[=LeamDelaney;241321]
My personal thoughts are that it doesn’t really matter - but you should do computing science because then you can be part of the arrogant computing science master race who look down on everyone else. In software, and game dev alike, that will aid you, regardless!
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**** I was with you right up until the last paragraph 
What he says… without the last bit
[=;241323]
You’ve done one I take it?
Or is that just the party line quoted from the rest of the industry?
Seriously, I take your point that there are plenty of horrible game design degrees out there. But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t good quality ones which actually offer a lot of quality skills. I’d advise anyone thinking of doing a game design degree to do their homework about the course, student outcomes etc.
Plenty of our game design grads (we do game design, game programming and game art at the University where I teach) go out and get jobs in the industry. We focus on having a quality portfolio, practical design skills, communication etc. Everything the industry tells us to do. I’m sure there are plenty of other places that do NOT do that.
But lets be clear. A game design degree is for DESIGN, so comparing it to software engineering isn’t right. Compare our game programming degree to software engineering by all means.
I can only speak for the UK here, but I know of a number of high quality courses for game design, game programming and game art. But they are probably a very small number compared to the whole offering. Plenty of Universities offering bad courses with the name “game” in the title for sure. But guess what? computer science and software engineering courses can be bad too! Why would you choose a bad course just because its got a title over a good course because you have some prejudice against the course name? It makes little sense to me.
Again, my advice is to do your homework. Education is an important choice in life.
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You know where I live in Trinidad, there are a lot of British Degrees offered down here they call it distance learning.
Did you know there is one called Bsc computer science university of hertfordshire, where there is not even 1% of mathematics? Its 0
Where there is maybe just maybe 10% programming and the rest is business subjects? and there are many other British universities out there doing the same ****, Computer Science degrees that is actually an IT/Business degree.
I then came to the realization about how all these so called British degrees are a scam. I learned my lesson well that to get a proper education you need to go to a proper university that has strict requirements for entry. Such as University of the West Indies formerly a branch of University of London, where you have to have strict A scores in your A levels maths and physics infact UWI has more accreditation in its Engineering degrees than over 80% of British Universities, possibly more than 50% of American Universities. Did you know that even our National University of Trinidad and Tobago, offers a computer degree thats vastly better than 80% of British Universities?
If video game design degrees are a thing, I am willing to accept it IF and only IF the strict top Universities offer it such as MIT USA, IIT Mumbai, University of London, University of Oxford, University of Cambridge.
But until then very little is going to convince me that all these fly by night marketing courses are worth my time or that of anyone.
Thinking about it.
One might be better off in taking all the money they would have spent on obtaining a degree and pay Epic to hire you. 
You will learn more in six months doing than you would going to school for four years listening to someone telling you how not to do it. 
[=;241392]
Thinking about it.
One might be better off in taking all the money they would have spent on obtaining a degree and pay Epic to hire you. 
You will learn more in six months doing than you would going to school for four years listening to someone telling you how not to do it. 
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This is actually true, the likes of Game Design and Programming, 3D modeling etc are best done on your own.
There is no point in paying someone to read a book to you, paying for IT tuition is a grand waste of money. I downloaded the books from the net, and paid the money to write my MCSE exams. Cost me a fraction of the price and I learned far more than if I wasted time to actually go to a class.
My Computer Engineering degree program however has useful stuff, we do mostly Calculus, Discrete Maths, Electrical Systems and Algorithms/Data structures etc C programming and JAVA. I remember asking my teacher why do we need to know all this mathematics to do programming and he said that Mathematics is the science of patterns and that there is nothing more valuable than learning mathematics. It simply opens up your mind even if you will never use 90% of what is taught in it.
Unless a video game design degree has Calculus in it, I really cannot recommend it to anyone. If it has calculus then I would say its pretty good. Maths is worth its weight in gold if you ask me.
Hi everyone,
I’d just like to provide a counter point, as I actually have a game design degree from Fullsail University. Further, I originally attended a traditional 4 year university, so I have experienced both traditional and non-traditional education. A game design degree is not a bad choice at all. You have to be absolutely committed to game design, because outside of the industry it will not be very viable. I don’t recommend getting one if you are not 100% certain that this is what you want to do. Having said that, the education I received was invaluable and helped me get to where I am. Fullsail truly gave me an understanding of what to expect and gave me the ability to learn the skills I needed and I’m quite happy with the quality of education I received.
