FIEA<\/a> 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\u00a0have hired graduates from FIEA, including major game studios like EA, Blizzard and Epic Games.<\/p>\n ![\"Level](\"data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAQAAAAe\/WZNAAAAEElEQVR42mM8U88ABowYDABAxQPltt5zqAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==\")
<\/p>\n
A wall of triple-A games located in FIEA’s studio at UCF Downtown. Titles include\u00a0Red Dead Redemption 2, EA Madden NFL and Marvel’s Spider-Man \u2014 all on which FIEA grads have worked.<\/p>\n
Jayden Hermitt<\/p>\n
Lea Fournier, a master’s student in interactive entertainment on the project management track,\u00a0said\u00a0that FIEA taught her skills that she needs for the game industry that go beyond technical knowledge.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt prepared me by teaching me what it\u2019s like to work on such large-scale projects with teams of people of different principles,\u201d Fournier said. \u201cLike artists, designers and programmers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Fournier added she\u2019s strengthened her knowledge of technical skills that game producers\u00a0need for the game industry, like data analysis.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Fournier said\u00a0the practice she\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd that\u2019s given me a lot more confidence that I’m able to practice the skills I would need in this safety net,”\u00a0Fournier said. “I\u2019ve had the opportunity to learn from mistakes here that most people learn when they\u2019re in an actual job.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Fournier, FIEA isn\u2019t just a game design program; it\u2019s a place to form bonds and to be around students with similar interests.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe friends I’ve made here are going to be some of the friends I have my whole life,\u201d Fournier said. \u201cBeing in a space where you\u2019re 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.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Student programmers of Cohort 22 working on their capstone projects on Thursday at FIEA’s studio. Cohort 22 is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":256171,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[4401,115,139,141,140],"class_list":["post-256170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-academics","tag-news","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256170\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}