{"id":22343,"date":"2021-10-26T20:04:34","date_gmt":"2021-10-26T20:04:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/pegasus\/?p=22343&post_type=story"},"modified":"2026-04-15T20:04:42","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T20:04:42","slug":"ahead-of-the-game","status":"publish","type":"story","link":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/pegasus\/ahead-of-the-game\/","title":{"rendered":"Ahead of the Game"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fall 2021\u00a0<\/em>|\u00a0By Jenna Marina Lee<\/em><\/p>\n

In 2006, Matt Laurence \u201907MS\u00a0<\/strong>was fresh out of college with a\u00a0psychology degree pondering his\u00a0next move when he got an email\u00a0from his mother that changed his\u00a0career trajectory.<\/p>\n

A lifelong fan of video games \u2014 but\u00a0admittedly not a natural at computer\u00a0programming or art \u2014 Laurence had\u00a0given up hope of pursuing his true\u00a0passion of a career in the gaming\u00a0industry. And then his mother\u2019s\u00a0forwarded email about a new graduate\u00a0program in Orlando called the Florida\u00a0Interactive Entertainment Academy\u00a0(FIEA)<\/a> mentioned a third track\u00a0outside of programming and art:\u00a0production.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought, \u2018I can do this!\u2019 It\u00a0changed the whole course of my life,\u201d\u00a0says Laurence, who since graduating\u00a0has helped produce mobile games,\u00a0including the Angry Birds series,\u00a0and now serves as the engagement\u00a0director at Embark Studios in\u00a0Stockholm. \u201cI got a job before I\u00a0even graduated. All the cool things\u00a0I\u2019ve gotten to do are because of this\u00a0career, and the only reason I have\u00a0this career is because of FIEA.\u201d<\/p>\n

What started out as 12\u00a0trailblazing students in a building\u00a0still under construction has\u00a0blossomed into the anchor of the\u00a0Creative Village in downtown\u00a0Orlando. FIEA now has over\u00a0800 graduates hired by over 300\u00a0companies globally and is known\u00a0as the top graduate game design\u00a0program in the world.<\/p>\n

More than that, FIEA has\u00a0delivered on a promise it made from\u00a0the start: to develop a pipeline of\u00a0talent to fuel Florida\u2019s economy\u00a0into the 21st century and beyond.<\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

No.1<\/strong> Graduate Video Game Design Program<\/p>\n

(The Princeton Review<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\n

[photo id=”22459″ title=”Pegasus-WEB-FA2021-fieapipeline-50×50-arrows-4″ alt=”” width=””][\/photo]<\/p>\n

\u201cJust Imagine Walls\u201d<\/h2>\n

When you walk into FIEA\u2019s home\u00a0at the Communication and Media\u00a0Building downtown, you\u2019re greeted by\u00a0shelves of glossy covers of video games\u00a0that alumni have collaborated on.\u00a0The area has both dedicated spaces\u00a0that encourage creative thinking and\u00a0camaraderie as well as workstations\u00a0stocked with high-end laptops and\u00a0monitors for each student. There\u00a0are displays celebrating where FIEA\u00a0students hail from and the companies\u00a0they\u2019ve gone on to land jobs at.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to believe that these\u00a0same hallways once housed livestock\u00a0and agriculture equipment for the\u00a0state fair.<\/p>\n

FIEA was born in 2005 out of a\u00a0charge by Florida\u2019s then-Gov. Jeb\u00a0Bush to create high-wage jobs and\u00a0a pool of local talent to fill said jobs.\u00a0Video game developers\u2019 salaries\u00a0range between $75,000 to $150,000\u00a0annually, according to ZipRecruiter,\u00a0in an industry that reigns as \u201ca bigger\u00a0moneymaker than the global movie\u00a0and North American sports industries\u00a0combined,\u201d according to a 2020\u00a0MarketWatch article.<\/p>\n

Revenue in the video game\u00a0industry, which surged during the\u00a0pandemic, is expected to surpass\u00a0$200 billion by 2023.<\/p>\n

