Game on: New spaces at Bow Valley College

Imagine packing up your entire life and moving to a new country – all for the promise of living and learning in a place where the latest technology thrives.

For Bruno Matarazzo, that’s exactly what happened. He was accepted in to Bow Valley College’s Advanced Game Development program, and it wasn’t long before he moved his entire life from Brazil to Calgary.

“My wife and I basically moved in one month. We dropped our apartment and then sold everything,” explains Matarazzo. “It was life changing and I'm super happy. I've dreamed about being here for so long.”             

That’s why Matarazzo is excited to hear even more investments are being made in the school’s technology spaces and programs.

After earning a four-year game design degree in Brazil and creating his own video game, he was struggling to take his concept to the next level and make industry connections.

“I already had this game that I'm still working on today, with four other friends in in Brazil and we were looking for like more opportunities to show it to the world,” Matarazzo explains. “We talked with a few people and they said Bow Valley has this super cool course that’s brand new. I looked up everything I was going to learn, and it seemed interesting, with topics like Virtual Reality. I would never see that in Brazil,”

Bow Valley College is home to the new Digital Entertainment Nexus, which is set to become a world-class tech facility designed to take careers and companies to the next level. The space will feature Calgary’s first esports arena along with state-of-the-art labs and technology — not only for students — but for entrepreneurs and businesses in the community.

The creation of the Digital Entertainment Nexus was supported by a 5.5-million-dollar investment by the Opportunity Calgary Investment Fund (OCIF), realizing the need for an innovative technology training hub in downtown Calgary.

OCIF is a $100 million fund, created from the City of Calgary’s existing reserve in 2018, created to help diversify Calgary’s economy.

One of the most exciting elements is the construction of Calgary’s first esports arena, which includes six gaming consoles, two racing simulators, a varsity space for teams to play, broadcast and live streaming rooms, a stage and much more.

Construction is now underway and expected to be complete in late September.

Michael Crowe is Bow Valley College’s VP of Academic and says this new facility will help grow investment and collaboration in downtown Calgary.

“This is creating something that could have an impact on Calgary's economy, especially here in the downtown core. These new facilities will meet a number of student needs here on campus, but it really is about the community around us and welcoming that community onto campus,” says Crowe.

According to the City of Calgary’s Greater Downtown Plan, the startup community is expected to triple the size of the tech sector in the city and create 30,000 new jobs by 2031.

Jeff Clemens is the associate dean of the Centre for Entertainment Arts at Bow Valley College and says the combination of new programs and new technology will help fill the tech-talent gap.

“In the past few years, we've launched six new programs at the college, we're able to kind of build up the industry here, building up the VFX, building up the 3D animation, film, gaming. Just some really cool places where students can come where they really didn't have that specialization before. It’s something where we can bring our students into the industry and they can fill in a lot of those gaps,” says Clemens.

With the global popularity of esports growing, having an arena will help put Calgary on the map to host large scale events as well.

“I believe the League of Legends esports Championship actually had more viewers than Superbowl which is crazy,” explains Clemens. “The more we build our industry, the more we say, hey, Calgary is really here, and we're investing in it. The more we build up our credit in this field, I think the bigger the events we'll be able to get and the more we'll be able to add to it.”

Collaboration opportunities for esports business and game development are already underway thanks to Bow Valley’s accelerator program. The two streams – Game Development and Esports Business – are designed to give students and local companies the opportunity to work together to solve problems and create new concepts.

Bow Valley College is looking for 20 companies in the Fall of 2024 and an additional 30 companies for the Winter of 2025, when a third stream, Film and Animation, will be added.

“When people want to start an esports league or potentially create an IT company to support esports, we'll have our accelerator to bring them in and actually give them that opportunity to build out their company, and support them through that process,” adds Clemens.

The Digital Entertainment Nexus will also include a new a cutting-edge motion capture lab, supported by a 195-thousand-dollar research grant from the federal government’s Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC).

This lab will feature technology that records movement and applies it to a 3D model used in industries like gaming, animation, film and television. Local esports teams can also use the technology to improve player performance.

As for students like Bruno Matarazzo, he’s excited to continue learning in the heart of the action and make more connections in Calgary’s bustling gaming community.

“I'm grateful for the opportunities they gave to me to just go there and present my game to more people and then just meet people here with different goals.”