College Crunch

Degrees in Game Design

Game design is booming and people are recognizing that video games are an area that has the potential to rival some Hollywood films. It hasn’t reached that level yet but is growing in leaps and bounds each year.

As of March 14th, 2009 the game, Resident Evil 5, has sold almost 700,000 copies. If they retail for $50 each, that’s $35,000,000 in sales for that game alone. While not every game will reach this level of success, it just goes to show the potential that good game designers working with good companies can achieve.

Let’s take a look at some of the top schools for game design and what they have to offer.

The Art Institutes

The Art Institutes offer some of the best courses available for someone who wants to work in the field of game design, programming and art & design. As the name of this school suggests, it caters to those who truly have a creative vision that they want to unleash. If gaming is your passion, The Art Institutes can help nurture that vision into a fulfilling, life-long career. The Art Institutes currently offers programs in Game Art & Design, Game Programming, and Visual & Game Programming.

The Game Art & Design program teaches you how to develop characters and items and implement them into a 3D environment as well as create applications that are graphics intensive and can be used in many other industries.

Game Programming will teach you coding, production, strategies, and concepts. This program will be math intensive and will use computers almost all of the time. Visual & Game Programming will focus on art, math, computer engineering, and computer graphics. This is a comprehensive course where you and a team of others will actually get the chance to design a game yourselves.

The only limitation to The Art Institutes is the fact that only one of these programs is offered online and that program is Game Art & Design. The others will require you to enroll in a physical school in your area.

ITT Tech

ITT Tech offers a bachelor’s degree in game design and digital entertainment. This degree is perfect for someone who loves video games but more importantly is interested in what makes them look great and function well. This program will rely heavily on computer use including animation software and will give you the knowledge you need to enter a gaming company on the ground floor.

Some of the courses you will take at ITT Tech are: gaming technology, animation, game design processes, level design, and also some general education classes. One of the benefits of ITT Tech is that they offer convenient online classes if you don’t have a campus near you or just don’t want to spend time in a traditional classroom. Some jobs you can pursue with this degree are: Digital games designer/developer and Multi-media applications designer/developer.

DeVry University

DeVry is one of the most popular online schools in the US and currently offers a program called GSP. GSP stands for Game & Simulation Programming. This program offers you a degree that is one of the best available for someone who wants to enter the gaming industry. You will learn and master coding languages like C# and C++, AI implementation, game engine development, simulation game programming, and much more. This program lasts 3 years but upon graduation you will be ready for game design but could also work in many other fields from law enforcement to corporate software designing firms.

Westwood College of Technology

Westwood is another well known technology heavy school with top notch game design programs. Westwood offers degree programs in Game Art & Design and Game Art. They also offer degrees in Animation and Multi-Media/Graphic Design which many game companies look for in potential employees for specialized projects.

The Westwood Game Art & Design degree will help you learn various types of art and animation that game companies specifically look for. You will also learn 3D modeling and animation, color theory, and cinematography. This degree is offered online as well at one of the various Westwood locations. The Game Art degree is only offered at the Virginia campuses and is specialized to land you a high paying job as a lead artist, 3D modeler or game tester.

Game design is a dream for many people around the world but is a very competitive career field. The schools listed above all offer some form of job placement to help get you started and many of them work hand in hand with game companies so can learn specific skills to land jobs at specific companies.

The DeVry program is more geared toward simulation type programming and design which has applications in the military, city planning, and much more. You will really need to make sure you have the commitment needed before pursuing a game design career because you will learn that it takes a lot of hard work and trial and error to truly succeed in any gaming related field.