Cédric Goffeoy – Video Game

 » – What do you want to do when you grow up?
- Video games! « 

We too often think that childhood dreams must remain so. As far as I am concerned, I’ve had the opportunity to overcome that prejudice and to get trained in video games, a field that had attracted me for all my life.

Seeing the lack of suitable training in my region I had to start completely different university studies, and at the end my disappointment was as high as the registration fees.

Nevertheless this wasted year finally allowed me to access a training that was adapted to my needs right from its creation.

I like the concept: a year where you could do a bit of everything so to say, in order to allow those who were uncertain to discover and to get a taste of everything before choosing a field of expertise. Indeed, contrary to what a lot of people think, computer graphics is varied and you specialize like a scientist would become a physicist or biologist, but rarely both at the same time.

The second year allows you to really acquire theoretical knowledge and to put this into practice, under the supervision of professionals who have field experience.

As a result you acquire knowledge that you wouldn’t dream of in such a very short time, but that is nevertheless necessary to start the last year, as the work placement is for many students the first contact with the world of work and the final project has to be good enough to seduce the jury, composed among others of professionals in the industry who have no links with the institution.

I was lucky enough to be able to work with a US company, Liquid Development, which gathers contracts and redistributes them to its network of freelance artists. The training I got at the Haute Ecole Albert Jacquard allowed me to be able to fulfil all the contracts I had and this is in my opinion one of the great strengths of a constantly evolving profession: versatility.

I’m still working for them and even if the conversion of dollars into euros is not to my advantage for the moment, it is enough to earn a living.

Thanks to Liquid Development I could add my name to real video game hits: this is how I had the opportunity to contribute to games like Dungeons & Dragons Online, Everquest 2, Guild Wars Factions, Rock Band, HellGate London or Dragon Age.

Nearly a year after graduating from the Haute Ecole Albert Jacquard, I have excellent memories, on professional as well as human level. More than raw knowledge, we have also acquired work methods and hygiene and I can see for myself that it really helps me from day to day.

The HEAJ has also taught us how to learn, and in computer graphics where everything evolves with the technologies, it is a real advantage and an undeniable asset.