Interview Thijs Cobben – The Challenge of Games Programming
Thijs Cobben is a born games programmer. Back in the early 80’s Thijs experimented with programming games on the ZX Spectrum, one of the first personal computers.
He was so intrigued by the logic, mathematics and creative aspect behind developing games that he ended up studying Cognitive Artificial Intelligence in Utrecht, and now, he programs games for a living.
Thijs is the owner of Phaedro, a successful software engineering company but happily spends time to combine his entrepreneurship with teaching Games Programming at Qantm College Amsterdam.
His drive to share his knowledge and enthusiasm with his students is definitely what makes him a well respected teacher at the Institute. At the same time, Thijs is very satisfied about working at this international organization: “Qantm College is the most challenging environment to exercise creativity in a technological context producing great games. The intake is strict and the overall course is very intense but that means that graduates will eventually be incredibly well received by any professional games studio and basically by any technical software engineering business. The Programming Course at Qantm College starts at the absolute theoretical and practical basics of programming and trains them in a broad range of software engineering skills so that after 18 months they can implement all sorts of technically complex solutions knowledge in different fields and develop all sorts of engines. However, producing a creation that entertains people on the XBOX, PS2 or even PC is always more fulfilling and that makes Qantm College not only a qualitative choice but also an enjoyable one”.
Qantm College works mostly with the Microsoft XNA platform, a C# -based programming framework that allows for hybrid development for both Xbox 360 and PC. According to Thijs, this professional, fast and continuously evolving framework with unlimited features makes it the best of the breed for the community of game developers. Moreover, it gives new game developers, and also Qantm students the opportunity to showcase their games on the XBOX Live Arcade. This way the tendency is towards a marketplace where game development is democratized and the entry level to commercially publish (semi)professional developed games is extremely low. However, working with this platform doesn’t exclude making games for other consoles and working on other platforms. Students learn how to build mathematically and physically correct engines for all types of games and consoles, from first-person shooters to fight games and even serious games.
By always anticipating on the latest trends, theories and software, and combining advanced technological features with creative thinking, Qantm College can be called the leader in Games Programming education in the Netherlands and is full of promising top talent. Earlier this year, Qantm College Students won a grand price creating a XBOX 360 game.