Another Game Development School Pops Up

jboogs writes "Gamesarefun.com has a news story about a college in Camden, New Jersey that is offering majors in video game design. All these past years of Gaming was just preparing you for your future!" The school says they've been bombarded with calls from hopeful students after only two days since the program was announced. There's only a handful of schools that offer similar programs, but it might not be long until demand makes such schools more commonplace.

Comments

Game Design, Huh?

[TexVex]

I find it interesting that most posts on this thread are talking about video game programming, not video game design. Once upon a time, back when 8-bit processors and 16-color displays were king, one or two people could design and program a game, and probably do the artwork and sound as well. These days, game studios tend to have a small number of designers and plenty of programmers, artists, and Quality Assurance personnel. The article doesn't actually mention programming -- it mentions that the curriculum has courses on game design, and special effects, and has a creative writing requirement.

The whole concept of a college course that teaches game design is amusing, considering that the job title "designer" has half a dozen different meanings. A game designer can be anything from a story writer to a world builder to a game system designer. Some designers use scripting languages and actually do implementation, while most don't. Design-related positions tend to pay less than programming, but more than Quality Assurance or Tech Support. It's also worth noting that designer job security isn't all that great, either. However, you're much more likely to land a world builder job by creating an impressive mod or map for an existing game than by waving a degree around.

If you want to get into video games, then go the programming route. It pays better and there are many more positions available. You get to work very closely with the designers and have some influence in the design of the game itself. Job security is better -- and, you still get to fire up the latest games at work and play them while calling it research!