Meet Some of Our Game Programming Students

Team projects in the Game Studio and production are my favorites. It's so valuable to work in a team and find out what the dynamic is and where you fit in. Then at the end of the project, you have a game that you helped to make - that's a really cool feeling. I still remember how I felt after I made my first game. It's amazing!

I am a Programmer at the Emergent Media Center. It's been an incredible experience. Working with students outside of my regular courses, learning how a professional environment operates, and working with projects applicable to my professional development has been so fulfilling and a great learning experience.

My personal favorite treasure in Burlington is a hidden gem called the Crystal Cottage of Vermont. It's a short walk down College Street. I went there multiple times a week during the semester to de-stress and find cool things. A trip there, then dinner at the Skinny Pancake, then sitting at the docks, and my night was made!

I chose my major because I love taking an incredibly complicated subject and packing it into something everyone can interact with and get joy from. Whenever I create something, my goal is that my mom should be able to turn it on and understand how to operate it.

I love that Game Programming is a project-based major. One of my favorite series of classes is our Production track courses. These classes take groups of every game major and put us together to make games and share them with our friends, professors, and industry recruiters. We're a close-knit community. Spending so much time in the labs makes you feel so comfortable and helps you make great friends with similar interests.

I worked on R&D projects with a team of interns at Rad Magpie. Our goal was to find possible long-term games and projects for the studio to continue developing. This pushed us into looking at virtual reality and augmented reality technologies. My Production classes made it easy to go from a classroom environment to working in a business where there were multiple projects going on. Having an internship gives you so many great opportunities to create new connections and network with people who you would have never had the chance to meet otherwise.

Champlain's Game Studio does such an amazing job of giving students opportunities and connections within the game industry. Because game studios visit campus almost every month, I was able to secure a job at Infinity Ward three months before graduation.

I studied abroad in Montreal during the spring semester of my junior year. The experience was amazing and helped me become more independent. I also had the chance to participate in the Ubisoft Gamelab Competition as part of my Production II class. Our game ended up being nominated for four awards, and we all made a lot of connections within Ubisoft.

I went on one of the Core travel courses. You can go to so many unique places, and the one I chose brought my class to Zanzibar in Tanzania for two whole weeks. I learned so much about Zanzibar's art, culture, religions, and people. It was definitely my favorite Core experience.

The most surprising thing about Champlain so far is how understanding the professors are. Because of our school's size, I expected them to be less distant than they would be at a larger university, but the professors at Champlain really go above and beyond. They treat their students like people, and they're forgiving when life gets messy. They will stick their necks out for students to succeed.

I studied abroad in Tokyo, Japan. It was incredible. The college culture in Japan is so different from college culture in the United States. Even though I was nervous about speaking Japanese, being immersed in the language really helped me develop that skill.

The Game Production classes have shaped me into a good team member. Being on a ten-person team is much easier said than done, so my communication skills have really grown since coming to college.

I found my love for the Game Programming major after going to Champlain's summer Game Academy program. I decided the teaching style was a perfect fit for me, and I was drawn by the culture of Champlain as well as their connections to the game industry.

My favorite class so far would have to be Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Games. It was a real turning point in finding out what specialization I wanted to pursue. Now I'm working on a game called Cash Force, where I am combining my knowledge of artificial intelligence and Unreal's vehicle to create AI for our game.

I worked with other students on an augmented reality (AR) project at the Emergent Media Center. They were very flexible in adapting our work commitments to our school schedules. During the project, I used all my knowledge from my programming classes and applied it to real life situations.

I was drawn to Champlain's close-knit community and upbeat atmosphere. Even before enrolling, it was very apparent that every student matters and receives individualized attention. The small class sizes allow professors to get to know each and every student. It also provides professors with the opportunity to tailor their teaching style to the needs of each student.

I really like the amount of intriguing programming courses Champlain College has to offer. Game programming courses are available in graphics, physics, artificial intelligence, animation, and more. In addition to the wide variety of classes offered, I admire how close everyone who takes them becomes. We're all passionate about what we're learning, and we're willing to help each other reach our greatest potential.

