Ahead of the Game
Fall 2021Ā “„ĢżBy Jenna Marina Lee
In 2006, Matt Laurence ā07MSĀ was fresh out of college with aĀ psychology degree pondering hisĀ next move when he got an emailĀ from his mother that changed hisĀ career trajectory.
A lifelong fan of video games ā butĀ admittedly not a natural at computerĀ programming or art ā Laurence hadĀ given up hope of pursuing his trueĀ passion of a career in the gamingĀ industry. And then his motherāsĀ forwarded email about a new graduateĀ program in Orlando called the mentioned a third trackĀ outside of programming and art:Ā production.
āI thought, āI can do this!ā ItĀ changed the whole course of my life,āĀ says Laurence, who since graduatingĀ has helped produce mobile games,Ā including the Angry Birds series,Ā and now serves as the engagementĀ director at Embark Studios inĀ Stockholm. āI got a job before IĀ even graduated. All the cool thingsĀ Iāve gotten to do are because of thisĀ career, and the only reason I haveĀ this career is because of FIEA.ā
What started out as 12Ā trailblazing students in a buildingĀ still under construction hasĀ blossomed into the anchor of theĀ Creative Village in downtownĀ Orlando. FIEA now has overĀ 800 graduates hired by over 300Ā companies globally and is knownĀ as the top graduate game designĀ program in the world.
More than that, FIEA hasĀ delivered on a promise it made fromĀ the start: to develop a pipeline ofĀ talent to fuel Floridaās economyĀ into the 21st century and beyond.
No.1 Graduate Video Game Design Program
āJust Imagine Wallsā
When you walk into FIEAās homeĀ at the Communication and MediaĀ Building downtown, youāre greeted byĀ shelves of glossy covers of video gamesĀ that alumni have collaborated on.Ā The area has both dedicated spacesĀ that encourage creative thinking andĀ camaraderie as well as workstationsĀ stocked with high-end laptops andĀ monitors for each student. ThereĀ are displays celebrating where FIEAĀ students hail from and the companiesĀ theyāve gone on to land jobs at.
Itās hard to believe that theseĀ same hallways once housed livestockĀ and agriculture equipment for theĀ state fair.
FIEA was born in 2005 out of aĀ charge by Floridaās then-Gov. JebĀ Bush to create high-wage jobs andĀ a pool of local talent to fill said jobs.Ā Video game developersā salariesĀ range between $75,000 to $150,000Ā annually, according to ZipRecruiter,Ā in an industry that reigns as āa biggerĀ moneymaker than the global movieĀ and North American sports industriesĀ combined,ā according to a 2020Ā MarketWatch article.
Revenue in the video gameĀ industry, which surged during theĀ pandemic, is expected to surpassĀ $200 billion by 2023.
Ben Noel was recruited fromĀ Electronic Arts (EA) to help pioneerĀ the endeavor and has served asĀ FIEAās executive director since theĀ beginning. He says he was particularlyĀ passionate about jumping on boardĀ because he wanted to help createĀ something meaningful for theĀ community he grew up in.
āThe best lessons are learned through working with people and failing with people.āMatt Laurence ā07MS
āIāve always been proud of CentralĀ Florida and Orlando, but I didnāt wantĀ my kids to have to do what I did afterĀ I graduated college,ā Noel says. āI hadĀ to leave [the state to start a career], soĀ that was the driving force ā to buildĀ great jobs for the future. This area has always been a great place to live. NowĀ itās a great place to grow up and liveĀ and work and retire.ā
Noel, who was hired in the springĀ of 2005, had the tall task of creatingĀ a curriculum, recruiting faculty andĀ students, and building FIEA literallyĀ from the ground up by the time schoolĀ started that fall.
āWe said, āWeāll stay and do this ifĀ we can find 12 people,ā ā Noel says.Ā āThere were still studs going up whenĀ we toured the first 12. We said, āJustĀ imagine walls.ā They are still 12 of ourĀ favorite students.ā
That first class of 12 turned intoĀ 17, then 31, then 50. Now, Noel saysĀ 150 aspiring FIEAns are competingĀ for 75 spots offered each fall termĀ for the 16-month masterās degreeĀ program in the Nicholson School ofĀ Communication and Media held atĀ its state-of-the-art facility at Ā鶹ӳ»“«Ć½Ā Downtown.
