DigiPen Institute of Technology
| DigiPen Institute of Technology | |
| Motto | "A serious education for a serious career." |
|---|---|
| Type | Career college |
| Established | 1988 |
Academic staff | Claude Comair |
| Undergraduates | 750 |
| Postgraduates | 40 |
| Location | , , |
| Campus | Suburban |
| Website | www.digipen.edu |
DigiPen Institute of Technology is a college located in Redmond, Washington which has a focus on art, computer science, and computer engineering with emphasis in creating video games. DigiPen is a high-profile college within the game industry.
History
DigiPen was founded in 1988 by Claude Comair in Vancouver, B.C., Canada. The school relocated to Redmond in January 1998. In May 1996 the Washington State Higher Education Coordinating Board granted DigiPen the ability to award an Associate and Bachelor of Science Degrees in Real-Time Interactive Simulation and an Associate of Applied Arts Degree in 3D Computer Animation. This made DigiPen the first university in the world dedicated to teaching how to create video games. In 2002 a sister campus was opened in Beirut, Lebanon. Currently the Lebanon campus only offers one degree in the programming aspects of video game creation.
Campus
The campus is part of a rented building from Nintendo of America. The bottom floor is Nintendo of America's warehouse where games and systems are shipped out. The top floor is mostly DigiPen, with NST on the north-east quarter. In 2002, DigiPen expanded its hold on the second floor by acquiring approximately another quarter, adding four new classrooms and a new place for the library. Two-thirds of the rooms are filled with computers for student use — only one-third are lecture halls without computers. Frequently, speakers from the video game industry and mathematical fields come to campus to give talks and lectures.
Recently, discussions have been underway regarding the acquisition of a second building in which all art students will attend class. This way, more rooms are cleared out for Computer Engineering and R.T.I.S. students to use computers.
Education
DigiPen has three primary educational paths: Applied/Fine Arts, Computer Engineering, and Real Time Interactive Simulation (RTIS - video game development). Compared to a standard computer science curriculum, students start a very rigorous course with C, advance to object oriented programming with C++, and all take 2D Windows GUI and 3D graphics and sockets networking. Many students build robotic vehicles as projects. The art programs are taught from a computer-oriented perspective, though many art students do not intend to work in the game industry and attend DigiPen for its unique curriculum and businesslike atmosphere. RTIS students are taught aspects of development including programming, design, and marketing. Though there are some liberal arts classes also in the curriculum, all required courses are pertinent to game development. DigiPen also offers a master's degree in computer science, and Comair plans to add a Ph.D. program as well. Due to the intense and demanding academic curriculum, many students drop out, though the completion rate tends to be higher for art than RTIS.
An important factor to note if you are considering DigiPen is the intense amount of work you will have to do. A traditional Bachelors Degree ranges around 120 credits over a 4 year span. At DigiPen, the B.S. RTIS and CE are both 154 credits. The Associate of Applied Arts in 3D Computer Animation is 80 credits, and the B.F.A. in Production Animation is 144 credits. A student can expect around 17-22 credit hours steadily throughout their stay at DigiPen.
Students
DigiPen is the only educational institution whose students place in the professional category at the Game Developers Conference, and they have done so in 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2007. Additionally, DigiPen students have placed the largest number of student projects in the Independent Games Festival student showcase every year since it began, with a six-year total of 21 winning game projects. The next closest institution placing in the student showcase is Georgia Tech with five over six years.
Other student run commissions include SAPR, DigiPen's student-run Public Relations committee and the CEC, the Campus Entertainment Committee. The CEC handles tournaments, movies, and other activities.
Student work (games)
Freshman year, Digipen students spend first semester working with an in-house IDE called the FUNEditor and must collaborate to make a text based game over the second semester. Sophomore year, student game teams must make graphical (2D) games. Junior year, the games must include networking, and often serve as the first real experimentation with physics and artificial intelligence. The senior games are significantly less restricted to allow for more artistic control, but must demonstrate technical competence and be in 3D.
The games are copyrighted and owned by DigiPen, but many of the best may be downloaded and played for free.
Some of the award-winning games are:
- Toblo - Northwest Games Festival Audience Award, 2006. Intel's Best Game on the Go, 2006. Slamdance Finalist, 2007. Finalist, Design Innovation Award, professional category, IGF, 2007. IGF Student Showcase, 2007. IGF Best Student Game, 2007.
- Base Invaders - Slamdance Finalist, 2007. IGF Student Showcase, 2007.
- Gelatin Joe 2 - IGF Student Showcase, 2007.
- RumbleBox - Finalist, innovation in game design, professional category, IGF, 2006. Slamdance Physics Award, 2006.
- Narbacular Drop - IGF Student Showcase, 2006.
- Orblitz - IGF Student Showcase, 2006.
- Sea of Chaos - IGF Student Showcase, 2006.
- Scavenger Hunt - IGF Student Showcase, 2005. Slamdance Audience Award, 2005.
- Rock Station - IGF Student Showcase, 2005.
- Kisses - Finalist, professional category, IGF, 2005.
- Bontãgo - Winner, innovation in game design, professional category, IGF, 2004.
- Ice Wars - IGF Student Showcase, 2004.
- Scrapped - IGF Student Showcase, 2004.
- Vektor Space - IGF Student Showcase, 2003.
- Crazy Cross - IGF Student Showcase, 2003.
- Valence - IGF Student Showcase, 2003.
- Mall Monster - IGF Student Showcase, 2003.
- Commando Attack Sub - IGF Student Showcase, 2002.
- T.H.U.G.S. - IGF Student Showcase, 2002.
- MatrixAttack - IGF Student Showcase, 2001.
- GenJox - IGF Student Showcase, 2001.
Notable staff
- Claude Comair — Founder, president, and pioneer
- Prasanna Ghali — Graphics professor and industry veteran
Summer camps
Every summer, DigiPen runs three different types of high-school summer workshops (and middle-school "junior" workshops). In the most popular workshop, students create games using ProjectFUN (a 2D proprietary game engine). Each workshop is two weeks long and there are different levels of each workshop:
- 3D Animation (Levels I and II)
- Robotics (Level I)
- Game programming (Levels I, II, and III)
Each two-week workshop costs $995.
Trivia
- The faculty conference table is signed by Shigeru Miyamoto and Satoshi Tajiri, the creator of Pokémon.
- The 7-11 located on the same block as the campus is reputed to have the highest sales in the state, though the campus does have a catered lunch service.
- A car in Ridge Racer 64 for Nintendo 64 is labelled as DigiPen Racing.