Looking for video game design school

Loreo Jonez

I am interested in pursuing a career in the field of digital interactive entertainment, or whatever they call video games these days. However, I don't know jack about the schooling required. Can anyone show me a good resource for researching college-level video game design programs? Anything helps. Thanks.

Aaron Lee

Perhaps I'm old fashioned, but maybe get a real degree in something that can apply to game design, and then you're not pigeonholing yourself into one not easy to break into career field.

Death of Rats

What Aaron Lee said. And if you still decide to go to a game design school, don't go to the Art Institutes (any of em). And be sure to do plenty of research on whichever schools you consider. Look at the faculty. Check out their work. Look at what former student have to say about the school. If you can, try to find some people who actually got jobs after graduating from the school. If the school doesn't require some form of a portfolio it's probably trash.

The internet is a great tool when deciding which college to go to. Use it. Don't take the decision lightly. Make sure it's the right school for you.

HiredGun

There's always GuildHall.

Thanatos

MIT has a good double-major program in media studies/computer science that's probably your best bet as far as the programming end of things goes.

Loreo Jonez

HiredGun wrote: »

There's always GuildHall.

Thanks, I was trying to remember Guildhall.

Fireflash

Keep in mind that you can't become a game designer just like that. Game design job opportunities often require applicants to have 3+ or 5+ years experience in the gaming industry.

lunchbox12682

Just go to DeVry so you can waste your time and money quickly.
Otherwise, so get a degree in Engineering, Physics, or Math.
Art related things are possible, but they are even harder to use to get into the games industry.

SatanIsMyMotor

UAT (University of Advancing Technology) has some classes on what you're looking for.

Ginzue

I used to be dead serious about going into this profession, as a long term modder who has had extensive contact with Epic and Valve, so I may be able to help. I looked mostly at Henry Cogswell college of the arts but its now dead . THE college for game design has always been DigiPen, but are you a hardcore japanese programmer or a godly artist with shittons of cash? Its a wildly expensive school, which is even more hard to get into. Both are in WA.

My suggestion would be get ether an art degree or a programming degree depending on what you want to do.

It really depends on what side of games you want to go into. Art or Code. Currently I am attending Fairhaven honors college at Western Wash Uni (doing a major involving vehicle concept design), and basically you get to make your own major. Want your major to be VG design? Take a bunch or programming classes and art classes, and you have a VG major, but your haven't painted you self in a corner ether. I take a bunch of automotive design classes and art classes, and eventually it will be a full concept vehicle design degree. As for guildhall, I really am on the fence, it seems a little gimmicky to me, but then again I really don't know much about it.

Good luck!

SithDrummer

Throwing in a second rec for Guildhall - I know quite a few students and faculty there, and it's certifiably stellar.

supabeast

Get a real degree in programming or fine art and take classes that will help you achieve your goal instead of a crappy game design degree from some overpriced trade school. In the summers, intern at game design companies. Spend your free time learning to do level design instead of drinking and eating pizza like most college guys.

If you really have your heart set on a game design program, go for the GuildHall at SMU or Nintendo’s Digipen—at least that way you have a real degree in case you get to the end and find out you don’t want to design games. If you’re only looking for a two-year degree FullSail in Florida is the cream of the crop.

Philodox

I will backup the idea of skipping over "game design" schools in favour of going to a real university. Whatever you are into (programming, map making, art, etc) join a mod team and get some experience that way. Gabe Newell's FAQ specifically mentions that most of the people that get hired at Valve come from the mod community. He does mention there are a couple of DigiPen grads there.

HalberdBlue

Georgia Tech has a major called Computational Media. Depending on where you focus, you can be educationally qualified to design video games, do special effects for movies, etc. Its basically a combination of Comp. Sci and media studies.

Comp. Media website

As long as you can deal with the people making fun of you for being in "Computer Science Lite" :P The career advisor for Comp. Media is great and has a lot of connections with the industry. And if you decide that you don't like making video games you'd still be qualified to be a number of other things.

Cloaked

Just to respond to the people recommending DigiPen...

As far as game design schools go, DigiPen isn't it. Right now they only have game programming and art degrees. The game degree is almost completely focused on programming for games, not game design. There are a couple optional classes focused on level design, and you get to design your game projects, but nothing besides that.

So if you're interested in coding for games, DigiPen can teach you that well (while draining your soul away with the workload they give), but if you're more interested in just design some of the other suggestions here would probably do you better.

Tetsugen

http://www.vfs.com/

Rockstar, EA games, Nintendo, Etc look there. The Hiring rate for the VFS campus is something retarded like 98%

planters

Full Sail

Jasconius

planters wrote: »

Full Sail

Really? Because a majority of people who graduated from Full Sail that I've heard from say it was total bullshit.

We've had many a thread on Full Sail.



Game Design is a multi-pronged thing. It depends on specifically what part of the game creation process you want to be in. To actually *design* games it takes a little more than just programming experience. Media Arts programs can help with that, you have to learn about user interface, storytelling, etc, stuff you will not learn just in a straight up computer science degree.


*edit*

Here's a link to what some students think about Full Sail