Bucknell in November

Looks like Michael Schoonmaker was a hit when he returned to school...to talk...

In November, Michael Schoonmaker took the long drive down to his alma mater – Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania – to give a talk entitled, “Engineering Entertainment: Taking the plunge into creating world-class video games.” It was what Michael calls his “skydiving” talk – a big-picture look at what it means to be an engineer who chooses to work in the video games industry, all the way down to the details of a day in the life of an engineer at a game development studio. At the end of his talk, Michael highlighted strategies for getting into the game industry straight out of college, such as making connections with people already in the industry, creating personal websites to highlight portfolios, and making sure to tackle some projects outside of the ones assigned in class.

The audience for Michael’s talk was an enthusiastic group of freshmen through seniors, a handful of professors, and a few high school teachers, looking to take some advice back to their younger students. Michael noted, “I was very impressed with the maturity the students brought to the subject. Sometimes students get caught up in the consumer end of the games industry – the playing part. These students were clearly as excited about the making half of the industry, and that’s fantastic.”

Thanks to the hosts at Bucknell for helping to make Michael’s visit a success. And thanks to all the students who came out to listen – we look forward to seeing you around the industry soon!