Game Winner

In an international competition of digital arts programs, Stetson’s game-design training gains unprecedented acclaim.

BY MICHAEL CANDELARIA

Stetson’s Digital Arts Program recognized by The Princeton Review as one of the top gamedesign educations in the nation?

As a student, Alex Ramirez ’19 had no idea the program that he was part of would reach such heights. All he hoped for was a chance to have a career in video. Today, he’s an associate game designer at Electronic Arts (EA) Sports in Orlando.

Nathan Wolek certainly didn’t know as a student on campus in the late 1990s. And in recent years, even as Nathan Wolek, PhD, Stetson professor of digital arts and music technology, achieving that kind of acclaim clearly was a goal that drove him and his colleagues, but it was far from a guarantee.

Yet, it has happened.

In March, among 150-plus institutions offering game-design coursework and/or degrees across the United States, Canada and countries abroad, The Princeton Review included Stetson in its Top 50. Stetson was ranked No. 41 in this 13th annual ranking of Top Game Design Schools for 2022. The colleges making the 2022 list were based on a survey The Princeton Review conducted last year of school administrators, with the selection and ranking of schools based on criteria that broadly covered the quality of faculty, facilities and technology. The Princeton Review also factored in data collected from the schools on their curriculum and career services. The same type of ranking is done for graduate schools.

A college admission services company, The Princeton Review developed the survey in 2009 with the assistance of an advisory board composed of faculty at top institutions that offer game-design courses and professionals at leading companies in the gaming industry.

Stetson is one of only three schools in Florida to earn the distinction.

“It [the Digital Arts Program] has come very far,” Ramirez says.

Actually, the same is true for his career, and in a very short time. Ramirez began at Stetson as a finance major coming from DeLand High School, just down the street. In his sophomore year, he switched to digital arts and got heavily involved with Stetson Broadcast Productions as a video editor. Then an early digital arts course in 3D modeling and animation brought his aha moment.

“That’s when I saw that, oh, this is what I want to do,” he describes.

His senior project was a virtual-reality video game experience in which the players defend their castle against a horde of ravenous zombies placed in the medieval era.

Following a two-year stint directly out of Stetson with ESPN in Charlotte, North Carolina, Ramirez found himself at EA working on the Madden NFL series, one of the most popular video game series of all time. His current role centers on Madden 22 (to be released in August).

Acknowledging that he never thought he’d be working at EA, Ramirez does provide this assessment of his preparation: “You work hard for everything you do at Stetson. There’s no slacking off. You don’t get to slack off at Stetson.”

INTERCONNECTED COURSES

Stetson’s Digital Arts Program began in 1996 as a partnership among the computer science, studio art and music departments. In 1999, Wolek was one of the first graduates of the program, and after getting his graduate degree, he joined the faculty in 2005 and helped to lead the program for many years.

Then enter Dengke Chen, MFA, associate professor of Digital Arts.

Chen specializes in 3D animation and digital video. His artworks have been exhibited at numerous national and international venues, including the Electronic Literature Organization 2020 Festival; Tanganyika National Library in Tanzania; Alexandria Museum of Art in Alexandria, Louisiana; and the Art Konsult in India.

In 2018, Chen took over the game-design controls.

“A lot of the credit for this ranking goes to Dengke,” Wolek says, first citing the managerial duties. “He has been the one keeping up with the survey paperwork for consideration these last four years. … Dengke recognized the value and put in the work each year to make sure we were considered by the selection committee. He did not give up those years that we were overlooked. Without his persistence, we would not have this ranking.”

Further, adds Wolek, Chen teaches about animation and game engines — key pieces of the game development process. “He has taught and mentored all students who participated in this program since it was established. There are many new ideas and models he developed for this program, especially collaborating with other

Left: For his senior project, Alex Ramirez ’19 created a virtualreality video game. Right: Professors Underriner, Chen and Wolek play leading roles in elevating the design experience for students.

programs to seek more funding for students,” Wolek explains.

Chen points to the increasing number of graduates working in the video game and animation industry as one reason for the new recognition. Another reason is the connections with other game and animation academies and the industry. Additionally, he cites gamedesign's comprehensive approach to training.

“Our Digital Arts Program and the Computer Science Department offer a range of courses that covers all areas related to video game and animation production,” notes Chen.

Courses include graphic design, web design, 3D computer animation, hand-drawn animation, video game development, artificial reality and virtual reality, digital photography, interactivity art, digital video, audio recording and production, electronic music and sound design, and scoring for multimedia.

With a total of roughly 30 students in game design, Chen teaches 3D computer animation, hand-drawn animation, video game development and other courses related to digital video.

