Category Archives: Arts and Entertainment

A College Student’s Guide To Chinatown – Rian Atherton

By Rian Atherton (California Lutheran University ’18)

In order to talk about Chinatown, you have to first delve into the History and the customs of the people living there. Now you don’t have to be an expert on Chinatown but you should at least familiarize yourself with some of these basics. One of the most important things you need to realize if you are visiting Chinatown is that everything here is a bit different. Like all immigrant areas, the people here have brought some of their customs and traditions from overseas. First and foremost of these is that the elderly take priority sometimes you may be in a shop and you may be first and an old Chinese man or woman will walk in and a slew of rapid-fire Cantonese will fire out faster than a bullet train. Don’t be offended but you are no longer the priority, it has nothing to do with you and everything to do with the fact that they probably have known each other for decades and the Chinese have a deference for the elderly that western countries lack.  That being said, it is worth the wait because the food in Chinatown is absolutely divine.

Continue reading →

The Internship Chronicles – Ryan Place

By Ryan Place (GDES ’19)

I worked at Tuque Games, a small game development studio situated in Montreal. Tuque is just coming off the heels of releasing their first original game, Livelock back in 2016. With the success of Livelock, the team has decided to amp up production and dive into a much more ambitious and exciting new unannounced project.

During my time with Tuque I worked under the Lead Designer Kevin Neibert and the rest of the design team on their latest unannounced project. The majority of the work I did for the team dealt primarily with player experience. In the early days of my internship I was mostly on bug testing duty while I familiarized myself with the game and its mechanics. Over time my role shifted away from specifically bug testing and more toward player experience design (though with a bit of bug testing). Continue reading →

The Internship Chronicles – Cyrus Burris

By Cyrus Burris (GPMG ’19)

During the Spring semester of my junior year in Montreal, I was afforded the opportunity to serve as a Production Intern at a game studio called LuckyHammers. LuckyHammers was originally founded in 2004 as a company called “Fidel,” but eventually rebranded to the current name after being acquired by the Stolo holding company. Throughout its existence, LuckyHammers has worked with many different relevant brands and properties, but has more recently focused on VR projects, and digital versions of tabletop games for PC and mobile. Continue reading →

The Internship Chronicles – Calum Phillips

By Calum Phillips (EGPR ’19)

I spent two semesters in Montreal, and staying here was was a great choice. I got to go on more company visits, get taught by a Ubisoft employee, and more relevantly, I got to take another internship. This semester I got to work at a company called Pixelz, on a game titled Cefore, a demolition puzzle game (that’s also available now on Steam Early Access). My main function for most of the internship was creating a system that records GIFs of gameplay and gives the user the ability to upload them to Imgur and share them on Reddit and Twitter. Continue reading →

Montreal: Further Abroad Than You Think

By Anna Bilotta (PSYCH ’20)

Summer Program Participants (l-r) Kenya Cummins & Julia Lenoard in Old Montreal

I had always wanted to study abroad, so when I got the opportunity to attend Champlain College’s Montreal Summer Culture Program I immediately took the chance. I had traveled many times to cities both in and outside the United States before; I had even traveled to Montreal in the past for weekend trips. I always thought that Montreal was similar to other major North American cities. But after living in the city for over a month, my opinion of the city has changed; Montreal does not fall into the typical mold of the US or Canadian city. Its bilingualism and mix of cultures offers residents and visitors a one-of-a-kind living situation. Anyone who tells you that Montreal is more similar to the United States than different is wrong, but you can only learn that from spending a good amount of time here. Montreal is a valid and excellent study abroad option; you get to experience a different language being spoken around you while being in a truly foreign place. The culture of Montreal, and Canada in general, is also unique because there is not an emphasis on assimilation of “different” groups; each ethnicity found here is fully represented, whether that be through food or art. Continue reading →

The Internship Chronicles – Ben Cortijo

By Ben Cortijo (GDES ’19)

