Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy

International Game Developers Association

Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy

Contributed by: Ron Weaver rweaver[at]fiea.ucf.edu

Part of the University of Central Florida, the Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy (FIEA) offers an industry-based graduate gaming education in a world-class facility in downtown Orlando. Students work on the latest game engines and software and are mentored by faculty with decades of game-making experience. In 16 months, students learn to be a producer, programmer or artist and earn a Master’s degree in Interactive Entertainment.

Our curriculum has three main tracks—art, production, and programming.

[edit] Art

In the FIEA art track, students work individually and in teams to sharpen their creative skills while creating memorable characters, animations, cinematics and interactive worlds utilizing industry-standard tools and equipment.

Semester I entails a challenging curriculum of character modeling and rigging, animation, environment and object modeling, texturing and lighting using Maya, Photoshop and ZBrush. Figure drawing classes are held weekly.

Semesters II and III are dedicated to advanced character rigging and animation, scripting and pipeline development, special effects and motion-capture editing using our world-class motion capture facility. Students design and concept artwork for a game created in collaboration with production and programming students. Students are encouraged to specialize in an area of expertise such as modeling, technical art or animation and balance team-based projects with personal portfolio development.

[edit] Programming

In the first semester of the FIEA programming track students take Programming I, where they start with assembly and C and explore topics like optimization details, compression and game frameworks. By the end of the semester, they have written their first game from scratch and ported it to the XBOX.

In the second semester, Programming II is about creating data-driven game engines and using C++ and design patterns common in the game industry to create a unique cross-platform game engine. For the final project, students create a game using the engine they made with their classmates.

The third semester programming class focuses on topics current in the game industry. For example we recently taught shader programming as well as C# and memory management in this class.

[edit] Production

In the gaming industry there are many different spins on the title of “Producer,” that at first glance, may seem incompatible. At FIEA, the goal is to give students as broad an exposure as possible to all of the different kinds of responsibilities a producer will face in the gaming industry. Areas studied include game design, project organization, management, communication skills and the industry’s financial aspects.

Students learn the above skills along with the software required for each.This includes programs like Word, Project, PowerPoint, DevTrack, Mind Manager, Flash and After Effects. In addition they learn the basic tools of artists and programmers including Maya, ZBrush, Photoshop, Perforce and scripting languages.

Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy University of Central Florida [[1]]