Our Story
It’s never too early to discover your passion. DigiPen Academy exists to encourage and prepare students to turn their dreams into reality. From exploratory workshops to year-round academic programs, we help students discover where their skills are today and go wherever their imaginations can take them.
From the whole world of academic knowledge to the technical and creative foundations of video game development, our talented teachers inspire each child while reinforcing core academic subjects that lay the foundation for great games—and great careers.
DigiPen Academy is the K-12 sibling of DigiPen Institute of Technology, which has been turning talented college-age students into exceptional engineers, artists, designers and video game creators for more than three decades.
The thing that sets DigiPen Academy apart is our philosophy. We believe in meeting students where they are. In other words, ‘how’ we engage young students is as important as ‘when’ we engage them. Everyone’s vision and skills develop at different ages. Grades are merely guidelines. There is no substitute for direct, personalized assessment and instruction.
We foster each child’s unique talents and individuality to bring out the best in every student through preparatory programs and exploratory workshops that are designed to:
- Meet students where they are on their learning journey
- Provide hands-on, project-based, collaborative learning
- Connect classroom concepts to real world challenges
- Develop crucial problem-solving and critical-thinking skills
- Help students develop their true passions into careers
Our year-round K-12 homeschool programs prepare students for college and careers with a well-rounded curriculum of arts, sciences and general academics. They develop crucial problem-solving and critical-thinking skills as they discover the essential role core academic subjects such as math, physics, writing, and art play in the creation of their favorite entertainment media.
Exploring interests and expanding talents is the aim of our summer, weekend and online enrichment workshops, where kids build their creative and technical powers. Through collaborative, hands-on projects, we make it fun to learn the fundamentals of art and animation, engineering, video game design, programming, sound and music design and much more.
With DigiPen Academy’s range of offerings and dedicated faculty, there’s no limit to what our students can learn and experience. Better than a textbook understanding, we enable kids to put their knowledge into practice through creative and technical projects that feed their creativity and confidence by connecting classroom concepts to real-world challenges.
DigiPen Academy Team
Our team is here to answer your questions about DigiPen Academy programs.
Raymond Yan
Sr. VP for K-12 Programs
Raymond oversees all aspects of DigiPen Academy’s K-12 programs and works with the rest of the team to ensure a seamless experience for students and their parents.
425-895-4419 | raymond.yan@digipen.edu
A Message from DigiPen’s President
Dear Parents and Students,
Thank you for your interest in being a part of DigiPen Academy.
For over 20 years, DigiPen has been offering exploratory and preparatory programs to elementary, middle, and high school students interested in learning about the art and science of game development, fine arts, animation, multimedia production, and engineering. The breadth of options allows students to choose from more topics that interest them and gives returning students an opportunity to delve deeper into the subjects that captivated them in past ProjectFUN workshops.
DigiPen’s academic programs and ProjectFUN workshops allow students to explore high-tech careers while developing crucial problem-solving and critical-thinking skills. Along the way, students discover the important role and relevance that core academic subjects such as math, physics, writing, and art play in the creation of their favorite entertainment media.
We can’t wait to see what you will achieve and create!
Claude Comair
President and Founder
DigiPen Institute of Technology
Registration for Pre-College Programs is Open
DigiPen Academy offers four Summer Pre-College Tracks:
Game Design
Essential for all game designers who want to create engaging and interactive player experiences
Art & Animation for Games
Students learn the skills needed for being a production artist for video games, animation and more.
Game Programming
Students learn the art and science behind video game development – from math to physics and more.
Music & Sound Design for Games
Students focus on what elements make a video game’s soundtrack and sound effects.
Supported by DigiPen Institute of Technology
DigiPen Institute of Technology offers students from around the world a pathway to rewarding careers in Arts & Technology and has been ranked as a Top 5 Video Game Design School by the Princeton Review for over 13 years. Students from DigiPen’s three global campuses have won 226 awards for game projects and academic papers.
Academic Programs
DigiPen Academy offers year-round education unlike any other. With a focus on individual growth, we prepare students for college and careers with our world-class technical and creative instruction. We use a differentiated experience and collaborate with students to identify and facilitate appropriate project work to help them grow.
Current offerings are Pre-College Summer Programs and WANIC.
Registration Open on “Open World”
Registration is now open for DigiPen Institute’s new summer program, Open World by DigiPen. Topics for these fun summer workshops include game design, art, programming, music, robotics, and more. Visit DiscoverOpenWorld.com for more information.
Visit our YouTube Channel to view our free series on "Introduction to Game Design".
The foundations of fine art and fantastic games.
The key to success for today’s production artists is a combination of a strong visual development process, broad-based art skills, and the ability to use both traditional and digital art tools to produce their creations. Students gain hands-on skills needed to produce sophisticated digital art for video games through courses that cover:
- Drawing techniques, color theory and traditional fine arts skills
- Principles of animation and storytelling
- 2D and 3D digital art tools for computer animation, modeling and texturing, and much more…
Making games can be as rewarding as playing them.
Today’s video games are complex pieces of software that require a deep understanding of math, computer science, and physics. These workshops and courses cover the entire game development process and production pipeline, building the range of skills needed to turn a good game idea into the kind of high quality game experience today’s players expect.
- Fundamentals of programming, digital art, and sound design
- Foundational game mechanics
- The game design and development process
- The game production pipeline
- Art and sound production
- World building & storytelling
Sound thinking makes all the difference.
By focusing on the theory, history, and techniques behind music and sound design, students of sound design and production gain an understanding of what elements make compelling compositions, soundtracks and sound effects. Topics include:
- Music Theory and Musicianship
- Music History and Literature
- Audio production for animation, film, and video games
- Sound recording, performance and production techniques
- Using professional digital audio workstation (DAW) software and hardware
- Shaping mood and setting with music and sound
- Implementing sound into games and animations
The skills to conquer any technical challenge.
Based on DigiPen’s renowned college curriculum, our programming courses and workshops teach the foundational programming concepts that form the basis of software programs and video games.
- Machine Thinking & Programming Concepts
- Coding standards and best practices
- Java Coding
- Video Game Programming & Math Concepts
- Artificial Intelligence
- Mobile App Development
Learn the laws that govern the universe, then use them to build your own.
Learn and apply the physics and engineering concepts involved in converting potential energy into kinetic energy. Design, build, and fine tune a variety of launching systems as well as a radio-controlled race car to explore the principles of mechanics, physics, electronics, aerodynamics and radio technology.
- Fundamentals of Robotics
- Principles of Mechanical Design
- 3D design and Fabrication
- Building RC Cars and RC Flight
- Physics of Motion
