Contact JoAnn Patel, Program Director
Email: jpatel@champlain.edu
Phone: 802.383.6683
What does it take for an artist to succeed in the gaming industry? How can you develop the artistic and technical skills needed to create the 2-D and 3-D environments, characters, and animations seen in the games millions of people play every day?
Success as a game artist begins with a passion for creating art. If you're looking for an artistic career that will allow you to thrive in an increasingly digital media-based world, Champlain's Game Art major is your perfect next step. We can help you develop your creative expression while teaching you proficiency with digital game art tools.
Through our Upside-Down Curriculum, you will start Game Art courses-like Introduction to 3-D Modeling & Texturing and Introduction to Animation for Games-in your first year. These early foundations in both traditional and digital art techniques allow you more time to refine your work and gain experience through practice. In your junior and senior years, you will create independent high-quality work in a variety of Game Art electives, and work with a team of other Game Studio students during Senior Capstone to create fully-functioning games.
Our degree in Game Art was one of the first in the country and remains among the top game development programs in the world. While the field of game art represents an exploding industry that is expanding every day, there's a catch: Everybody wants to get in. Opportunities in the field are available to graduates with professional quality portfolios. Our Game Art major provides students with the education and skills needed to create a professional portfolio, so a student's success is ultimately up to them.
The Game Studio Experience at Champlain College is a unique feature that gives you hands-on experience in your field, working with peers from our other game majors to complete game projects from start to finish. This parallel to real-world professional studio work is what makes Champlain game programmers stand out from the crowd; you'll have firsthand experience working with other departments to bring a project to completion.
Learn More on Our Game Studio Website
JUST THE FACTS
The 2021 Fiske Guide to Colleges selected Champlain as one of the "best and most interesting schools" in the United States, Canada, and Great Britain.
Champlain was named a "Most Innovative School" by U.S. News & World Report (for the seventh consecutive year!) in its "America's Best Colleges" 2022 rankings.
Burlington, Vermont, our hometown, is ranked the #1 Best College Town by Travel + Leisure magazine.
WHAT SETS US APART
The unique Game Studio Experience at Champlain College gives you start-to-finish game-building experience in a professional environment. You'll collaborate with your peers in each of our game majors to create playable games in a studio that parallels the processes of the industry. By the end of your four years, you'll be ready to work in a professional studio.
You will have the opportunity to present the game you create with your Game Studio team—as well as your own demo reel—to recruiters from all over the United States and Canada. Recruiters often come to the Senior Show to scout new talent, from companies like:
Insomniac | Activision/Vicarious Visions |
Behaviour | Hidden Monster Games |
Otherside Entertainment | Sony Bend |
Trivium Interactive | Ubisoft |
Velan |
Champlain College sends a cohort to the world's largest game developers conference each year in San Francisco. Game Studio faculty, students, alumni, and the Game Studio Career Coach attend the conference for professional development and networking. The Career Coach facilitates exclusive networking meetings for Champlain students with top recruiters from companies such as Ubisoft, ArenaNet, Crystal Dynamics, Survios, Insomniac, Rockstar, and Sony.
GO ALL IN
Since you're diving into the tools and techniques of game art in your very first semester, you'll already be prepared for career-relevant internships by your second year.
Champlain's campus in Montreal, Canada, provides Game Art students with an exciting opportunity to live abroad in a vibrant, culturally rich city that appreciates the arts.
CREATE YOUR FUTURE IN GAME ART
Although the game industry is exciting and attractive, this major is not for the faint of heart. Our rigorous curriculum covers a lot of ground in order to help you reach your full potential as a game artist. It begins with a foundation in traditional media and visual art, and then moves into 2-D and 3-D graphics and animation. It is easier for a student who is well-based in traditional visual art to learn the technical skills needed to bring their ideas to the screen, but we welcome any student whose admissions portfolio is accepted.
If you are serious about crafting game art, collaborating with other creative developers, and living a life doing what you love, this major will give you the tools, skills, and professional experience you need to make your dream a reality.
Synthesize trends, theories, and movements in the development of new ideas.
Take full responsibility for your creative work and its reception before a global audience.
Visually conceptualize, in a clear and concise way, the artistic direction for a game or specific game assets using traditional rendering methods or digitally facilitated rendering methods.
Solve problems utilizing resources to find the best solutions to development challenges.
Let us know you’re interested so we can keep in touch!
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