[MIKE Case] Tencent Game Academy: The "Blue Buff" for Game Developers, Helping to Build the Most Innovative Organization

Tencent Game Academy's knowledge management work has always been closely integrated with business operations, providing strong support for business achievement. With excellent knowledge management practices, it has won the 2021 Global MIKE Award, the 2021 China MIKE Excellence Award, and the Best Technology Innovation Award.

Founded in 2003, Tencent Games is a global leader in game development and operation. Tencent Game Academy is a platform established by Tencent Games dedicated to creating game knowledge sharing and industry communication. It promotes the healthy development of the game industry through the cultivation of professional talent, cooperation between universities and industry, industry exchanges, and the construction of a developer ecosystem, helping game professionals "achieve their game dreams."

1. Combining talent cultivation with knowledge systems to build a panoramic view of knowledge management.

In the game industry, where innovation is the core of development, how can we continuously cultivate game development talent through knowledge management? Tencent Game Academy has designed a panoramic knowledge management plan with the guiding principle of "connecting strategy with talent and empowering the ecosystem," which emphasizes "building high-rise talent cultivation and establishing a knowledge system as the foundation."
First, talent cultivation is rooted in business, creating a complete growth path from graduates and outstanding backbones to project producers; second, from 0 to 1, a game knowledge system is built, developing efficient learning tools that achieve a dual cycle of content and users, fostering a good learning atmosphere for self-learning and lifelong learning.

1. Talent cultivation approach: Rooted in business, expanding vision, promoting innovation.

As the game industry demands higher standards for gameplay and content, the requirements for cultivating professional talent in games have also increased. Tencent Game Academy closely aligns with strategic needs and industry changes, establishing multiple levels of core training programs based on internal professional channels, especially in the game product channel, where the cultivation path from graduates to producers is becoming increasingly complete, continuously supplying numerous professional talents to the business.
 

■ Tencent Game Academy training activities.

1) Graduate cultivation.

Establishing the "Kepler" and "Roca" graduate cultivation programs, formulating comprehensive training plans that include 6 months of pre-job integration, 3 months of full-time training, and Minigame. Through a mixed model of learning and practical experience, each stage is equipped with professional mentors and a tracking feedback mechanism, incubating works such as "Jian" and "Nishan Shaman," helping graduates grow rapidly.

2) Producer cultivation.

In collaboration with the University of Southern California, a customized training plan is designed to build a bridge for cross-media and East-West game creation, promoting communication and learning between producers and the European and American game industry, thereby gradually enhancing game design and production capabilities, helping producers become tomorrow's creative leaders.

3) Leadership cultivation.

For management personnel at different levels, Tencent Game Academy conducts targeted training. Among them, the Excellent Leaders program is established to support the rapid development of the business and continuously enrich the management team. Participants can not only learn various management skills and business management courses but also solve various strategic business propositions through action learning in groups, thereby broadening their horizons and accumulating connections.

2. Knowledge system approach: Building an efficient dual cycle between users and content.

A large amount of knowledge has been accumulated during the game development process, but it is scattered across various project teams, lacking unified organizational management, resulting in a fragmented, uneven, and inefficient access to knowledge. The Tencent Game Knowledge Base was born, with the core guiding principle of a dual cycle between users and content: helping users quickly find content and improving learning efficiency; through precise and personalized recommendations, matching content to suitable users, enhancing reach efficiency, and forming a virtuous cycle.

 
1) Platform cold start, accumulating content.

By conducting a baseline inventory, thousands of pieces of historical project experience from Tencent Games are summarized, while a series of activities such as essay competitions and knowledge awards encourage employees to continuously summarize new experiences.

By researching needs, resources from cutting-edge journals and conferences such as GDC, IEEE, and ACM are introduced. At the same time, employee enthusiasm is fully mobilized, recruiting volunteers to translate and produce bilingual subtitles, expanding coverage, and helping more employees learn global cutting-edge game development knowledge.

2) Systematic classification to improve learning efficiency.

In collaboration with experts from the Tencent Game Career Development Committee, a three-dimensional classification framework suitable for Tencent Game's business knowledge is designed. Horizontally, categories are divided based on positions and the skills required for each position; vertically, in-depth divisions are made based on the target audience for the content. Additionally, related content is aggregated through thematic knowledge, such as game categories, knowledge for new employees, and emerging concepts like the Metaverse.