I worked at Edoki Academy, a well-oiled machine which churns out multiple games a year while maintaining their main product: Montessori Preschool. Montessori Preschool is a subscription-based service which provides over 10,000 users with a plethora of mini-games designed to teach children in ways they’ll find fun and interesting. With this, users can learn the basics of math, English/French, Mandarin, and practical applications such as taking care of a pet. Along with this, anyone who subscribes to the service is also given access to all of the company’s other games. These other games range from beginner programming skills in Code Karts to gardening in Montessori Nature. Edoki has a catalog of over twenty-five games each of which has their own teaching point and helps teach children basic problem-solving.  While interning there I filled many roles for the company, the primary one being a translator for the company’s emails. Creating English versions of their PDFs for their subscribers who do not speak French. This is what I did for the majority of my time at the company, but it was by far the most lenient duty I had. By which I mean that unlike many of the other jobs I had done this one had no real constrictions, and thus I was able to express my creativity in the formatting. Continue reading →

The Internship Chronicles – Sophia Penna

By Sophia Penna (GDDM ’19)

Over the course of my time studying at the Champlain Montreal Campus I  held an internship at Rank Media Agency as their graphic design intern. Rank first opened their doors in 2009 and has grown to an international scale. As a design agency they work with their clients helping them to grow their businesses, through creative design and custom marketing strategies based on their goals. Rank works with their clients to build upon their brand through an integrated approach where creativity meets technology. The staff is welcoming, helpful, and in constant communication.

At Rank I was able to build upon the knowledge I had learned from my prior studies. I was assigned daily tasks that were later critiqued by my supervisor, Ryan. He would then review my designs with me and go through any revisions he recommended and why. Through the company chat channel, Slack, we would often send links to resources, files, and even color swatches when working on projects. Any clarifying questions could be easily answered through this chat system. This portal was used throughout the office to keep the interns in the loop of any office plans and activities. The design team has their own closed group as a way to communicate interesting websites to draw inspiration from as well as to arrange creative meetings. Continue reading →

A Student’s Guide to Chinatown

By Rian Atherton (California Lutheran University ’18)

In order to talk about Chinatown you have to first delve into the History and the customs of the people living there. Now you don’t have to be an expert on Chinatown but you should at least familiarize yourself with some of these basics. One of the most important things you need to realize if you are visiting Chinatown is that everything here is a bit different. Like all immigrant areas the people here have brought some of their customs and traditions from overseas. First and foremost of these is that the elderly take priority sometimes you may be in a shop and you may be first and an old Chinese man or woman will walk in and a slew of rapid fire Cantonese will fire out faster than a bullet train. Don’t be offended but you are no longer the priority, it has nothing to do with you and everything to do with the fact that they probably have known each other for decades and the Chinese have a deference for the elderly that western countries lack.  That being said, it is worth the wait because the food in Chinatown is absolutely divine.

Continue reading →

The Internship Chronicles: Kyle Mays

By Kyle Mays (California Lutheran University ’18)

When it comes to what my goals in life have been, the opportunities I’ve found often presented themselves to me in ways I wouldn’t have particularly chosen. In that way, I have chosen to take that as a lesson to be more excited for the times in my life that I didn’t plan for: Where things don’t go according to plan, and seeing how I am able to get to the same place I was going from where I ended up, or for finding a new place to go to with what I learned. For better or worse, I feel like this way I learn a greater amount about the world and myself. With all the highs and lows unexpected experiences that stem from the mystery of the unplanned unknown might bring me to, it all leads to me being whoever I become, wherever it ends up leaving me. I’ve accepted this as an inherent good aspect of life, even if it takes for some struggles to find the good it brought me. Continue reading →

The Internship Chronicles: Conor & Amanda

By Conor Tully (GDES ’19) & Amanda Gates (GDES ’19)

“Congratulations on becoming International Arms Dealers!” our new boss, Ryan, hollered as we came in for an initiation breakfast during the first week. With a little piece of context, this excitement makes a bit more sense.

As a company, IronBelly Studios makes most of their profit off of weapon assets for the Unreal Marketplace and Unity Asset Store. Their weapons have been used in a variety of popular games, such as Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds, otherwise known as PUBG. Additionally, they cover other client based requests related to development, 2D and 3D art, level design, user interfaces, and virtual reality. Continue reading →