January 12th Interactive Experience Day

Anthony Ritchey is a Seattle-based writer and game developer. Anthony’s writing appears on the Seattle Indies website, where he reports on Hackithon game jams, events, and more. He is currently working on the Story Mode for Keyboard Kommander, an open beta typing tutorial game that is free to play. His team meets every Saturday at the Seattle Indies-run, AIE-hosted Indie Support Group to further develop their game. Anthony is a welcomed guest writer for the Academy of Interactive Entertainment-related events and meetups.

The Academy of Interactive Entertainment hosted its quarterly Interactive Experience Day on Saturday, January 12th 2019. The event was split up into two main parts, starting with an introduction on what AIE has to offer future students, and concluding with two introductory classes on programming or 3D modeling.

The focus of AIE’s curriculum is ensuring that all students have valuable, employable skills within the videogame and movie industries from technical skills within one of four disciplines to the soft skills such as interviewing and developing the self-confidence to ace interviews and land jobs. AIE focuses on networking and building connections within the industry, in part by ensuring that 70% of graduates are hired in industry-related jobs within 18 months, along with teaching positive work habits that will ensure employability. As a non-profit, AIE’s goal is to enable its students to succeed.

The introductory classes on programming and 3D modeling offered interested students a glimpse into how they would be taught and learn subjects. During the 3D modeling class, AIE instructors Chris and Britney taught students how to navigate around Zbrush, an industry-standard program used in a majority of AAA-title games, by building an object and modifying it with various tools. The programming class, taught by AIE instructor Terry, similarly introduced potential students to programming basics. Both classes focused on enabling students to have real-world portfolio items.

One potential student said of AIE’s Interactive Experience Day: “I was very impressed and definitely took it into consideration for a future education possibility.”