I can hardly type this because I am shaking with excitement. AWS has released this video game to teach AWS skills. This is days after I wrote my Defining VGIs article. I am still processing this information and so far I love what I see.
In this article I want to praise the team behind AWS Cloud Quest. I want to speculate what this game implicates about AWS. I also want to speculate what may happen next.
Praise
Humans build mental models to interact with complex systems. In the business of creating software often the challenge is wrapping one’s head around a problem. Anything that can help that process is good.
AWS is a complex system by design to enable purchasing top tier data center capabilities a la carte. Understanding how the pieces fit together and how to incorporate AWS services into your solution is a big learning challenge.
A learning experience seems like a perfect application for a VGI. I’m highly impressed and can’t wait to see what the team behind AWS: Cloud Quest do next.
AWS Cloud Quest: the VGI built by a team at Amazon
Amazon is in the middle of incorporating video games into their business model. They are hiring engineers who possess both traditional programming skills and the ability to create video games. And now they have released a prime example of a VGI.
Clearly Amazon sees value in video game experiences.
I am excited that a massive software company is looking for this skill set. I think the video games industry will benefit from the traditional software engineering industry.
What happens next?
I hope to see good VGI applications coming from other FAANG (and other) software companies. I hope this puts a fire under any teams that are making VGIs now.
I can’t wait to see what happens next.