The mobile developer and publisher FunPlus is once again teaming up with the New York-based nonprofit Creative Art Works to provide an apprenticeship in character design for underserved high school students. Their program will give over 100 students the tools and skills to create their own characters.
Headquartered in Switzerland, FunPlus has been around for over a decade and produced games such as King of Avalon and Guns of Glory. It's also the founder of the eSports organization FPX (FunPlus Phoenix), which managed to win the 2019 League of Legends World Championship. While not a household name, some of those achievements deserve a bit of notice.
The studio's latest plan is to continue a partnership with the Creative Art Works, a non-profit that empowers young people through the visual and multimedia arts, that officially kicked off on February 8th. FunPlus will be investing in the development of the curriculum, salaries for the teaching artists, and other program costs, with an eye towards making sure the program will be sustainable.
Starting this Spring, the Character Design Program will give over 100 students from five New York City Career and Technical Education schools a chance to learn about character design while being paid the NYC minimum wage of $15/hour. Their goal will be to create a fully-realized character with a backstory, personality traits, strengths and weaknesses. Teaching artists from Creative Art Works will provide in-person instruction to students over the course of fourteen weeks. In addition, FunPlus artists and creatives from across the globe will give critiques of youth work, career advice, and advanced lectures on topics such as body shape, silhouette construction & anatomy. The Program will conclude with an awards ceremony that will be held on June 1st.
You can learn more about the Character Design Internship program by visiting Creative Art Work's website.
