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Hard at play at UCF

A graduate program in Orlando is training the next generation of gamers to satisfy an insatiable industry. It can take a year's work to create a game.

By SHANNON COLAVECCHIO-VAN SICKLER
Published November 20, 2006

ADVERTISEMENT [Times photo: Brian Cassella] Graduate students in Central Florida's video game school hope to cash in on the multibillion-dollar worldwide industry when they graduate next month.

ORLANDO

Students decorate their desks with Transformers action figures and posters of comic book heroes.

They kick back in a lounge tricked out with a Sony PlayStation 2, an XBox and a 60-inch flat-screen television.

Their assignments go something like this:

Form a team of four or five. Create a video game in two weeks. Then create another one. And another. Form a bigger team and spend five months creating one really cool game.

This is the University of Central Florida's graduate school for aspiring video game designers, a 16-month program that will hand out its first diplomas next month.

"I tell my friends what I do, and they're like, that is so cool!" said student Krystel Guiloff, 27, of Lake Mary.

A college program that teaches students how to create virtual slayers and seamy underworlds may look like all play. But the Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy, launched last year with a $4.2-million state grant, is for real.

It's the only one of its kind in Florida's university system, and one of just a handful of graduate programs nationwide to tap into the multibillion-dollar gaming industry's insatiable demand for talent.

"It's a growing industry that really is still in its infancy," says James Moore, a 36-year-old academy student and a graduate of the Ringling School of Art & Design. "It's really the entertainment venue of the future. I can tell you a story and bring you into a whole other world."

Ten years ago, computer geeks and artistic types typically got into video gaming as apprentices of sorts, taking low-level jobs and learning their way to the top.

Not anymore.

Video games and the machines that play them are more sophisticated, with visuals and story lines that rival movies and technology that constantly advances. It takes a lot of people with significant training to produce the next Halo or Doom.

These days, it's not unusual for teams of more than 200 to work a year or more on a single game.

Colleges like UCF, the University of Southern California and Carnegie Mellon are responding with intense graduate programs that formally train the next generation of gamers.

"Ten years ago there was no school, no books for this. You really kind of learned it on your own," said Jason Della Rocca, executive director of the International Game Developers Association, a San Francisco-based nonprofit dedicated to enhancing careers in the industry.

"But now it's like, we need people to hit the ground running. And we need them today."

Making game makers

Electronic Arts is the world's largest video game producer, the leader in a ballooning industry that last year generated $7-billion in U.S. sales.

One of its fastest growing studios, EA-Tiburon, is in Orlando, where workers make popular titles like Madden NFL Football and Nascar: Chase for The Cup.

In 2004, EA approached UCF because it was hungry for talent. The Orlando studio needed more workers to keep up with demand, and they wanted local talent instead of recruits from outside the state.

"Finding talent for this industry has always been a challenge," said UCF's academy executive director, Ben Noel, former president and studio chief operating officer for EA-Tiburon. "As the industry got bigger and more sophisticated, we just ran out of supply."

UCF already offered degrees in computer science and digital media, and its film school had formed the previous year.

Administrators figured a graduate-level gaming program within the film school could prepare students not just for video game production, but for well-paying careers in filmmaking and even military simulation work.

Plus, Orlando seemed an ideal location. It is home to several interactive entertainment companies, including Disney, and is one of the largest film production areas in the country.

A class of 12

In April 2004, the state awarded UCF $4.2-million to establish the graduate program, and promised $1-million a year after that.

Twelve students showed up for the first classes last fall.

Their mission: Build actual careers out of teen years filled with Atari, Super Mario Bros. and GameBoys.

"I got my first Atari 2600 when I was 7 or 8, and it was all downhill from there," said Moore, the academy student from Ringling. "I couldn't stop playing."

Now he spends more time making games than playing them.

Unforgiving pace

The curriculum is intense. Creating a new game every two weeks sounds easy, but students quickly learn it's not. And the next assignment - building a more complicated game in five months - is even more daunting.

Just ask Moore and his classmates. They have spent the past four months building a game called "Opera Slinger," in which players race a plump soprano named Aria around an abandoned opera hall, trying to out-sing her.

"I spend 70 to 80 hours a week here," said Moore, who has circles under his eyes to show for it. "It's intense."

The unforgiving pace is intentional, said academy spokesman Todd Deery.

"The burnout rate in this industry is really high because it's this pressure cooker," he said. "We want to teach them how to work in that environment."

Today the program enrolls 63 students, most of them men. It isn't all hard work. Students watch Sunday football together. They go out for lunch and dinner. They watch movies in the lounge.

And of course, they play video games. Halo 2 is a favorite.

Earlier this month, Moore and seven other students gathered for a session of four on four.

"C'mon, use all those grenades!" Jon Albertson ordered his teammates.

"Ooohhh!" yelled Tim Metzler, his thumbs a blur over his control pad. "There's Jeff's corpse, after I wailed on him."

"Ugh, I almost had a triple kill right there!" Dave Verble shouted. "This is getting ugly."

After about an hour, the students got back to work.

The Opera Slinger was waiting.

Shannon Colavecchio-Van Sickler can be reached at 813 226-3403 or svansickler@sptimes.com.

Other programs

Southern Methodist University in Dallas has a two-year graduate program launched in 2003. Dallas is considered a hot spot for video game companies, some of which pushed Southern Methodist to establish the program. Students graduate with at least three completed games in their portfolios.

Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, through its Entertainment Technology Center, offers a master's degree in entertainment technology. The pilot class of eight began in fall 1999 and graduated in spring 2001.

The University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts offers a master of fine arts degree in interactive media, as well as a bachelor's degree in interactive entertainment and a minor in video game design and management.

[Last modified November 20, 2006, 00:35:45]