Jacob Habgood

Jacob spent over a decade working as a programmer in the games industry before entering academia. He worked for companies like Gremlin Interactive and Sumo Digital and led the programming teams on Hogs of War and Atari’s version of MicroMachines.

Jacob now teaches on the Games Software Development degrees, including modules on 3D Game Prototyping for the PlayStation 4, Real-Time 3D Techniques using DirectX 11 and Research Methods. He is course leader for the MSc in Games Software Development and a member of the academic advisory board for PlayStation First and TIGA. Through that relationship with Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, Sheffield Hallam now have the largest PlayStation teaching facilities in the world.

He is studio manager of the Steel Minions game studio (www.steelminions.com), which provides work-based simulation for students on the MComp and MSc Games Software Development degrees. Steel Minions were the first university studio in the UK to release their own PlayStation minis title in 2012 (BounceBack) and were the first university studio in the world to publish a PS4 title in 2015 (PieceFall).

Jacob's research interests are in the field of game-based learning and he is particularly interested in the way educational games integrate their learning content into a game. He also has an academic interest in novice programming tools and has written two books on hobbyist game development using Game Maker.