Tag Archives: game production

Megan Says Goodbye

By Megan Hoins (PWRT ’19)

I’m going to be honest: I really didn’t think Montreal would have a huge impact on me. I just figured it would be another semester, albeit with a lot of new, fun experiences in a totally new place.

That didn’t happen. If anything, this semester had the most impact on me out of any I’ve had at Champlain, since it allowed me to get to know myself for, really, the first time in my life.

Going abroad meant depending on myself, in a lot of ways: making my own food, commuting to work, and living apart from the big college community I was used to. It also meant spending a lot of time by myself, which, as a social introvert, sounded perfectly ideal to me. Continue reading →

A Foot in the Door: Company Visits

By Emmett Friedrichs (GDES ’20)

Among the many off-campus activities I participated in this semester, there are none that I enjoyed more than the company visits. While many of our visits are simply tours of the establishment, some are more personal. Even the tours opened up untold secrets of the game industry, and new possibilities for networking. This all packaged into a single trip in which we explore the city of Montreal just a little bit more. Parties set up by companies/studios or events and conventions such as MEGA or MIGS allow even more networking and communication through direct conversations. Continue reading →

Managing Montreal: Production Management in Montreal

By Claire Yeash (GDES ’20)

Social Media Coordinator, Claire Yeash, spoke with the producers in Montreal during the Fall 2018 semester about the city, the study abroad process, internships, and what it is like to be a producer.

Montreal is one of the biggest gaming hubs in the world; it is the largest city in game development in Canada, a country that ranks third in the world for games.

The producers in Montreal during Fall 2018

Developers from all over flock to this great city, and with over 150 indie companies and multiple AAA studios such as Ubisoft, Square Enix, and EA, there is a huge video game community. In addition to a great networking advantage, students who study in Montreal can gain valuable experience in a professional studio, attend interesting classes that improve students’ skills tenfold and dive into the culture of Montreal.

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 →

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: 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 →

23 Reasons to Study Abroad in Montreal

By Amanda Gates (GDES ’19)

[Throughout the Spring ’18 semester, Social Media Ambassador Amanda has explored Montreal and its many hidden corners. Here she gives her best reasons as to why students should consider coming up here with the Champlain Abroad program]

1. New way of living

College dorms can be boring. Picture this instead: hotel-style rooms, kitchens, and freedom. Continue reading →