Student programmers of Cohort 22 working on their capstone projects on Thursday at FIEA’s studio. Cohort 22 is the largest group in program history, including 94 students.
Jayden Hermitt
UCF’s Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy centers its focus on educating game design talent and is carving out its place as one of the premier game design programs in the world.
Based at UCF’s downtown campus, FIEA is a 16-month graduate program that focuses on game production, art and programming.
FIEA has made a name for itself as one of the top game design programs in the world. From 2020 to 2022 and in 2024, the Princeton Review ranked FIEA as the No. 1 graduate game development program in the world. In 2026, the Princeton Review ranked FIEA as the No. 2-ranked program of its kind.
The Princeton Review bases its rankings on the quality of the faculty, facilities and technology. The rankings also factor in the schools’ curriculum and career services.
Benjamin Noel is the executive director of FIEA. He was recruited from Electronic Arts to spearhead the program and has been with FIEA since its inception in 2005. Noel says FIEA’s goal was to produce more local game designers after the explosion of popularity in EA’s Madden NFL game series in the early 2000s.
“We needed more homegrown talent,” Noel said.
Noel said the program simulates a real-life studio. Here, students develop and hone their skills while working on teams to produce projects. Noel said students work on about 10 different projects over a year.
“That’s just valuable experience,” Noel said. “There’s no better teacher than experience, but it’s hard to get that on your own. You get into a graduate environment where you’ve got another 70 to 80 people that are similar to you. We can create that experience.”
FIEA now has more than 1,000 graduates since 2005. Following graduation, 80 percent of FIEA grads find a job in their desired field with an average starting salary of $83,000. More than 400 companies have hired graduates from FIEA, including major game studios like EA, Blizzard and Epic Games.
A wall of triple-A games located in FIEA’s studio at UCF Downtown. Titles include Red Dead Redemption 2, EA Madden NFL and Marvel’s Spider-Man — all on which FIEA grads have worked.
Jayden Hermitt
Lea Fournier, a master’s student in interactive entertainment on the project management track, said that FIEA taught her skills that she needs for the game industry that go beyond technical knowledge.
“It prepared me by teaching me what it’s like to work on such large-scale projects with teams of people of different principles,” Fournier said. “Like artists, designers and programmers.
Fournier added she’s strengthened her knowledge of technical skills that game producers need for the game industry, like data analysis.
Fournier serves as the project lead for her capstone game, Regradable. She manages a team of 25 people where her duties consist of managing deadlines, making calls on the project, assigning tasks and making sure the team is on track. Additionally, she delivers monthly updates to the faculty on the status of the project.
Fournier said the practice she’s received at FIEA has given her the confidence to succeed in the industry. She said what she is doing at FIEA is similar to the things alumni of the program are experiencing in the real world.
“And that’s given me a lot more confidence that I’m able to practice the skills I would need in this safety net,” Fournier said. “I’ve had the opportunity to learn from mistakes here that most people learn when they’re in an actual job.”
For Fournier, FIEA isn’t just a game design program; it’s a place to form bonds and to be around students with similar interests.
“The friends I’ve made here are going to be some of the friends I have my whole life,” Fournier said. “Being in a space where you’re with other creative people who share so many of the same interests as you feels really special. Coming here, it feels like I’ve actually found where I’m supposed to be.”