Location
DigiPen's U.S. campus is located in Redmond, Washington, a global hub for game and software development. The region is home to more than 400 interactive media companies, including tech industry giants like Microsoft, Nintendo, Amazon, and several more.
Situated about 15 miles east of Seattle, the Redmond area is home to much more than a wide range of successful economic enterprises. It's a renowned center of artistic excellence, cultural diversity, and beautiful outdoor surroundings.
DigiPen also operates at two international campuses in Singapore and Bilbao, Spain.
Campus Facilities & Equipment
DigiPen's campus includes three large production labs designed to simulate a professional game studio environment, with dedicated team spaces and open workspaces for approximately 1,200 students working on team projects. The open-floor design of these three main production labs fosters a focused, dynamic, and collaborative working environment. At the beginning of each year, the production lab spaces are divided into dedicated spaces for team usage — with consideration given to student teams working on specialized projects, such as VR/AR games and software. Each student team brings their own personality to the spaces, and students have access to several conveniently located whiteboards and bulletin boards for organizing and communicating about their work. A new Twitch student is expected to open in the 2023-2024 academic year.
DigiPen debuted a new two-room user research lab in the 2022-2023 academic year. Nightingale, the main research room, is designed to foster a non-biased, large-scale testing environment. Partitioned testing bays for players feature headphones, computers, keyboards, and controllers, allowing 24 subjects to experience student games separately without distraction. For student researchers, testing bays also come equipped with eye-tracking software, synchronized gameplay and facial expression recording, and medical-grade bracelets for measuring nervous system arousal levels. In addition, the research lab allows students to hold focus group sessions. The labs were designed to reflect industry-standard professional video game user research facilities.
A new mixed-use addition to campus, The Wing, features a vast, open-plan production lab for individuals and teams to work on their projects. The Wing also contains a lounge, an art studio, and multiple meeting rooms for student game teams to use.
Students in the BA in Music and Sound Design program can access our Mathews Sound Lab. Featuring music practice rooms, individual high-tech audio workstations, and two live recording studios for advanced music and audio projects, this space is designed to cover all aspects of our music and sound design curriculum — including musical scoring and audio effects for student game projects.
Off-Campus Opportunities
DigiPen's close proximity to hundreds of game and technology companies doesn't just benefit students after they graduate. It allows them to tap into a deep well of industry experience and begin building their professional network even before they graduate, thanks to a wealth of local off-campus events and internship opportunities.
DigiPen's internship program is a carefully monitored work experience in which students learn about their discipline in a professional development studio under the supervision of an industry veteran. DigiPen interns have earned credits in published AAA video game titles, taken part in Microsoft research projects, and even assisted in the development of the Nintendo Wii controller.
Outside of the classroom, students can take advantage of a mix of fun activities throughout Redmond and the greater Seattle area. At the annual PAX West, a gaming expo that draws tens of thousands of visitors each year, DigiPen students plan, set up, and operate a student game arcade booth where they demo their academic projects to attendees—in the same venue as some of the largest game publishers in the world. The region is also home to other annual events, such as the Emerald City Comicon, Bumbershoot, GeekGirlCon, and more.
