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November 03, 2005
FIEA First School In Country To Use Microsoft Development Kits
The University of Central Florida's graduate game-development school, the Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy (FIEA), and Microsoft Corporation have entered into an agreement that allows FIEA students to use Xbox Development Kits as part of their educational training. The agreement was announced Nov. 2 by UCF President John Hitt at the grand opening of the Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy.
Part of the School of Film & Digital Media, FIEA welcomed its inaugural class into a refurbished, state-of-the-art building in downtown Orlando in August. The development kits are used by licensed Microsoft game developers in creating games for operation on the Xbox console. This is the first time Microsoft has licensed the use of its Xbox Development Kits to an academic institution. The total value of the development kits covered by the agreement is approximately $1 million.
Starting in the spring, the development kits will be used in FIEA courses like "Visual Development" and "Software Production" to teach students how to implement game ideas on a piece of dedicated hardware. Programmers will learn how to create code and applications for a console game and artists will get to see their models and environments rendered on a television-based platform. In addition, producers will get to implement game designs particular to the Xbox environment.
"This unique agreement with Microsoft will benefit our students and program," Executive Director Ben Noel said. "Being able to enter the game industry with experience working on these kits will give our programmers, producers and artists a head start on developing games for the platform when they enter industry."
"In today's world of multi-platform game production, console development opportunities have been severely limited for students." said Chris Satchell, general manager of Microsoft's Game Developer Group. "This unique collaboration between Microsoft and UCF targets changing this and will provide students in the FIEA program with incredibly valuable experience in gaming console development. By giving students access to a contemporary console platform, we hope to energize the next generation of gaming professionals who will go on to create new amazing experiences for consumers."
| By gravits | 07:27 PM
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