Ben Noel was recruited from\u00a0Electronic Arts (EA) to help pioneer\u00a0the endeavor and has served as\u00a0FIEA\u2019s executive director since the\u00a0beginning. He says he was particularly\u00a0passionate about jumping on board\u00a0because he wanted to help create\u00a0something meaningful for the\u00a0community he grew up in.
\n[blockquote source=”Matt\u00a0Laurence\u00a0\u201907MS<\/strong>“]\u201cThe best lessons are learned through working with people and failing with people.\u201d[\/blockquote]
\n\u201cI\u2019ve always been proud of Central\u00a0Florida and Orlando, but I didn\u2019t want\u00a0my kids to have to do what I did after\u00a0I graduated college,\u201d Noel says. \u201cI had\u00a0to leave [the state to start a career], so\u00a0that was the driving force \u2014 to build\u00a0great jobs for the future. This area has always been a great place to live. Now\u00a0it\u2019s a great place to grow up and live\u00a0and work and retire.\u201d<\/p>\n

Noel, who was hired in the spring\u00a0of 2005, had the tall task of creating\u00a0a curriculum, recruiting faculty and\u00a0students, and building FIEA literally\u00a0from the ground up by the time school\u00a0started that fall.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe said, \u2018We\u2019ll stay and do this if\u00a0we can find 12 people,\u2019 \u201d Noel says.\u00a0\u201cThere were still studs going up when\u00a0we toured the first 12. We said, \u2018Just\u00a0imagine walls.\u2019 They are still 12 of our\u00a0favorite students.\u201d<\/p>\n

That first class of 12 turned into\u00a017, then 31, then 50. Now, Noel says\u00a0150 aspiring FIEAns are competing\u00a0for 75 spots offered each fall term\u00a0for the 16-month master\u2019s degree\u00a0program in the Nicholson School of\u00a0Communication and Media held at\u00a0its state-of-the-art facility at UCF\u00a0Downtown.<\/p>\n

As for the faculty and staff,\u00a0Noel was initially joined by five\u00a0other EA employees, including\u00a0Tom Carbone \u201913MS \u201918PhD<\/strong>,\u00a0who had served as one of the lead\u00a0programmers on Madden NFL.<\/p>\n

They knew they needed people\u00a0from the industry to do this, and what\u00a0makes our program better than other\u00a0programs is our curriculum and the\u00a0fact that it\u2019s being taught by former\u00a0industry people,\u201d says Carbone, who\u00a0recently left FIEA after 15 years for\u00a0a general manager position at Iron\u00a0Galaxy Studios.<\/p>\n

Carbone was accustomed to\u00a0onboarding new hires at EA, so he had\u00a0an idea of where novice video game\u00a0developers struggled or shined. He\u00a0built a curriculum based on those skill\u00a0sets and his own experience building\u00a0games, and he coupled it with the\u00a0same technology and tools\u00a0that industry professionals were\u00a0working with.<\/p>\n

The faculty at FIEA also insisted\u00a0on a key element in structuring the\u00a0program that they point to as the\u00a0special sauce that has led to FIEA\u2019s\u00a0meteoric rise and success.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew what most schools lacked,\u201d\u00a0Noel says. \u201cIf Ringling [College of Art\u00a0and Design] started a game program,\u00a0it would be very art heavy. If MIT\u00a0started a game program, it would\u00a0be very computer science heavy.\u00a0So as we were building this from\u00a0scratch, we focused on making FIEA\u00a0one-third art, one-third production\u00a0and one-third programming. To do\u00a0something significant, you\u2019ve got to\u00a0work on teams, and that is what our\u00a0students do here.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why every year, FIEA\u00a0students work in interdisciplinary\u00a0groups of 15 to 20, mimicking a\u00a0game developer team in the real\u00a0world, to create a video game as a\u00a0capstone project.<\/p>\n

[photo id=”22426″ title=”Pegasus-WEB-FA2021-fieapipeline-1200×800-2″ alt=”FIEA students with laptops and VR headset” width=”100%”][\/photo]
\n[photo id=”22456″ title=”Pegasus-WEB-FA2021-fieapipeline-50×50-arrows-” alt=”” width=””][\/photo]
\nBy the time the project is done,\u00a0Noel says, each member of the\u00a0team will have learned invaluable\u00a0skills that help prepare them for\u00a0the workforce \u2014 from delivering\u00a0presentations to communicating\u00a0with teammates to enduring through\u00a0all the inevitable trials and speed\u00a0bumps a project faces.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe best lessons are learned\u00a0through working with people and\u00a0failing with people,\u201d Laurence says.\u00a0\u201cThere was this general sense when\u00a0I was a student there that what you\u2019re\u00a0learning about is what it\u2019s going to\u00a0be like in the industry to the point\u00a0where it wasn\u2019t surprising when I\u00a0got into it. It gave me that nice mix\u00a0of experience and understanding, as\u00a0well as industry connections, and that\u00a0can\u2019t be overstated \u2014 it really matters\u00a0who you know, and people who work\u00a0at FIEA know people in the industry.\u201d<\/p>\n

