<p>Hi, I just want to gather a list of the top programming colleges for video game design. That is, I don't want to touch heavily on the arts side of game design, but rather on the computer programming aspect of game design.</p>
<p>Preferably, I would like a university with great programs and high employment rates of graduates (going to top companies such as Microsoft, EA, Blizzard, etc.)</p>
<p>I know there are some schools like RIT that have great programs, but they have courses like Shakespeare that you have to take for the game design program. I would like to minimize the time and credits spent in the humanities sectors and a lot more on the science and mathematics side.</p>
<p>So here's my list so far:
1) USC
2) Digipen
3) RIT
4) RPI
5) WPI</p>
<p>Why not just go to any college with a decent CS major?</p>
<p>Very few colleges have no breadth requirements (Brown, Amherst, Evergreen State, etc., not all of which have good offerings in CS). In any case, an understanding of the social studies and humanities is likely to be helpful in order to design a game that people actually want to play.</p>
<p>Every year Gamepro magazine in conjunction with Princeton Review puts out a list of top ten game design programs. Start there. But I do agree that some exposure to the humanities is a good idea!</p>
<p>I’m a freshman at Miami University. We currently have an Interactive Media Studies major, and starting next semester there’ll be a full Game Design major. (I’m double-majoring in Math and Interactive Media Studies.)</p>
<p>Study computer science, take some game design as secondary. The game market is really tough. With a computer science degree, you have all kinds of options open to you, including game development. Going to a school with a good CS program is your best bet.</p>
<p>A degree in game development in fine. I consider a games degree to be a more applied, less theoretical version of a typical CS degree. It’s good preparation for any programming job involving computer graphics.</p>
<p>Be aware that it’s tough to make a living developing games. I know several people with games degrees, and none of them got jobs creating games. They got jobs on non-gaming applications because they could do user interface development, although they do more than just that.</p>
<p>If you pursue a games degree, definitely go to a real university. Be careful about getting a games degree from an art school or an unaccredited, for-profit, online school.</p>
<p>My advice is to get your major in Computer Science and maybe minor in Graphic Design or Studio Art if you are interested in making games. </p>
<p>You can just as easily make computer games on your free time while studying CS instead of dedicating valuable upper-division courses to things you can read and learn on your own.</p>
<p>It’s like getting a degree in Sports Management instead of general Business. The only thing that will get you a job in a specific industry is experience, not a piece of paper so while you study for a CS degree, try to get internships in the video game industry so you can easily find a job out of college.</p>
<p>Agree that doing a CS major with appropriate in and out of major electives (graphics, AI, art, physics mechanics) should be good preparation for computer game development. That will give a much wider selection of schools to choose from.</p>