Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy

Infobox University
name=Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy
established=2004
type=Graduate School
city=Orlando
state=Florida
country=USA
postgrad=45
postgrad_label=graduate
campus=Urban
website= [http://www.fiea.ucf.edu/ www.fiea.ucf.edu]

The Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy (FIEA) is a downtown campus of the University of Central Florida. It was created in 2004 by the University's School of Film and Digital Media and Electronic Arts, and accepted its first class of students in Fall of 2005. FIEA is a graduate video game development school offering an accredited master's degree in interactive entertainment. Areas of study include game design, art, programming and production.

The Academy is located at the Orlando Centroplex, which houses the Amway Arena and the Bob Carr Performing Arts Centre. The site of FIEA was formerly the downtown Expo Centre until late 2004 when the city of Orlando leased the building to the University.

FIEA follows a nonstandard educational philosophy which centers on the simulation of a professional video game development environment. The configuration of the building and course work is designed to reinforce this approach. Team-based work combining the efforts of students from the school's three primary disciplines of art, programming, and production is encouraged at all times. A capstone videogame creation project for each class of students forms the focus of the second and third semesters of work, comprising pre-production and production phases, respectively.

FIEA's first class of twelve students graduated in December 2006.

Games developed at FIEA:

* Class of December '06 - "Cohort 1"
** [http://theblob.riggall.com/ The Blob]
* Class of May '07 - "Cohort 2"
** [http://www.operaslinger.com/ Opera Slinger] - Independent Games Festival Student Showcase Winner, 2007.
** Danger Zone
* Class of December '07 - "Cohort 3"
** [http://www.masterplangame.com Master Plan]
* Class of December '08 - "Cohort 4"
** [http://www.bizarrecraft.com/ BizarreCraft]
** [http://www.fiea.ucf.edu/~cohort4games/zephyr/index.php Zephyr: Tides of War]

External links

* [http://www.fiea.ucf.edu Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy]
* [http://www.sfdm.ucf.edu/ UCF School of Film & Digital Media]

References

* [http://www.simulationinformation.com/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=58&Itemid=2 "Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy Opens in Orlando"] , "The National Center for Simulation", November 8 2005. Accessed May 30 2007
* [http://www.floridahightech.com/newsletter/november2004.htm "UCF Gets Downtown Digital Media Campus"] , "Florida High Tech Corridor Council", November 2004. Accessed May 30 2007
*Colavecchio-Van Sickler, Shannon. [http://www.sptimes.com/2006/11/19/State/Gaming_for_school_cre.shtml "Gaming for school credit"] , "The St. Petersburg Times", November 19 2006. Accessed May 30 2007
*Binette, Chad. [http://news.ucf.edu/UCFnews/index?page=article&id=0024004105bd60439010c0c76ce2f004098 "First Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy Class Graduates"] , "UCF News and Information", December 12 2006. Accessed May 30 2007