3) Personalized approach to enhance reach efficiency.

Using information such as position and level to match corresponding content, upgrading from general recommendations to precise recommendations; applying behavioral data within the platform to explore personalized recommendations. At the same time, operational recommendations based on business hotspots and self-service subscriptions based on interests are used to better match content to users.

4) In addition, creating a good learning atmosphere.

Interactivity: Regularly organizing hot topic discussions, inviting experts to lead, and encouraging all to participate.

Practicality: Initiating cross-departmental technical research projects that attract hundreds of technology enthusiasts to collaborate and explore cutting-edge technical solutions in their spare time.

Lightweight: Supporting fragmented learning trends through mobile access, accelerated video playback, 10-minute micro-courses, and converting high-quality videos to text.

Gamification: Providing a gamified learning experience through online NPC scenarios and case challenges.

Diversity: Offering learning venues such as book machines and Computer Labs to expand learning scenarios.

2. Collaborating with the industry and universities to jointly build and support the healthy development of the industry ecosystem.

1. Industry co-construction.

Promoting communication and exchange within the industry, creating a healthy and positive development ecosystem for industry talent together with industry practitioners, exploring more possibilities in games, and stimulating industrial potential.

1) Tencent Game Developers Conference (TGDC).

An annual event initiated by Tencent Game Academy for game industry practitioners, aimed at building an open platform for industry experience exchange. It is expected that well-known experts from the domestic and international game industry will share the latest game development experiences and international cutting-edge information and technology, covering areas such as planning, operations, technology, art, and marketing, promoting healthy industry development and exploring more possibilities in games. TGDC has been held since 2017, and the sixth session will be held in 2022.

2) Online learning platform.

Tencent Game Academy focuses on the growth needs of industry practitioners, providing rich learning resources for future talents in the game industry, striving to become a consultant and partner on the development path of game professionals.

Video Courses: A variety of video courses are open to users, covering multiple series such as planning, programming, art, operations, analysis, and evaluation. These courses provide in-depth explanations of the work content and skills involved in the game production process, helping students build a modular knowledge system.

Featured Columns: Rich column content helps everyone understand the game industry from multiple dimensions. This includes "Ask the Game People," where senior experts from Tencent Games share their experiences; "True Classics Pavilion," which discusses game development knowledge points; "Game Dispatch," which tracks and reports on high-quality creative games worldwide; "Glad You Played My Game," where players and developers interact in game experiences; "A Day in the Life of a Game Person," showcasing the work and life of young game developers; and "No. 9 Teleport Station," which provides different knowledge and insights in the game field.

Experience Articles: Continuously publish experience articles through official websites, WeChat public accounts, Zhihu, and other platforms, including development experiences, professional skills, behind-the-scenes stories, interviews, and industry insights. Many contents come from frontline employees and the latest practical results, offering high learning and collection value.

3) Tencent Independent Game Incubator

The Tencent Game Academy, established at the end of 2020, is responsible for coordinating resources from various relevant departments of Tencent Games, providing full assistance in game incubation, helping independent game teams in the industry solve problems, obtain resources, and promote diversified development in the game industry.

2. University Cooperation

Committed to building and solidifying the foundational capabilities of the game industry, promoting the development of domestic game education and specialization together with the industry and academia.

1) Discipline Construction
Dedicated to creating an integrated construction from "profession" to "discipline," collaborating with universities to establish game majors/disciplines to promote school discipline construction and talent cultivation.

2) Industry Research
To help the game industry continue to develop, collaborate with top domestic and international universities to explore various aspects of industry development from an academic research perspective, uncovering the diverse value of games.

3) Research Cooperation
Starting from industry needs, closely cooperate with universities and research institutions, complementing each other's advantages, promoting technological innovation, driving research results to quickly land in the industry, and forming a virtuous cycle of multi-party cooperation for common development.

4) Competition Activities
Conduct competition activities through school-enterprise cooperation projects, providing professional knowledge transfer, work guidance, and support for online launches to help university students understand game development and enhance their game creative production capabilities.