“All topics in our courses are interconnected, and we are also connected with the Computer Science Department,” Chen continues. “For example, students can take computer science courses to learn programing languages. Then, they take the 3D animation courses to learn how to design and create characters for video games. They take the video game development course to build video games in different genres, and they collaborate with students who take electronic music courses to compose background music and sound effects for the game.”

On average, there are six students who make video games or 3D animations as their senior project, with all of them having experience in the game/animation industry.

TECHNICALLY SPEAKING

Technology also is a big component in fostering creative work.

“Having a flexible curriculum is important as the technology continuously changes,” says Wolek. “We are certainly not teaching the same techniques that I learned as a student in the late 1990s.”

For example, Wolek teaches Electronic Music and Sound Design, where students can choose a path into “procedural audio” — the basis for doing sound-design work on gaming.

In 2017, a game-changing partnership emerged, involving the University of Central Florida’s Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy, or FIEA. The partnership was modeled after the widely successful Stetson Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE), using donor funding and strategic alliances.

FIEA, in collaboration with EA Tiburon, delivers an industry-based video game career education in a world-class facility in downtown Orlando. Each summer, two or three Stetson students are given the opportunity to learn the latest game-development processes for producers, artists and programmers, and they’re expected to pursue a self-designed research project. As with SURE, the students work with a faculty mentor to develop an idea for a project to complete at FIEA. They work full time on the project and receive a $2,500 grant.

Not coincidentally, most of them continue graduate studies at FIEA and subsequently work in the industry.

“This recognition of Stetson University as a top school for game design is important, as it showcases the development of great talent not only for video games, but also for the emerging experience economy and metaverse ambitions forming across industries around the world,” said Daryl Holt ’90, vice president and general manager of EA Tiburon (Orlando, Austin, & Madrid). “Stetson’s program goes beyond the classroom and forms real-world connections with industry partners like EA. We have enjoyed interacting with students from the program at our EA Tiburon studio in Orlando, and we have benefited from a partnership dialogue with faculty that can impact future curriculum development.” Holt graduated from Stetson with a bachelor’s degree in accounting

and a minor in management information systems.

Wolek, who steered the FIEA Summer Research program until fall 2018, agrees.

“The FIEA partnership really has been a win for both Stetson and UCF,” Wolek comments. “They get a chance to work with some of our top students and start recruiting them for their master’s program. Our students get a chance to work with graduate faculty for the summer and preview what it takes to make it in the gaming industry.”

MORE PLAYERS AND MORE SKILLS

Within the Digital Arts Program, two other principal players for game design are Matt Roberts, MFA, professor of digital arts; and Chaz Underriner, PhD, assistant professor of digital arts.

Roberts’ expertise ranges from real-time video performance, new media applications and Augmented Reality to physical computing, video projection mapping and photography. Each is a component of game design. His work has been featured internationally and nationally, including shows in Taiwan, Brazil, Canada, Argentina, Italy and Mexico, and nationally in New York, San Francisco, Miami and Chicago.

Most of Underriner’s work revolves around the concepts of landscape and portraiture in the context of experimental music. He has composed works for solo instruments, chamber ensembles, chamber and symphony orchestras, jazz combos, electronics, film, dance and choir. Each of those components can have a role in game design.

“This is really a program that offers a lot of skills for someone who wants to go into the game industry,” Underriner affirms.

One outcome, of course, is making The Princeton Review’s list — after trying the past four years.

Who knew?

Zoe Boykin ’22 didn’t. A digital arts major who is graduating a year early, she wanted to learn about game design simply because she enjoyed playing video games. She had no idea how they worked, conceding, “I never understood them.”

Now, it’s a different story — both for her and Stetson’s newly ranked game-design training within the Digital Arts Program.

“Game design just really drew me in,” Boykin concludes, “and I feel like it’s always going to be a passion of mine.”

The same goes for Yolanda Patino ’19, who majored in digital arts with a minor in studio art. She received an FIEA summer grant in 2018 and completed a master’s degree at FIEA. Now, she’s a technical artist at Grove Street Games in Gainesville.

“Stetson was a great starting point for my career in game development and digital arts as a whole,” Patino says. “I hadn’t planned to end up where I am now, but coming to Stetson gave me a little taste of everything and allowed me to really figure out what it was I love about digital arts, and being able to understand many different skills is an important part of being a tech artist.

“I really loved seeing how my work had changed over the course of just a few years, and I am so glad I was able to experiment with different classes and programs to finally discover my passion for game development!”

Left: Yolanda Patino ’19 used an FIEA summer grant to help become a technical artist. Boykin (above) and Rose (Keanu) Johnson (below), both seniors, are getting ready for their next career steps.