Over the summer before my senior year, I worked as a Mobile Developer at Rad Magpie, a non-profit game studio in Burlington. I was responsible for transforming the designers' ideas into reality in the form of a mobile app for an international client. Having a programming job on my resume gives me a competitive edge, as it shows future employers that I have experience working on real production projects.

I've always been a gamer, and while I was working on my Associate degree in Computer Science, I found myself making small games for most of my independent projects. I decided to steer my career towards game development. Champlain came up as one of the top options, and everything I read about the Game Studio indicated that it was well-regarded in the industry and in academic rankings.

I've had a unique experience with the Core. Being ten years older than my classmates, I have a different perspective on some of the issues we discuss and can bring my life experience into the conversation. It's interesting to see the similarities and differences in the discussions and topics from when I graduated from high school to now.

I get a stronger sense of engagement and interest from the faculty at Champlain than at other schools. The small class sizes make the give-and-take of the learning process more successful. I also enjoy hearing about the career experiences of our Game Studio professors-it's always nice to know that what we are learning will be useful once we graduate.

Everyone takes the C++ intro to advanced courses, so you get a really good summary of the language. In order to do well in classes and projects throughout your college career, you have to push yourself and be able to ask questions, pay attention, and learn to work independently as well as in a team. The Game Studio is pretty much on point with what you would experience in the real world.

Every year, Ubisoft sponsors a competition with surrounding game schools. They set a theme, and you have 10 weeks to make a game that the audience can interact with. I would say it was one of the most pivotal moments of my college career because we were able to work on such a large team. Usually we are on teams of five, but with eight members we got to make a fully-fledged game to show professionals to judge. It's a signature piece in my portfolio.

In your portfolio, you put most of your projects or finals. I have the game we made for the Ubisoft competition, my Capstone, and final projects from upper level courses I took junior and senior year. Recruiters love to see side projects, and that's a big culture at Champlain. You work with your friends and make a good game to throw in your portfolio. It shows recruiters that you're driven, you're active, and you genuinely enjoy making games.


As a game programmer, your portfolio shows off the end product and points out specifically what you did on that project. You might provide a sample of your code and a detailed explanation of how it works. It's more technical than a designer's portfolio, for example.

I studied abroad in Montreal. Champlain does a fantastic job at treating you like a young independent professional as I have said multiple times now, but Montreal is a step even further. It felt amazing to commute to campus on the public transportation and receive a very hands-off approach to the management of our projects. I highly recommend it to anyone who could attend. You still have the full support network of the Champlain staff but in a study abroad experience.

It may just be the general college experience, but being treated like an adult who is here to learn is such a freeing feeling. The professors help embody that experience. There are not a lot of secrets to what make a good teacher in life. Letting you own your own mistakes, helping you learn from those mistakes, and fostering a work environment that is reminiscent of the real world all help make you a better student.

The Champlain professors are some of the most experienced, professional, and passionate individuals you can meet. Their dedication to your development as a professional is impressive to say the least. It is extremely difficult to make games, especially to do it well. Your whole education at Champlain is focused around becoming a professional ready to jump in head first to your field after graduation. That focus is reflected in how you feel when talking with industry professionals about the work you do here. 

I love integrating art and technology and using it as a medium for storytelling and experience-making. I used to be more of an artist, but upon learning how to code I fell in love with it and decided to move more into technology and programming. It absolutely fascinates me that something I can type out on my keyboard can turn into incredibly powerful game engines, software, and tools.

The flexibility of Core and its inherent interdisciplinary nature lends itself to forcing your creative muscle to work. Not only am I learning different perspectives to look at myself, communities, and the world, I am also allowed freedom to tie it back into the tech world. For most people, programming isn't the first thing that comes to mind, but there are a lot of surprising ways social impact can come into the world of ones and zeroes.

It's hard to pinpoint a particular favorite class. I'd say my current favorites are Game Production I and Game Architecture. I'm learning so much about the application of the programming skills that I've been learning for years. I was a programmer before, but these two classes really put the "game" in Game Programming by teaching me skills specifically for programming in games.