As FIEA\u2019s reputation and brand\u00a0have grown, industry professionals\u00a0have noticed the talent coming out of\u00a0the school. Iron Galaxy, EA and Epic\u00a0Games are the top three employers\u00a0of FIEA alumni.<\/p>\n

\u201cFIEA has become a major source of talent for our EA Sports development studio in Orlando, and we\u2019ve watched many graduates grow to become industry leaders,\u201d says Daryl Holt, vice president and general manager for EA Tiburon and EA SPORTS Austin and Madrid. \u201cHaving 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

[photo id=”22457″ title=”Pegasus-WEB-FA2021-fieapipeline-50×50-arrows-2″ alt=”” width=””][\/photo]<\/p>\n

Not Just Games<\/h2>\n

But it\u2019s not just the gaming\u00a0companies that have eagerly hired\u00a0FIEA graduates.<\/p>\n

Carbone explains that the skills\u00a0being taught at FIEA align perfectly\u00a0with what Orlando is known for:\u00a0modeling, simulation and training.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re such marketable skills \u2014\u00a0the same interactive production that\u00a0our students are learning to make a\u00a0game like Madden is the same process\u00a0that they use at Lockheed Martin,\u201d\u00a0Carbone says.<\/p>\n

Early in his time at FIEA, he\u00a0noticed some of the students were\u00a0gravitating toward jobs in the\u00a0modeling, simulation and training\u00a0sector despite the fact that FIEA\u2019s\u00a0courses focused strictly on the gaming\u00a0industry. He thought, what if we\u00a0encouraged them?<\/p>\n

\n

No. 14\u00a0<\/strong>Undergraduate Video Game Design Program<\/p>\n

(The Princeton Review<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\n

So he created a course called\u00a0GameLab<\/em> in which students\u00a0develop games for nontraditional\u00a0applications, such as medical\u00a0simulation, education and research.<\/p>\n

Not Suspicious \u2014 a virtual reality\u00a0research and development studio\u00a0created by UCF grads \u2014 got its early\u00a0start in GameLab, as well as another\u00a0course, Rapid Prototype Production<\/em>\u00a0(RPP), where students have to\u00a0produce a new prototype every\u00a0two weeks.<\/p>\n

Rafael Brochado \u201918MS<\/strong> moved\u00a0to Orlando specifically for access to its\u00a0virtual\/augmented reality industry,\u00a0which he says was nonexistent in his\u00a0home country of Portugal. During\u00a0RPP and GameLab, he built a VR\u00a0prototype that he named Tablecraft,\u00a0which allows users to extract atoms\u00a0from objects in their environment\u00a0and then put those atoms back\u00a0together to craft other objects.<\/p>\n

Brochado liked the project so\u00a0much that he continued to develop\u00a0it with fellow FIEAns Guillaume\u00a0Bailey \u201918MS<\/strong> and John Ruiz \u201918MS<\/strong>.\u00a0This year, Tablecraft received\u00a0funding from the U.S. National\u00a0Science Foundation\u2019s Small Business\u00a0Innovation Research program.<\/p>\n

\u201cFIEA and UCF were very\u00a0supportive of my goals,\u201d Brochado\u00a0says. \u201cThey offered me financial\u00a0support, gave me access to the\u00a0hardware I needed and gave me\u00a0the freedom to experiment.\u201d<\/p>\n

The team has had the\u00a0opportunity to showcase and talk\u00a0about their work and research at\u00a0the John F. Kennedy Center for the\u00a0Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.,\u00a0and the Department of Education\u2019s\u00a0Institute of Education Sciences.<\/p>\n

Later this year, they plan to launch\u00a0an online initiative that they intend\u00a0to become a set of open-source\u00a0guidelines for how to best deploy\u00a0virtual reality technology in\u00a0classroom settings.
\n[sidebar background=”#ffffff” position=”right” content_align=”left”]<\/p>\n

Notable video games UCF alumni have helped produce:<\/span><\/h2>\n
\n

Madden NFL 22<\/span><\/h3>\n