AIE News

AIE Student Games being showcased at Washington State Gaming Expo 2024!

From this Friday March 29 through to March 31 we will be at Washington State Gaming Expo showcasing three student games: Tenebrous, Fish Gun, and Kettle Grove! You can play as a ghost pirate turning fish into aquatic armaments, chase down Lume the agent of light or build up and explore the bustling village of…

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First Frost by AIE Students

Bring in the winter season with First Frost!

First Frost was developed on the campus of AIE Lafayette as the major project for a group of 2020 graduates in the second year of their Advanced Diploma in Professional Game Development. The game was developed over a 6-month period by a team of 10 using the Unreal Engine.

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Game Jam 2020 | AIE

Lafayette Campus Game Jam – November 8th

What is a game jam? The goal of a game jam is to come together and make a game (be it a videogame, board game, card game…) Jammers quickly come up with new ideas, and make quick sketches of how they might work to prototype and playtest. Often jammers have a theme or central idea…

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Minor Production Process Afterword | AIE

AIE Minor Production Process

One of the most valuable parts of the course for our Game Development students is the opportunity to collaborate with their peers from other disciplines for their final project at the end of each school year. Internally, those projects are referred to as “Minor Production” and “Major Production” respectively for our first year and second…

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A Tour Inside Valve Headquarters

Our students had the opportunity to get an inside look at the legendary Valve Corp Headquarters, the studio that has brought us the Half-Life series, and the distribution platform, Steam. Kelly Cline and Mike Belzer, who were our guides for our group throughout the tour, showed Valve’s state of the art motion-capture room, sound design…

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Artcade Shows How To Really Have Fun During A Storm 02 | AIE

Artcade Shows How to Really Have Fun During a Storm

The Academy of Interactive Entertainment in Lafayette once again hosted Artcade! The fifth annual Artcade event took place on May 11th with a wide array of local game developers, artists, and film exhibitors. However, this year the event location was not at the Lafayette Science Museum where it’s been previously held. This year, Artcade was…

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10 Games in 3 Days: Year 1’s Alphabet Game Jam

10 games in 3 days? How is that even possible?! In a game jam, anything is possible! When you are well-equipped with the top-tier tools and a studio environment with a creative team, you’d be surprised how easy it is to churn out 10 games in 3 days. About the Alphabet Jam This is the…

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Video Game Math: Polar and Spherical Notation

What is Polar and Spherical Notation? These systems are alternate ways of describing a position in space. This allows us a different way of calculating positions. Polar and Spherical Coordinates In a “normal” Cartesian coordinate system, you have coordinates in an (x, y) pattern (or (x, y, z) for 3D) – along with an arbitrary…

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Is Game Programming Right for Me

You might be a programmer when… Have you ever wondered what’s going on under the hood of the games and software tools you use? You might be a programmer! Perhaps you have learned a bit about programming, but you’re wondering whether to pursue it as a career. Let’s go over some ways you can explore…

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Major Production Pitches 2019

Throughout the entire 2nd year, students enrolled in our Game Programming and our Game Art & Animation programs are divided into game development teams to create their first game. All student games below will have a demo presented at IFEST 2019, as it is a milestone shared among all teams. Before they get to showcase…

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Art Institute Seattle Displacement Info Sessions

If you are a displaced Art Institute student, please take note that the Academy of Interactive Entertainment Seattle Campus offers learning track towards careers in the following: Game Art & Animation Game Programming Game Design & Production 3D Animation & VFX for Film We are aware that every person’s situation is different, and there are…

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How to Find a Mentor in Game Development

You’re now at a point in your life where you know exactly what you would like to do as a career. You have done the pre-training to help you with admissions into college. Now what? Who will help direct you and make sure you do the right thing? It’s time to find a mentor. What…

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Jobs for Creative Introverts

A lot of people consider jobs for introverts to be ironic, but it’s more of a stigma than most people realize. At the Academy of Interactive Entertainment, an overwhelming majority of our students and those interested in studying on our campus, consider themselves to be introverts. Our staff and instructors understand and recognize that both…

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5 Things Every Game Developer Needs to Know 04 | AIE

5 Things Every Game Developer Needs to Know

Turning something that was once just your hobby into your day-to-day job no longer allows that thing to be your hobby. My advice? Get away from the screen and go outside! We’re lucky to live in a place like Seattle where there are tons of parks nearby. As a daily ritual, we all take a…

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Collidalot Launches on Switch 02 | AIE

AIE Alumni Launches Collidalot on Nintendo Switch

From college project, to launching on Nintendo Switch. We are immensely proud of our AIE Alumni Andrew Ward (Game Programming), Connor Adam (Game Programming), Matthew VanCompernolle (Game Programming) and Tim Tsai (Game Art & Animation) for launching their debut game on Nintendo Switch! All second-year students from all programs form into groups to create their major…

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Tips from Our Alumni

If you plan on starting your educational journey at AIE in 2019/2020, here are some awesome tips from our alumni. Leadership and being a team player are not mutually exclusive “What I have discovered that gives you an edge in this industry, is learning the pipeline and how your role affects other team members. If…

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What Type of Math Is Required to Become a Game Designer?

Trigonometry Google says trigonometry is: “the branch of mathematics dealing with the relations of the sides and angles of triangles and with the relevant functions of any angles,” which might sound a little boring at first, but let’s break that down a bit. Two of the most primitive forms of AI (Artificial Intelligence) are Turrets…

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Virtual Reality in the Classroom

How do our students learn how to optimize their games in virtual reality in the classroom? AIE is a college of the interactive entertainment arts, so it is natural for our team to embrace virtual reality in our studio-modeled classrooms. As virtual reality reaches new heights as a platform in the video game industry, the…

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Intro Courses in Game Development and Film

Are the Intro Courses right for me? Intro Courses are a great way for anyone who may be interested in getting their feet wet in a certain program in a small classroom setting, or if someone is particularly interested in what a career in video games or film might be like. Whether you are in…

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Work Station Specifications for Game Programmers

What kind of specifications are required to learn game programming at home? Since we provide the tools that are necessary for our students to succeed in the classroom, we get a ton of questions regarding work station specifications for game programmers, allowing students to continue developing their games at home. The instructors have shared their…

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3 Things Studios Want in a Game Designer

Your obsession with playing games knows no bounds – but what about creating them as a game designer? Whether you’ve established yourself as a junior designer, or you’re looking into becoming a game designer, it’s good to know what studios are looking for. We’ll unravel the top 3 qualities studios will be looking for when…

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