<p>I’ve looked on the college website, read all the threads…still having trouble understanding the difference in curriculum and focus between the B.S. in Game Design and the bachelor’s degree (? - the website does not seem to say whether the game programming degree is also a B.S.) in Game Programming.</p>
<p>The game design portfolio requirements describe what my son lives and breathes…modding, making up new games, collaborating with online friends in long and involved projects. However, he not an artist (beyond stick figures). He is a mathematician; 99th percentile on the psat math (will not take the SAT until next year), will have completed calculus by graduation. </p>
<p>I would love some feedback from parents [or Nicole] on how much programming (my son’s strength) is in the game design major. I would not want to see him scale back on programming, which seems to be a highly useful career skill these days. Any students, or parents whose kids are majoring in game programming - how is it? Is it “second fiddle” to game design? </p>
<p>We’ll be attending one of the fall 2013 open houses and look forward to seeing the labs and asking a lot more questions at that time.</p>
<p>Hi snowdog,
Both of our degrees are bachelor’s of science degrees. The curriculums can be found here, if you want to learn more about the courses for each degree:
Game Design: [Game</a> Design Major | Curriculum | Champlain College](<a href=“http://www.champlain.edu/academics/undergraduate-academics/majors-and-minors/game-design/curriculum-game-design]Game”>Game Design Major | Curriculum | Champlain College)
Game Programming: [Game</a> Programming Major | Curriculum | Champlain College](<a href=“http://www.champlain.edu/academics/undergraduate-academics/majors-and-minors/game-programming/curriculum-game-programming]Game”>http://www.champlain.edu/academics/undergraduate-academics/majors-and-minors/game-programming/curriculum-game-programming)</p>
<p>It sounds like your son could be successful in either of those majors. He doesn’t need to worry about having a talent for art; that is the prime focus of the third component of that field, our Game Art & Animation program; clearly, that’s not the one for him! His math skills could suit him well in Game Programming. This field focuses on the engineering and physics side of games; making things move correctly, making it realistic, creating the dynamics of movement, gravity, and the like. It takes a significant skill in math, as you might figure by how early Calculus comes in that curriculum.</p>
<p>Design is much more focused in the other areas your son has an interest in; collaborating, developing, directing, storyboarding, etc. A game designer is the dreamer of the game, the writer, the one who tells a story. An art talent isn’t necessary, but the ability to be a creative story-teller absolutely is. </p>
<p>There are components of programming in designing, as you can see in the curriculum; however, it wouldn’t be nearly as deep of a dive as a student would get if they were focusing specifically in that area as their major. They’ll touch upon it so they can work with programmers in their group, but they wouldn’t have the same skills as a Game Programming major would. </p>
<p>I’m not sure if this helps answer your question or makes it more confusing! It may help for him to explore different pages of our Game Studio site, here: [The</a> Game Studio at Champlain College](<a href=“http://gamestudio.champlain.edu/]The”>http://gamestudio.champlain.edu/)</p>
<p>Please let me know if you have other questions. I’m glad you’ll be attending the open house as well - I think the faculty can give even stronger explanation than what I’ve provided here.</p>
<p>Hi Snowdog - I tried to respond to you private message, but apparently I don’t have enough posts to enable the functionality for me, so I don’t think it went. Sorry!</p>
<p>Thanks sjlupin…no worries!</p>