What are Game Designer Education Requirements?

Is your quest to become a video game designer? If so, you might feel that you’re facing a difficult journey with many decisions to make. Should you go to a video game college, state college or private university? Should you focus on programming, design, or art? Is a 4-year degree enough or is more required of you?

There are many roads to take, and many educational paths to choose. Which one leads to your dream job making games? 

Choose a Path to Video Game Design

Game design draws from several disciplines, so naturally there are several paths you could take. Software engineering, art, the humanities – each is its own road, and each could lead to a job as a game designer.

To show you how many educational paths could all lead to a game design job, I searched through the LinkedIn profiles of every game designer I’ve worked with over the years – 53 in all, in many salary ranges. I surveyed where they went to school, what degrees they graduated with (if any), and what types of colleges or universities they attended.

The results are summarized in the charts below. They show that there’s more than one way to become a game designer – but some career paths may be better than others. Let’s take a look.

Game Designers: Field of Study

This chart summarizes the various fields of post-secondary study (college/university) that the 53 game designers in my survey listed on their LinkedIn profiles. The fields of study are grouped as follows:

• Game Design (23%): Game design, level design, digital game development
• Computer Science (15%): Computer science and simulation
• Humanities (17%): English, Asian studies, Literature, Linguistics, Economics, etc.
• Art (13%): Computer animation, Fine art, Illustration, etc.
• Media (11%): Electronic media arts, Radio/television/film, video, etc.
• Applied Science (8%): Engineering, Electronics, and Applied Science etc.
• Information Technology (6%): Management information systems, computing and software systems, and other IT
• Business (2%): Business marketing
• None specified (9%): Some of the LinkedIn profiles did not specify a field of study, possibly these designers did not attend a post-secondary school

Note that less than one quarter of game designers actually went to school for game design. I was surprised to find that about as many designers got a computer science degree as got an art degree, since game design is often made out to be more of an art than a science, and that only 9% of game designers did not attend any college or university.

Game Designers: Type of School

This second chart breaks down the type of post-secondary schools that were attended by the 53 designers in this report. To offer the best view of the data for readers who are trying to decide what type of college or university to attend, I’ve broken it down into these categories:

• State (40%): State-run universities including the University of Washington, Rutgers, and others
• Private (30%): Privately-run universities including Carnegie Mellon University, Southern Methodist University and others
• Game (11%): Specialized game universities such as DigiPen Institute of Technology
• Community/Technical (7%): 2-year degree schools including community colleges and technical colleges
• Art (6%): Art specialty colleges including Savannah College of Art and Design, and others
• Military (2%): United States Army Intelligence School
• None (4%): No post-secondary school was listed

Many Paths to Follow

If there’s one thing these charts illustrate clearly, it’s that there are many paths that can lead you to your goal of becoming a video game designer. What does this mean?

One thing it likely shows is that getting a degree from a college or university is an important step toward your career in games. While 3 in 5 designers in this survey did not complete their degree, note that all but 9% of them attended at least some college. These numbers show that if you don’t go to college, it will be difficult to get a job designing games.

But maybe it also hints that you shouldn’t stress out too much about making the “wrong decision” about which school to choose or which degree to pursue. Maybe it’s more important to study a field that you’re passionate about, since game designers come from many different backgrounds.

Besides, isn’t passion what made you set out on this quest in the first place? Pick a path, follow it passionately, and you’ll eventually reach your goal – by one path or another.

Game Institute in India is the Solution

If you’re thinking about a career in game design, it’s never too soon to start gathering information. 

It is possible to enter the video game developing world without any specific game design degree.

This option is becoming less prevalent, as more and more colleges are creating game design and game development degrees.

Now, a great way to show a company you have the tenacity to stick with a project long-term, and to show a company you’re serious about this career, is to earn a degree in a relevant field.

Degrees in fields like computer science and computer programming aren’t bad options if you’re looking to become a game designer.

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