STUDENT gamE PROFILES
out beautiful assets in
a matter of hours. Once
we finally realized that
innovative game play does
not always start at a round
table but from iteration on
mechanics, we were able
to move for ward on the
assets we needed from the
art team.
our own development
methodologies, so they
train us continuously to
be autonomous in these
projects.
We are also put
through varying design
exercises and workshops
to help us get to the core
of a compelling gaming
experience. FIEA also
brings in industry veterans
from all over the country
to talk about game and
level design, and we would
always eagerly take notes,
thinking of all the ways
we could incorporate the
lessons of our speakers—
lessons they had to learn
actually being paid to
make games—into our
own development cycle.
closely did your game
production experience
in school match that of a
commercial environment?
I wanted to pitch the
idea to Tiburon’s senior
management, and after
explaining the idea to him,
I could tell he was actually
intrigued by my idea. Little
Steve the design intern
impressed Mark Turmell. It
was a pretty great day.
JF: What classes or
areas of study were
particularly helpful to
you when it came time to
create Shadow S?
SJ: Our curriculum at FIEA
was built around us being
able to create games with
long development cycles.
Our whole project was
meant to be a simulation
of working on an actual
development team. For
seven months we work on
these games and control
JF: How has your interning
experience been? How
SJ: I can absolutely say
that my experience at FIEA
made me a well-spoken
designer in a studio full
of industry veterans and
tough guys. I am interning
at EA Tiburon in Orlando,
and I was lucky enough to
work with the COO and two
senior creative directors on
developing new IPs for the
studio. Thanks to a lot of the
lessons I learned at FIEA, I
was actually able to impress
these guys on multiple
occasions—or maybe I just
said something that fit with
an idea they already had?
The interning experience
has been incredible and a
dream come true, because
I am actively being creative
and being a designer, and
having the opportunity to
share my designs with a
group of concept artists,
where one day in the future
these designs can turn into
a shipped title.
JZ: I think the school does
a great job of trying to push
you to your limits. I had
some industry experience
before coming to FIEA
and I can easily say this
project was for me the
most intense experience I
ever had before as a game
developer. The environment
at FIEA was so close to a
commercial one, that you
would have a hard time
trying to figure out that it is
indeed a school.
—Jeffrey Fleming
www.gdmag.com 59