As for the faculty and staff,Ā Noel was initially joined by fiveĀ other EA employees, includingĀ Tom Carbone ā13MS ā18PhD,Ā who had served as one of the leadĀ programmers on Madden NFL.
They knew they needed peopleĀ from the industry to do this, and whatĀ makes our program better than otherĀ programs is our curriculum and theĀ fact that itās being taught by formerĀ industry people,ā says Carbone, whoĀ recently left FIEA after 15 years forĀ a general manager position at IronĀ Galaxy Studios.
Carbone was accustomed toĀ onboarding new hires at EA, so he hadĀ an idea of where novice video gameĀ developers struggled or shined. HeĀ built a curriculum based on those skillĀ sets and his own experience buildingĀ games, and he coupled it with theĀ same technology and toolsĀ that industry professionals wereĀ working with.
The faculty at FIEA also insistedĀ on a key element in structuring theĀ program that they point to as theĀ special sauce that has led to FIEAāsĀ meteoric rise and success.
āI knew what most schools lacked,āĀ Noel says. āIf Ringling [College of ArtĀ and Design] started a game program,Ā it would be very art heavy. If MITĀ started a game program, it wouldĀ be very computer science heavy.Ā So as we were building this fromĀ scratch, we focused on making FIEAĀ one-third art, one-third productionĀ and one-third programming. To doĀ something significant, youāve got toĀ work on teams, and that is what ourĀ students do here.ā
Thatās why every year, FIEAĀ students work in interdisciplinaryĀ groups of 15 to 20, mimicking aĀ game developer team in the realĀ world, to create a video game as aĀ capstone project.
By the time the project is done,Ā Noel says, each member of theĀ team will have learned invaluableĀ skills that help prepare them forĀ the workforce ā from deliveringĀ presentations to communicatingĀ with teammates to enduring throughĀ all the inevitable trials and speedĀ bumps a project faces.
āThe best lessons are learnedĀ through working with people andĀ failing with people,ā Laurence says.Ā āThere was this general sense whenĀ I was a student there that what youāreĀ learning about is what itās going toĀ be like in the industry to the pointĀ where it wasnāt surprising when IĀ got into it. It gave me that nice mixĀ of experience and understanding, asĀ well as industry connections, and thatĀ canāt be overstated ā it really mattersĀ who you know, and people who workĀ at FIEA know people in the industry.ā
As FIEAās reputation and brandĀ have grown, industry professionalsĀ have noticed the talent coming out ofĀ the school. Iron Galaxy, EA and EpicĀ Games are the top three employersĀ of FIEA alumni.
āFIEA has become a major source of talent for our EA Sports development studio in Orlando, and weāve watched many graduates grow to become industry leaders,ā says Daryl Holt, vice president and general manager for EA Tiburon and EA SPORTS Austin and Madrid. āHaving the opportunity to collaborate closely with FIEA leadership since helping establish the program, we know FIEA students are graduating with skills on the cutting edge of our competitive industry and are confident in their ability to integrate with our teams quickly upon hiring.ā
Not Just Games
But itās not just the gamingĀ companies that have eagerly hiredĀ FIEA graduates.
Carbone explains that the skillsĀ being taught at FIEA align perfectlyĀ with what Orlando is known for:Ā modeling, simulation and training.
āTheyāre such marketable skills āĀ the same interactive production thatĀ our students are learning to make aĀ game like Madden is the same processĀ that they use at Lockheed Martin,āĀ Carbone says.
Early in his time at FIEA, heĀ noticed some of the students wereĀ gravitating toward jobs in theĀ modeling, simulation and trainingĀ sector despite the fact that FIEAāsĀ courses focused strictly on the gamingĀ industry. He thought, what if weĀ encouraged them?
No. 14Ā Undergraduate Video Game Design Program
So he created a course calledĢż³Ņ²¹³¾±š³¢²¹²ś in which studentsĀ develop games for nontraditionalĀ applications, such as medicalĀ simulation, education and research.
Not Suspicious ā a virtual realityĀ research and development studioĀ created by Ā鶹ӳ»“«Ć½ grads ā got its earlyĀ start in GameLab, as well as anotherĀ course, Rapid Prototype ProductionĀ (RPP), where students have toĀ produce a new prototype everyĀ two weeks.
Rafael Brochado ā18MS movedĀ to Orlando specifically for access to itsĀ virtual/augmented reality industry,Ā which he says was nonexistent in hisĀ home country of Portugal. DuringĀ RPP and GameLab, he built a VRĀ prototype that he named Tablecraft,Ā which allows users to extract atomsĀ from objects in their environmentĀ and then put those atoms backĀ together to craft other objects.
