<p>I have a serious passion for video games. It seems to be every teens dream to become a video game designer ( not really, but you know what I mean ). But mine is different. I dont just play the game, I love to see the process of making my favorite games. I was going to take up Graphic Design, then minor in Game Design, but I thought to myself, what's your dream job in life thats reseasonable. And majoring in Game Design also helps in Graphic Design and Programming, best of both worlds.</p>
<p>My problem is its hard finding colleges close to home with competition. I did some searching and found these colleges that are in or close to Ohio ( home state ) that offer game design.</p>
<ol>
<li>Miami University ( Oxford, OH ) - My #1 right now</li>
<li>Ohio State University ( Columbus, OH ) - Highly competitive</li>
<li>Drexel University ( Philadelphia, PA ) - Good, but private and cost alot</li>
<li>Shawnee State ( Portsmouth, OH ) - Too easy</li>
<li>University of Baltimore ( Baltimore, MD ) - I think my middle school was harder than this college, seriously the average GPA is 2.5, I have a 3.75, too easy!</li>
</ol>
<p>I think going to USC ( #1 gaming college ) would be cool...and expensive!</p>
<p>Any of you guys know of any somewhat competitive colleges around Ohio ( within 1 or 2 states ).</p>
<p>Probably better to just major in computer science (with the usual courses like algorithms, operating systems, networks, databases, security, and software engineering) and add game-related electives in computer graphics, artificial intelligence, art, animation, and physics (mechanics). That way, you will be well prepared to do game jobs, but also other computer software jobs in case you do not find a suitable game job (game jobs are a small subset of the total computer software jobs).</p>
<p>If you go to the jobs section of game companies’ web sites, you will see a lot more jobs where a computer science degree is expected, but few where a game design degree is expected.</p>
<p>I agree with the last two posts. Many computer science majors have specializations for game design and/or graphic design anyways. </p>
<p>To further ucb’s point, most if not all of the traditional jobs at a game company expect or require a computer science degree or programming experience, even the game design ones: game design experience is more of a perk than a requirement like computer science is.</p>
<p>Me four. I’ve only glanced at the game design majors, but I’m an adult business programmer. I am concerned that it has neither enough CS NOR enough graphic design. The major goals seem to me to be speed of rendering and realism. For speed of rendering, you want to know a lot about how computers do their jobs (CS) and about algorithms (math / CS). For realism, among other things, it seems you’d need to know a lot of physics and math to describe the parabolas they jump in and shadows of objects. You’d get perspective and shadowing from graphic design classes, too. Major in CS and use all your many electives (CS is usually a pretty flexible major) to add to your relevant knowledge.</p>
<p>There are just tooooooo many kids with this major/career goal and they can’t all get jobs. My cousin’s D graduated 5 years ago…still no job. She has to go back to school to get more of a CS degree or computer engineering degree. </p>
<p>There are several “too popular” majors that kids are doing these days…anthropology, game design, film studies, biology, biomedE, neuroscience, and a couple of others. There’s going to be a glut of people with these degrees and few/no jobs.</p>
<p>University of Pennsylvania (If you have the requisite GPA, SAT/ACT EC’s and other credentials)</p>
<p>University of Central Florida- UCF Offers a computer science major with gaming concentration and one of the gaming design graduate programs which places a large number of graduates with all of the major players in the gaming industry.</p>
<p>A friend’s son is a senior in the USC program. It’s been a wonderful experience educationally, and beyond wonderful in terms of job placement and connections to internships. It’s very, VERY different than a CS major. This young man can code but that’s not what his future employers are looking for from him. </p>
<p>I’d encourage you to look at where the graduates of any gaming design program end up after graduation. See what companies are recruiting them. Try to talk to some current students. Are they getting good internships? Are the seniors fielding good job offers? If you don’t like the answers, go with the CS program instead. </p>
<p>The barriers to getting into the field can be pretty low. Have a good idea? Create an app, see how it does in the marketplace.</p>
<p>I’m not sure if Game Design would be better, or CS, or computer animation. Ringling sends a lot of animators to Pixar. They have a pre-college summer program, and game design is one area you can focus on.</p>
<p>Yea im most likely going to try Miami University ( OH ). They have a major in CS and also have graphic design, programming, and game design there aswell, they are also in my state so not as much to pay</p>
<p>I went to ringling college of art and design’s open house and they were saying that game art is usually so specific and narrow that it’s better to major in computer animation because then you learn how to really create a story</p>