What previous students had to say...

Alumni of the Master's degree in Video Games and Digital Interactive Media talk about their time on the course, its fortes, their internships and their professional projects.

Alumni testimonies

• Balthazar AUGER

My project has always been to work in the video game industry. I had already heard about Enjmin becuase of the DESS diploma, but I had to wait until I finished my bachelor's degree before I could finally apply. I was part of the 2006-2008 cohort, or the P3 as we used to call it!

One of the determining factors in my choice was that Enjmin is a public establishment. This reassured me that my future degree would be easily recognised internationally and would also allow me to continue my studies and carry out research, something that really interested me (and still does...). In addition, my family could not afford private establishment fees and it was important for me to continue to benefit from the Crous scholarships.

At Enjmin, I was able to discover the enormous expressive scope that video games can cover, all while exploring the analytical and formal possibilities that can be applied to them. The contact we had with recognised industry professionals allowed me to anchor the theory to the reality of video game development.

I think that one of the strengths of the Enjmin is the creative independence it guarantees to students, while at the same time providing them with excellent support, both material and pedagogical, to help them make their concepts become a reality. Another strong point in my opinion is that each specialisation is oriented towards the others. This means that the school not only train students in their profession, but it also teaches them to work with the other trades that are part of the video game development process, which is just as important.

The years I spent at Enjmin were an excellent opportunity for me to form lasting relationships with my classmates. We all learnt together what it means to be a Game Designer. It was also a time when I was able to discover analytical or creative abilities in myself that I didn’t know I had.
In line with my specialisation, I joined Ubisoft France as a Game Designer. I stayed there for two years after my internship, before turning my attention to other projects. Enjmin has allowed me to remain open to the problems of other professions and this allows me to offer freelance Producer, Designer and Developer services to clients.

• Vincent PERCEVAULT

I learned about this training on the web, after various searches for specialized training courses. I joined the Cnam-Enjmin and I followed the DESS (post-graduate diploma) in 2002-2003, the embryo of the Cnam-Enjmin, in sound speciality.

Passionate about music and sound since my early childhood, growing up in a family of musicians, I had the chance to participate in the beginnings of Computer-Assisted Music, composing on trackers (for the connoisseurs), and very early on I started recording and creating soundtracks.  The Cnam-Enjmin came to professionalize my practice.

At the time, it was the only training that allowed me to combine my passions for sound, computers and video games. An ideal!

The strengths of the Cnam-Enjmin are diverse. First of all, the quality of the instructors, who mostly come from the professional world. The team work and specialization is also one of the strong points, it allows you to confront the problems encountered in the working life.

I have incredible memories of my time at this school, the esprit de corps and solidarity of our class is still intact. We were a bunch of enthusiasts who had found their way, there was an extremely positive energy: creative, carefree and fertile at the same time!

My training gave me an exhaustive vision of the production of a game, experiences in a training team, and it was a great springboard!

The Cnam-Enjmin propelled me into active life during my internship at Cyanide, which marked the beginning of my professional career in sound for video games. After participating in the growth of Cyanide for 5 years, I chose to create my own company, specialized in sound production, in order to open new doors and develop new cross-media activities. It's been 5 years since Game Audio Factory exists, and almost all the employees are Cnam-Enjmin graduates!

Today, I am regularly involved in the pedagogical content of the sound speciality because I believe in this training which is indispensable and unique in France!

• Marie BOUCHAUD

I came to know the Cnam-Enjmin in 2005 when, after studying at the IUT and then at an IUP in multimedia design and production, I wanted to complete my training in a more specific specialization. I was then looking for a master's degree in either project management or user-centred design.

I joined the ergonomics speciality in 2005-2007, promotion Eric Viennot.
I have a fairly broad training base in the multimedia field: project management, 2D and 3D graphics, programming... This gave me a really solid background to enter the world of video games with the Cnam-Enjmin to consolidate and specialize.

I wanted to go to this school because video games have been a passion for me for a long time, as they are for many other students who come from elsewhere. At the time, we were in the midst of the LMD reform, I knew that a Master's degree would really be an asset in my curriculum and would be recognized not only in France but also in Europe. Combining a passion with a recognized degree, I didn't hesitate to apply.

The Cnam-Enjmin, as a Master's degree, recruits students with a Bac +3 or equivalent, which makes it possible to work with people with an already solid background. In my class, some programmers were already engineers, for example. So the school really learns how to work in the world of video games with a real team project experience, with students already arriving with a basic knowledge of their profession. In the end, this makes us ready to join a development studio or a publisher.

The training has given me a knowledge of how the video game world works in particular. The development processes are quite similar to the web, however the constraints are completely different. Moreover, the objective of a video game is to bring pleasure to the player, it's a component, especially in my field, which is very important to take into account and not always obvious. I was also looking to specialise in user-centred design and the Cnam-Enjmin was able to give me the necessary background to make it my profession.

What I remember most about these two years is that the Cnam-Enjmin allows me to take charge of my life. We were able to develop a lot of personal projects, to make mistakes but also, of course, to shine. In both cases, it allows you to be confronted with what you can experience in the professional world but with the necessary support.

In the second year of the master's program, Ubisoft came directly to look for ergonomists for internships. The department where I work had just opened and the internship became a permanent position. So I'm still at Ubisoft as an editorial ergonomist on consumer games such as dance and fitness titles or children's games, for example. I'm also regularly called upon internally to help out on other games from time to time. At the same time, since 2010, I have been working in video game or multimedia schools either to simply present my job or to raise awareness of user-centered design by providing tools and methodologies. This year, I had the opportunity to come back to the Cnam-Enjmin as a speaker.