The Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy (FIEA) is a

graduate school Postgraduate or graduate education refers to academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications pursued by post-secondary students who have earned an undergraduate ( bachelor's) degree. The organization and stru ...

of the College of Arts and Humanities at the

University of Central Florida The University of Central Florida (UCF) is a public research university whose main campus is in unincorporated Orange County, Florida. UCF also has nine smaller regional campuses throughout central Florida. It is part of the State University ...

located in

Orlando Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures re ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

, United States. The director of the school is Ben Noel, former vice president and chief operating officer of EA's Orlando-based Tiburon studio. FIEA is a graduate

video game development Video game development (or gamedev) is the process of developing a video game. The effort is undertaken by a developer, ranging from a single person to an international team dispersed across the globe. Development of traditional commercial PC ...

school offering an accredited master's degree in interactive entertainment. Areas of study include game

design A design is a plan or specification for the construction of an object or system or for the implementation of an activity or process or the result of that plan or specification in the form of a prototype, product, or process. The verb ''to design' ...

art Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas. There is no generally agreed definition of wha ...

, programming and

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stati ...

. The Academy is located at UCF's Center For Emerging Media, which also houses other graduate and undergraduate programs in art, architecture, digital media, and film. FIEA was established in 2004 by UCF's School of Film and Digital Media and industry partners, and accepted its first class of students in Fall of 2005. The site of FIEA was formerly the downtown Expo Centre until late 2004 when the city of Orlando leased the building to the University. The building is now called the UCF Center For Emerging Media.

Programs

FIEA follows a nonstandard educational philosophy which centers on the simulation of a professional video game development environment. The configuration of the building and course work is designed to reinforce this approach. Team-based work combining the efforts of students from the school's three primary disciplines of art, programming, and production is encouraged at all times. A capstone video game creation project for each class of students forms the focus of the second and third semesters of work, comprising pre-production and production phases, respectively. FIEA's first class of twelve students graduated in December 2006. It has now graduated more than 537 students who have been hired by more than 135 companies worldwide. Recent graduates have accepted jobs at

Zynga Zynga Inc. () is an American developer running social video game services. It was founded in April 2007, with headquarters in San Mateo, California. The company primarily focuses on mobile and social networking platforms. Zynga states its missio ...

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professiona ...

Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted the ...

Google Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

, Bethesda,

BioWare BioWare is a Canadian video game developer based in Edmonton, Alberta. It was founded in 1995 by newly graduated medical doctors Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuk and Augustine Yip, alongside Trent Oster, Brent Oster, and Marcel Zeschuk. Since 2007, ...

, Telltale Games, and many others.

Notable Achievements

Games developed at FIEA: * Class of December '06 - "Cohort 1" ** The Blob * Class of May '07 - "Cohort 2" *
Opera Slinger
-

Independent Games Festival The Independent Games Festival (IGF) is an annual festival at the Game Developers Conference (GDC), the largest annual gathering of the independent video game industry. Originally founded in 1998 to promote independent video game developers, ...

Student Showcase Winner, 2007. ** Danger Zone * Class of December '07 - "Cohort 3" ** Master Plan * Class of December '08 - "Cohort 4" ** BizarreCraft *
Zephyr: Tides of War
* Class of December '09 - "Cohort 5" *
Sultans of Scratch
*
Drifters
* Class of December '10 - "Cohort 6" *
Shadows of Abigail
*
9 Lives 'Til Midnight
*
Eclipse
* Class of December '11 - "Cohort 7" *
Nexus
*
Scarfell
*
Dead West
* Class of December '12 - "Cohort 8" *
Plushy Knight
** Penned *
Battle Fortress Tortoise
* Class of December '13 - "Cohort 9" ** Escherreal ** Grapple ** Pitch Jumper ** Warp Derby * Class of December '14 - "Cohort 10" *
HIT
*
Focal Length
*
Neon Night Riders
* Class of December '15 - "Cohort 11" *
Junkers
*
Lanterns
*
Life Unfolds
*
Mall Cop
*
Totem
* Class of December '16 - "Cohort 12" ** Child No More *
Ley Lines
** Sketch Artist ** The Channeler * Class of December '17 - "Cohort 13" ** The Draft *
Hollowed
** The Logician ** MasterKey * Class of December '18 - "Cohort 14" *
Long Arm of the Law
*
Scamp: High Hat Havoc
** Hyper Vital
The Great Emu War
*
Liminal
* Class of December '19 - "Cohort 15" *
Malediction
** In Harmony ** Drift Light ** Snowfall Village * Class of December '20 - "Cohort 16" *
Flicker of Hope (Wick)
*
Keepers of the Trees
*
Izcalli of the Wind
*
Kore
*Class of December '21 - "Cohort 17"
Peblito - Rock and Roll

Rings of Hell

The Last Spark

Zenko - A Fox's Tale
*Class of December '22 - "Cohort 18"
Soul Shard

K3LVN

Drain Runner

Hermea

External links

University of Central FloridaFlorida Interactive Entertainment AcademyCenter for Emerging MediaInstitute for Simulation and Training

References

"Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy Opens in Orlando"
''The National Center for Simulation'', November 8, 2005. Accessed May 30, 2007

'' Florida High Tech Corridor Council'', November 2004. Accessed May 30, 2007 *Colavecchio-Van Sickler, Shannon
"Gaming for school credit"
''The St. Petersburg Times'', November 19, 2006. Accessed May 30, 2007 *Binette, Chad
"First Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy Class Graduates"
''UCF News and Information'', December 12, 2006. Accessed May 30, 2007 {{authority control Universities and colleges in Orlando, Florida Video game universities University of Central Florida Educational institutions established in 2004 2004 establishments in Florida