The Digipen-Ubisoft entrance exam

The past weekend was so tiring because of the Digipen-Ubisoft entrance exam! Yup! I’m glad to say I made it out alive from the exam and now I’m waiting if I get the interview with Ubisoft. The interview will be my last hurdle before I’m accepted for the course, hurray! As for what I think about the exam, I must say it was a very overwhelming exam for an upgrading study course. While they have emphasized that this course is only for professionals and fresh graduates in games related industries, the exam expects the applicants to possess a great deal of knowledge and skill related to game design. It makes me wonder if the course intention is to teach people or just take in the experienced professionals to refresh them with what they more or less know. The exam was held over two days, from 9am to 4pm – talk about getting the weekend burnt There were 2 sessions of 2.5 hours, with an hour break in between, every day.

The first session required me to play two out of four Shockwave/Flash based games. After playing the games, I was required to write a 1000 words analysis for each game. This session isn’t hard but personally, I felt a bit starved for time. The first game was relatively easy, taking me 30 mins to complete and to grasp a clear idea of the game. I then had to spend nearly an hour writing out the analysis after which I realized that I was left with 1 hour to play and write for the second game! I quickly played the second game for a short 15 mins and wrote my second analysis with what I could get out from that 15 mins. I admit it was bad time management on my part but to properly grasp the concept and idea of a game, time is needed to observe and analyse, which is why I spent a fair bit of time on the first game. That night after the exam, I went back home to complete the second game only to realise that my second analysis was slightly inaccurate if I look at it as a full game. Oh well… I’m just going to console myself that it is accurate based on what I have experienced during the 15mins of play.

The second session was much easier. I was required to compare and contrast the two games that I played in a 2000 words essay, stating which one, in my opinion, is the ‘better’ game. For that, I managed to finish it on time! After the second session, we were given a take-home assignment which is to brainstorm about which core element of my chosen ‘better’ game will I change if I were given the power to.

Naturally, this take home brainstorming assignment is the topic of the next day’s Session 3. Session 3 required me to write another 2000 words essay about how the change in the core element of the game will affect the game as a whole. Session 3 was relatively alright except for the fact that by then, I was rather sick of typing words after a day of typing. Other than that, I quite like Session 3 as it makes me think of how a single change in one aspect of a game can affect other aspects and mechanics. It is definitely an issue that game developers often come across and will need to tackle.

The 4th session was probably the most interesting and yet the most hated topic in the exam. It goes like this – The “marketing” and “producers” are back from E3 and they noticed that this year’s trend is all about ROBOTS! Take your Session 3 essay and rewrite it to incorporate robots into the game. I find this topic very interesting as it allows room for creativity but I also hated this topic as it reminds me of work… about impromptu changes… more changes… and more changes… With an exam topic like this, I got a feeling that this course will be teaching me how to be immune to frequent changes, just like a robot… “YES MASTER!”