Enjmin is a training and research institute located in Angoulême, a city in the south-west of France, which offers a two-year master’s degree in games and interactive digital media. Students can specialise in one of six areas: game design, visual design, sound and music design, programming, ergonomics and project management, and can choose to spend a third year working on a personal project.
The school is internationally recognised, and has close ties to the videogame industry – students are tutored not only by university lecturers, but also by leading figures such as Prince Of Persia creator Jordan Mechner and Alone In The Dark designer Frederick Raynal.
Despite such prestige, however, you’ll pay just €400 (around £325) per year in course fees thanks to a funding setup that sees both the local region and the national government supporting the school.
“If you’re passionate and you’re doing a good job then of course you deserve to enter the school: it’s not a question of money, it’s a question of skills and passion,” says founder of audio specialist Game Audio Factory and part-time sound design teacher at Enjmin, Vincent Percevault. “That’s really important.”
The course’s MA status, requiring applicants to have studied for at least three years beforehand, together with its branching specialisms, means each intake is delineated by clearly defined roles and features a diverse range of skills, resulting in the natural formation of teams working in relationships that closely resemble those found in a professional studio.
Game Audio Factory founder Vincent Percevault (left) and Ubisoft lead game designer Matthew Tomkinson
“I had a lot of friendly arguments during my time at Enjmin,” laughs alumnus and now Ubisoft Paris lead game designer Matthew Tomkinson. “It’s very interesting to learn about that kind of thing before going into the professional world – it makes a big difference. For instance, when you’re going into design, you have to work with a lot of specialists, and learning the vocabulary to exchange with each different person is very important.”
It’s a major focus for Enjmin, which describes itself as Europe’s only ‘one-stop shop for the games and new media profession’, and a drive it supports with an international network of experts and companies. Previous speakers have included Lionhead founder Peter Molyneux and Electronic Arts founder Trip Hawkins, while students are offered the opportunity to secure an internship at companies such as Ubisoft, Lexis Numerique and EA. With the industry in constant flux, such close proximity to the profession itself diminishes the culture shock of moving from university to a commercial studio. And Tomkinson, who has sat on the jury for final year projects over the past couple of years, believes students have more opportunity than ever before to find their place in the wider industry.
“I don’t think [graduates] face as much difficulty as they did even six years ago, as there are now a lot of platforms where they can put their project,” he says, “like Xbox Live, PSN, Steam and iPhone. It’s something that’s much easier now – it happened last year with [liquid physics platformer] Puddle, which was published on Xbox Live and PSN.”
That lowered bar to entry also means, however, that there’s more competition. Percevault stresses that becoming familiar with tools such as Unity and UDK could give you the edge you need to stand out.
“The level of knowledge when it comes to tools is really high right now,” he says while discussing the quality of applicants nowadays. “So you can make a game in your bedroom or with two or three people, but having a respected diploma, like from Enjmin, really helps a lot otherwise you are just someone else trying to enter the industry.