Each and every year there is one class that gets every game development student riled up. Production is our chance to simulate the video game industry in the classroom. So you can imagine my excitement, to find out that I could take Production II while abroad in Montreal. Montreal is a hub for the gaming community and industry, so my Production II professor, Aurelie Le Chevalier, would come straight from her day job at Ubisoft (*internal screams of joy*) to mentor us as we worked in teams on our student games.
The only consistent element was inconsistency. There were three Production II classes, and all three professors had their own style and ran the class their own way. I can’t begin to explain how much that helped prepare me for the industry. All six teams learned to be extremely flexible and more about what it’s like to work for a “stakeholder.”
Professors let students really take ownership of their projects. My team made Avian Arena, a 3D arena combat game that used rocket jousting as the main mechanic. (Facebook, YouTube)
This made the end of the semester very special.
The Champlain Montreal Staff hosted a demo event where we could show off our games to Game Industry professionals from Ubisoft, Compulsion Games and Ironbelly, invited by the staff and professors. None of us were displaying a “school project.” These were our babies, and we couldn’t have been more proud to show everyone what we had made.
Here I am, back in Burlington, half a year later and I’m about to enter my final production class. And I don’t think I could be any more ready, because of my time spent in Montreal.