It is true that there are a lot of scams and many “game design” degrees that are not worthwhile, but to discount the entire program and overlook those schools that are actually providing high quality education specific to the field you are interested in is doing these programs a grave injustice. has a great response to the difference between a game design degree and a software engineering degree. The two are wholly different. Yes, many developers who are game designers are also software engineers, but that does not mean that ALL game designers can or do program. Design is significantly different than programming, and that is a very important distinction to make when looking for a program (do you want to be a programmer, an artist, a designer, etc.). I would say if you are truly interested in game design, looking at a degree specific to game design is not a bad thing at all. Just make sure that you look for what the program is offering and whether or not they are actually a ripoff or a genuine program that will give you the tools you need to succeed. Look for accredited universities that have a consistent track record of excellence, and specifically look at what skills you will learn from your time in their program.
I can only speak from my personal experience, and that experience was that Fullsail helped me get the skills I needed and understand the concepts relevant to the industry that led me to pick up my first job in the industry within two months of graduating. Because of what I learned in my university days and the success I had with my game design degree, I now work at Epic Games. It isn’t this way for everyone, but I feel like you should get both sides of the coin to make an informed decision when it comes to game design degrees, and the best people to ask about that are people who actually have first hand experience with the degree programs in question. In the end, all that matters is what you feel will be most effective at helping you maximize your skills and potential. If that is a game design degree, go for it. If that is another degree, go for it. If that is the school of hard knocks, go for it. The best thing to do is ask yourself what is best for you in the end. I hope this helps you make an informed decision, if you wish to discuss Game Design degrees further, I’d be happy to field private questions on the topic though it may take me a bit of time to get back to you. Just PM me and I’ll be happy to discuss the matter!
[= ;241419]
Look for accredited universities that have a consistent track record of excellence, and specifically look at what skills you will learn from your time in their program.
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This is very important I agree with you on this one. Accreditation is really important, aswell as degrees accredited by bodies such as IET of London etc.
Typically one should first make sure the University is accredited by whatever body does it, secondly if the actual degree program in game design is also accredited well even better. I am not even sure if there is a body that accredits game design? I can only speak for ICHEMI London for Chemical Engineering and IET of London for Electrical and or Computer Engineering.
My knowledge about accreditation stops there. Maybe someone else can help with some input.
Unfortunately accreditation is still a bit in its infancy for games. There’s something called Skillset in the UK for accrediting games courses. But they had this bizarre requirement that your course couldn’t be updated for I think it was 3 or 4 years in a row and we felt like we had too many improvements to do that. So we took their course content requirements and did those instead.
I do wish everyone would stop talking about game DESIGN and then talking up whatever CS courses they’re doing. Design isn’t the same as programming guys 
Proper game design courses are still pretty rare. I’ve seen a few that seem pretty decent, but I know that at least in the UK there are far more bad ones than good. But I would hate us all to simply discount the idea of actually studying design (i.e DESIGN and not PROGRAMMING) simply because there are bad courses. I don’t doubt that there are poor courses for any subject, that’s no reason to not want to study it.
Frankly, I think design has the most to benefit by having the good courses pushing up the professionalism of designers in the industry. I’m very proud of the students I’ve helped through our design course because now I see them working and they just seem so much more mature at their jobs than I was back when I started.
I have to be honest though and say that yes these courses do tend to recruit heavily. I don’t think there’s anything particularly wrong with that, but the reality is that design is a far harder job to get into via the degree route because its a harder skill to demonstrate from a portfolio. We concentrate very much on the job of level design as a means to demo a good portfolio, which does seem to do OK in terms of our students getting jobs. But the market is far harder than for programmers (a good programmer is pretty much guaranteed a job).
[=WalkingDead;241400]
Unless a video game design degree has Calculus in it, I really cannot recommend it to anyone. If it has calculus then I would say its pretty good. Maths is worth its weight in gold if you ask me.
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I strongly agree with this. I believe that advanced math is not only useful for technical roles, but for artists in the industry as well. A concept artist that have a good scientific understanding of how things work (or should work) will always have better results on concepts and create more intricate art. Take a look at Feng Zhu’s work for example; that guy is an extremely good artist because he has a very scientific approach on how to build visual interpretation of his ideas.
I think you answered your own question when you said you wanted to be able to fall back doing other things if you can’t get a job in games. As others pointed out, make sure it’s a reputable school & program no matter what major you pick. Also, keep in mind that everyone wants to be a game developer, so pay is often lower and hours worked can be much, much higher than other non-gaming segments of the industry.