero, Richard Lemarchand, and Warren Spector shared their thoughts on the trials and triumphs of moving from game design to education in a panel discussion hosted by USC's Sam Roberts during the Education Summit at GDC 2014. The central focus of the discussion was on why and how these experienced developers made the jump to teaching, but the group also spoke at length about the challenges of teaching something as unconventional as game design within traditional academia, the new trend of veteran developers becoming professors, and what that might mean for the future of the game industry. It's a great talk that's worth watching for industry veterans and neophytes alike. We've taken the liberty of embedding the free video of "AAA Academics: Superstar Designers in Academia" above, but you can also watch it here on the GDC Vault.

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