Spotlight On: Art Institute Mentorships

Throughout Daybreak’s history (even before Daybreak became Daybreak), our Art teams have had a close working partnership with the Art Institute of San Diego. The Art Institute offers two career-based workshop classes: Prototype, and Advanced Prototype. In this courses, students divide into teams of six to eight people in order to work together on designing and creating potential content for an assigned Daybreak game.

Sample of student artwork submitted in the mentorship program

Here’s how the program works: students are enrolled in the classes for two quarters (approximately 22 weeks). During the past two quarters, they were mentored by Senior Art Director Rosie Rappaport. The students formed design teams in order to put together a level based on the EverQuest franchise. While the students can create anything they want that fits into the style of the assigned game, Daybreak does not use the assets in any of our commercial products, and students cannot submit the completed work to Player Studio. This program is purely educational, and designed to help students understand processes and receive guidance from industry professionals.

Students at the end of their presentation at the San Diego Daybreak studio.

At the end of the two quarters, students were invited to the Daybreak San Diego Studio to present their design to an array of Daybreak Games employees, including other artists, designers, and producers, and to receive feedback on their work. 

Students and Daybreak Staff during presentations.

When we asked Rappaport to explain what she enjoyed about the program and partnership, she explained that “It’s really great to see the students’ progress, and it’s good for us as mentors to work on providing feedback and direction.” She also explained that the art department often finds qualified interns to invite back for future semesters, and many of these student artists have been hired by Daybreak after they completed their schooling.