Brochado liked the project soĀ much that he continued to developĀ it with fellow FIEAns GuillaumeĀ Bailey ā18MS and John Ruiz ā18MS.Ā This year, Tablecraft receivedĀ funding from the U.S. NationalĀ Science Foundationās Small BusinessĀ Innovation Research program.
āFIEA and Ā鶹ӳ»“«Ć½ were veryĀ supportive of my goals,ā BrochadoĀ says. āThey offered me financialĀ support, gave me access to theĀ hardware I needed and gave meĀ the freedom to experiment.ā
The team has had theĀ opportunity to showcase and talkĀ about their work and research atĀ the John F. Kennedy Center for theĀ Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.,Ā and the Department of EducationāsĀ Institute of Education Sciences.
Later this year, they plan to launchĀ an online initiative that they intendĀ to become a set of open-sourceĀ guidelines for how to best deployĀ virtual reality technology inĀ classroom settings.
Future of FIEA
In March, FIEAās graduate programĀ was recognized by The PrincetonĀ Review and PC Gamer magazineĀ as the top graduate game designĀ program in the world for the thirdĀ time in the last six years. Additionally,Ā Ā鶹ӳ»“«Ć½ās undergraduate game designĀ program, which is also housed atĀ Ā鶹ӳ»“«Ć½ Downtown, ranked No. 14.
As tomorrowās developers areĀ being built today at Ā鶹ӳ»“«Ć½, FIEA isĀ committed to remaining on theĀ forefront of the field. And that startsĀ with tapping talent early.
Noel frequently visits the OCPSĀ Academic Center for ExcellenceĀ (ACE) school ā which serves pre-KĀ through eighth graders ā in theĀ nearby Parramore neighborhood toĀ talk about the importance of STEAMĀ education and to plant the seed ofĀ whatās attainable.
āAll the kids go crazy when I bringĀ up Madden football,ā Noel says. āI say,Ā āDo you know where Madden footballĀ is made?ā And they all say, āYeah, EAĀ Sports.ā I say, āDo you know whereĀ itās physically made?ā And they kindĀ of give me blank stares. And I say, āInĀ Maitland, and soon itās going to beĀ across the street from you here.ā AndĀ their eyes just light up. ItāsĀ about showing them and their parentsĀ the pathway, and that this is possibleĀ for them. Itās reachable.ā
In October, EA moved its FloridaĀ headquarters from Maitland to theĀ Creative Village. You can see theĀ building from the sidewalk in frontĀ of Ā鶹ӳ»“«Ć½ās Communication and MediaĀ Building, where FIEA is located.
Holt expects that the proximity toĀ its longtime partner will only lead toĀ greater things ahead.
āWhile we have kept a closeĀ watch on the evolution of theĀ Creative Villageās development, theĀ establishment of Ā鶹ӳ»“«Ć½ās downtownĀ campus was a very positive influenceĀ in our decision-making [to move],āĀ Holt says. āWe have a lot to learn fromĀ each other, and collaboration willĀ only become easier and expand whenĀ our team is located right next door.ā
That partnership and collaboration strengthened in July when EA announced an initial investment of $100,000 to establish the EA Inclusion in Gaming Endowed Scholarship at Ā鶹ӳ»“«Ć½ in an effort to empower students from all backgrounds.
When Noel served as chair of theĀ original city of Orlando CreativeĀ Village task force in the earlyĀ 2000s, he envisioned just howĀ transformative it could become. HeĀ says todayās reality has not only metĀ his expectations; itās exceeding them.
With EAās relocation and IronĀ Galaxy located less than a mile fromĀ FIEAās home base, Orlando is quicklyĀ becoming the place to be, encroachingĀ on the territory that has for so longĀ been held by San Francisco, SeattleĀ and Los Angeles.
āThe key is to be ready when thoseĀ next companies that are maybeĀ competitors to EA say, āWe canāt avoidĀ the Orlando market because thereāsĀ too much game development goingĀ on,ā ā Noel says. āI think itās importantĀ for us to stick to our mission. WeāreĀ here to develop high-wage job earnersĀ to fuel our economy. At the same time,Ā weāre looking at how do we take thisĀ talent and diversify it into medicalĀ simulation and military simulationĀ and education, VR type of training?Ā Itās important that we stay on theĀ cutting edge.ā