Exploring ‘Backstage Pass’ – The School of Gaming!

Backstage Pass is the realization of a long standing dream for Mr.Surya. He is an alumnus of Vancouver Film School, Canada, in the Department of 3D Animation and Visual Effects. He has over 7 years of work experience in the Animation/Visual Effects industry. He worked as the Lead Animator for various films, including ANJI, which won the National award for Best Visual Effects. He also worked as a Team Lead at Innova Solutions, handling projects for gaming, and documentaries (History Channel). His work as a Technical Director in developing Visual Effects for a “Folklore” project from Canada won two prestigious awards and got screened at Cannes in 2007 and as well as at Shocker Fest International Film Festival - 2007, California.

We had an opportunity to explore ‘Backstage Pass – The school of Gaming’ through its Managing Director Mr. Surya with this small interview.

CG Today : ‘Backstage Pass’ the name looks quite peculiar for a school; could you please share us with the name reason?

Surya : The name ‘Backstage Pass’ doesn’t sound anything related to games. Backstage Pass in general means ‘a pass which is given to someone in order to meet the stage performers’. Similarly, ‘Backstage Pass’ is a pass for the students to get into the Game Industry.

CG Today : Having more than 7 years of experience in animation and VFX industry, how and why the core training of Backstage Pass is Game Design & Development?

Surya : A lot of Game Companies have been trying to invest in India and only thing that is stopping them is the lack of talent. They have to spend a lot of money and time to train people. Apart from that, there are hardly any schools in India who gives students in-depth training in complete Game Development. That is one reason we had to come up with the school just dedicated to teaching games and our approach is very unique in terms of teaching students.

CG Today : What are the courses conducted by Backstage Pass?

Surya : Backstage Pass offers courses in B.Tech (Comp Sc & Game Development), BFA (Game Art) & BFA (Game Design) which are the 4 year degree program. We also offer a One Year Advanced Diploma Program in Game Art/Game Programming/Game Design. The seats in the One Year program are limited to 20 each in Game Art and Game Programming and only 5 in Game Design.

CG Today : What is the difference between these two degrees, BFA Game Design & BFA Game Art?

Surya : The two degrees BFA Game Design & BFA Game Art has a couple of subjects which are common, in terms of drawing & sketching, life drawing, color theory, composition & perspective drawing.

The BFA Game Art is a specialized and more detailed program in developing just Art for Games. It gives an indepth understanding of Concept Artwork, Character turn arounds, UI & HUD Art, 3d Modeling & Texturing, Animation and physics controllers, Particles & Special Effects, Lighting & Rendering and export methods and formats.

The BFA Game Design students will study and design different genres of games. ‘How to design games, How to design them well, and How to see your designs to completion will be the focus of this bachelor’s degree’. The students are taught to be creative decision makers, writers who come up with a script for a game or pen the character dialogue, specialize in level-design, making maps of the various locations in a game.

CG Today : Is there any special qualification or education background required to undergo these courses?

Surya : Yes, there is an eligibility criteria to get into these specialized courses.

CG Today : Can you give a rough idea about the fees structure? Is there any sponsorship available?

Surya : The fee structure for the degree courses, BFA (Game Art) and BFA (Game Design) is INR 75,000/- per semester and B.Tech (Comp Science & Game Development) is INR 1,00,000/- per semester.

The fee structure for the One year Advanced Diploma courses in Game Art, Game Design & Game Programming is INR 2,50,000/-

CG Today : What is the program schedule for the Degree & Diploma courses?

Surya : The program schedule for the degree courses is not yet finalized, but it is going to start from October. The Diploma courses have already started recently. The admissions are still open till September 20th.

CG Today : What are the career opportunities?

Surya : With the wide contacts we have in the game Industry in India, we would invite game companies to come to the school and conduct interviews. We receive emails from game companies regularly asking for game developers. Apart from the good training, we also provide Job assistance to students.

CG Today : Do Backstage Pass provide any tailor made courses for students/professionals who cannot attend a full-time course?

Surya : We do not have any short term courses as of now. But again, the class timings (7pm-10pm) for Diploma courses gives an opportunity to students/professionals to attend the course.

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