The Indonesian creative economy has been on the rise since 2015 when it has started being measured and prioritized by the government. Its contribution towards the Indonesian GDP has risen significantly as well. A small part of that creative sector is the video game industry and market. The video game global market will be worth USD 200 Billion in 2023. Indonesia currently is ranked 16th in terms of market size. Although having an enormous market opportunity, local video game producers only contribute 1%. Growth opportunities exist, however local game studios are facing the difficulty of recruiting quality game developers. Higher education institutions need to produce graduates having the knowledge, competences, and skills relevant for their work. This study is done to identify and prioritize attributes for the design of a university level program in game development that ensures employability in the sector. A qualitative thematic analysis is done in identifying the important factors for an academic program, followed by an analytical hierarchical process in determining the factors. Result of the study shows that a curriculum with internships in game studios, ensuring students are knowledgeable on the business models & video game market, having practitioners teach in the program, and creating a community of practice in the university is essential in producing quality graduates.

For a country to support the transition of all economic sectors to a knowledge-driven one, attract foreign investment, and drive labor productivity, it is necessary to have access to skilled workforce. However, there is currently an insufficient talent supply and the workforce demand does not match the talent supply because of low graduate employability stemming from the low quality of higher education in Malaysia. To address this issue, this study proposed a conceptual framework to illustrate the perception of graduates towards the impact of curriculum design, the curriculum vision, the operationalization of the curriculum vision, the curriculum delivery, and curriculum evaluation, on employability competency. A sample of 299 employed graduates participated in this research. Smart Partial Least-Squares (SmartPLS) version 3 software was used to evaluate the hypotheses of the survey. The findings of this study reveal that curriculum design positively and significantly influenced employability competency. Hence, this study contributes important insights into the implementation of effective curriculum design, striking a balance between practical and theoretical bases, in private and public Higher Education Institutions (HEIs).