Vancouver Film School’s Game Design program turns 20!

Time flies when you’re gaming – and even faster when you’re training wave after wave of AAA game designers! In the blink of an eye, Vancouver Film School’s Game Design program has turned 20. Nearly 1,800 Game Design students have walked the halls of VFS, training as game artists, coders, & level designers and building retail-quality games to prove their skills to the industry.

While we blow out the candles and make our wish (for another incredible 20 years!) read about all of the milestones our Game Design program has achieved over the past two decades and hear from our alumni as they reflect on their VFS Game Design education.

TWO DECADES OF MILESTONES

Below are the highlights from our Game Design program:

2005 – The Beginning
VFS’s Game Design program welcomes its first cohort of students, setting the foundation for what will become one of the world’s top-ranked game design schools.

2012 – First Unity Award Win
Student project Pulse makes history, earning VFS’s first-ever Unity Award for Best Student Project. Since then, VFS students have amassed 8 total nominations and 4 wins for Afloat, The Cluckening, and Meowmentum Mori.

2018 – A New Era of Leadership
Christopher Mitchell becomes VFS’s Head of Game Design and Programming for Games, Web & Mobile. An experienced game developer and educator, his credits include The Simpsons: Hit & Run and Crash of the Titans, for which he was nominated for the first-ever Outstanding Achievement in Video Game Writing award from the Writers Guild of America. Under his leadership, the program has continued to evolve, aligning its curriculum with the ever-changing demands of the global game industry.

2018 – Partnering with Beyond Capture Studios
In the same year, Game Design forges a partnership with Beyond Capture Studios – one of the largest motion-capture facilities in North America. This collaboration offers students unprecedented access to professional mocap tools and performance-driven storytelling.

2020 – Canada’s #1 Game Design School
VFS is named the #1 Game Design School in Canada by The Princeton Review for the first time. 2025 marks the fifth year that VFS has earned this prestigious title, underscoring our consistent leadership in game development training.

2024 – Leveling Up to a New Campus
After nearly two decades of evolution, Game Design moves to a new, upgraded campus space for enhanced collaboration, innovation, and access to cutting-edge technology. The new space reflects our program’s continued growth and future-forward mindset.

2024 – A Strategic Partnership with ASUS
Game Design enters a new phase of tech collaboration through a partnership with ASUS, giving VFS students access to equipment from their ProArt line of computers – high-performance creative hardware meant for creative tech professionals.

2025 – Unreal Gold Certification
VFS becomes Gold-certified in Unreal Engine’s Academic Partner Program, joining an elite group of institutions recognized for excellence in Unreal-based education. The certification reinforces VFS’s commitment to training students on the industry’s most powerful real-time engine.

2025 – Launching on Steam
VFS officially launches on Steam, bringing student-created games to the world’s largest PC gaming platform. This milestone connects VFS talent directly to the world’s largest PC gaming platform and spotlights the professional quality of our students’ work.

2025 – Gaming in the Cloud
We also debuted on GeForce NOW, NVIDIA’s leading cloud gaming platform, starting with Unity Award–nominee Not Raised by Wolves. This innovative move makes VFS student games more accessible than ever.

GAME DESIGN ALUMNI REFLECT

Going all the way back to our very first intake, here’s what former VFS students – now leaders in the industry – have to say about their time as a Game Design student at Vancouver Film School:

“Blackbird Interactive was built by Vancouver Film School. For our very first title, Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak, several of our original hires joined us as students fresh from Vancouver film school. These students were also led by graduates of the very first VFS class (GD01) who at that point had almost a dozen years of experience. In the years since then some of our best and brightest have emerged from VFS - Programmers, designers, creatives of all types. They've lead projects at BBI working on the Homeworld and Minecraft franchises and directed original games like Hardspace: Shipbreaker. Blackbird's creative DNA is intimately interleaved with VFS. We simply wouldn't be the same studio without it.” – Rory McGuire – President, Blackbird Interactive

“My journey to and through the VFS Game Design program was such a rollercoaster that sometimes it feels like a strange but pleasing fever dream. The intensity of it prepared me mentally for challenges I'd encounter later in my career, and the workload kept me on my toes. I'm grateful for the kindness and support shown by the teachers during my time there, who encouraged me to grow in ways I hadn't even considered, and for all of the opportunities that growth led to. The exposure to many different disciplines was instrumental in becoming the producer I am today.” – Anna Prein – Senior Producer, Larian Studios

“My time at VFS was a truly transformative experience. The instructors weren’t just teachers, they were active industry professionals who brought real-world insight into every class. Their mentorship extended far beyond the classroom, leading to lasting friendships and career opportunities that helped shape my path in the industry. VFS taught me that success comes from what you put in - the more passion, curiosity, and effort you invest, the more you’re rewarded. The program’s hands-on environment mirrored the realities of working in the industry, preparing me to step confidently into the creative world. VFS didn’t just teach me the tools of the trade, it helped me understand where I fit within the industry, and gave me the foundation to build a fulfilling career.” – Jack Kelley – Design Manager & Principal Designer, Red Hook Studios

“20 years! We have proudly hired so many grads at East Side Games over the years in Design, Production and Programming. VFS has added so many talented developers into the game space across Turtle Island and beyond and I’m thrilled to see what is next. Keep building, dreaming and sharing.” – Josh Nilson – Founder, Maskwa Games

“Many years ago, I was working in the film and TV industry, when I decided to explore a part-time game design course at VFS. That experience inspired me to jump in with both feet and take the full program. It was a pivotal experience in my career. VFS not only taught me the hard skills needed to make a game, but more importantly, the soft skills necessary to work collaboratively on a project. The skills I learned in the program are as relevant today as they were back then.” – Armando Troisi – Head of Narrative, MY.GAMES

“The program was an absolute whirlwind of excitement and experimentation. We were all trying to break into this unproven career in an immature industry, taking classes that had never been taught before. We were definitely the guinea pigs and ran into a few things that didn't work, but there was also quite a bit of interest from the Vancouver studios in hiring competent students so it was exhilarating. Before I started the program, I had been working at a Pizza Hut and a year later I had a desk in a financial-district office tower working as a designer at EA.” – Yoni Rabinowitz – Design Director, Fall Damage

“VFS was an intense experience -- it became my world for a year. I'm thankful for the immersion as it prepared me for the Game Development industry in ways I couldn't have planned for myself. I was exposed to the whole spectrum of disciplines, from hard skills like game programming, design, art, and production, to softer skills like public speaking, interview prep, and game pitching techniques. Between the faculty and my classmates, I met many future colleagues, and made some life-long friends. It left enough of an impression that I returned as a mentor after spending some time in the industry.” – Richard Harrison, Technical Director at Blackbird Interactive

HERE’S TO ANOTHER 20 YEARS

We couldn’t do what we do without the passion, dedication, and talent of our students. If you’re on the fence about starting your game design training, your time is now! With the game industry leveling up and growing year after year, the video game industry needs new talent. Book your appointment with a VFS Advisor to start your main quest.

 

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