Intro to the Gaming Industry
On Tuesday night, I attended a special guest lecture in FGH. The lecture was given by Tom Carbone and Todd Deery. Mr. Deery is the Communication and Admission Director of the Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy (FIEA), a graduate program at UCF that focuses on preparing students for entering the gaming industry. Mr. Carbone is the Technical Director of the program, and prior to joining FIEA (pronounced FAI-uh – think of dropping the ‘r’ on the word “fire”), he was the lead programmer for the 2005 and 2006 iterations of the Madden NFL series. Those that know me well know that I am an avid gamer, and though sports games are not my cup of tea, the lecture (which Mr. Carbone led most of) was incredibly interesting.
I have been considering entering the gaming industry after college for some time now, and Mr. Carbone provided a firsthand glimpse at what exactly that was like. Before entering the industry, Mr. Carbone helped design the AMRAAM missile for Hughes Aircraft Company, and he discussed how, while working at Hughes was fun at first, it eventually became tedious and rather dull. He was responsible for about 3000 lines of code (a minuscule amount in the industry – think for example about how many lines of text you create on the Internet on a daily basis), and any changes that he wanted to make were difficult due to the amount of red tape that was associated with that field. Once he got into gaming, though the hours were long and arduous (Though what job doesn’t have hours like that these days?), he enjoyed getting up and going to work every day. He was having fun. That was something I especially enjoyed hearing, as I’ve been having a similar thought process lately.
Mr. Deery talked mostly about the admissions process and what the program at FIEA is like, and I have to say, it seems pretty awesome. FIEA offers an accredited Master’s of Science degree in Interactive Entertainment, and they are the #2 graduate school in the country for game design. They have 3 tracks that students can choose from: Programming, Production, and Art, depending on which facet of the gaming industry a student is interested in (Programming being related to writing the code that makes the game work, Production being related to game design and team management, and Art being related to the graphics of the game).
Overall, I found the lecture highly entertaining and informative, and I find it so awesome that Vandy was able to get someone like Mr. Carbone, who has such significant experience in the field, to come and speak to us, especially since students got to attend the lecture for free. I still have a while, but FIEA is definitely on my radar for grad school.
Have any questions about anything that was discussed at the FIEA lecture or just want to pick my brain about the gaming industry? Comment below! Don’t be shy!