Top US Universities Offering Graduate Programs in Game Design and Development
Submitted by xpertchick
If you have a love of video games and have a natural flare for art, animation, and anything visual and creative. The field of game design and development could be a great option to build a future career on. But before anything else, decide first which specific area within game/development you want. Here is a breakdown of the top US universities offering graduate programs in Game Design and development.
1.) Game design / Development - For this, I would suggest an MS CS with a focus on Games (like University of Southern California (USC) course).
2.) Game Art / Animation - Go for a Master of Arts rather than MS CS (Something like DigiPen's offering).
3.) Research into Games / Artificial Intelligence (AI) / Immersion, etc. - MS CS with a focus on AI, For eg., Stanford has courses on gaming.
Finally, my perspective is that you can always get to (1.) after you done with (3.), but I can't think of any other possible permutation. And (2.) is a totally different track.
Following is a list of institutes offering courses relevant to games: -
1. Digipen Institute - Affiliated with Nintendo of America. Cost is reasonable and it is located in Seattle, Washington.
2. Entertainment Technology Center @ Carnegie Mellon University
3. Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA- The Computer Science college of Georgia Tech offers classes at the GVU center (Graphics, Visualization, and Usability) about animation, virtual reality, etc. The college also has classes for game programming and development.
4. Michigan State University - East Lansing, MI. Offers a Game Design and Development specialization for undergrad students majoring in Computer Science, Art, or Telecommunication, Information Studies, and Media.
5. Rochester Institute of Technology - Masters in Game Design & Development. First degree in Software Engineering. Other game-related majors: Computer Science, Animation.
6. The Art Institute, USA - With locations in more than 20 US cities as well as online offerings, their program in Game Art & Design is well worth checking out.
7. University of Advancing Technology,Tempe, AZ - UAT is an accredited, private, four year university. Focused around technology, their unique college degree programs include: Game Design, Network Security, Digital Animation, Computer Programming, Multimedia Design, E-commerce, and more. Courses available on campus (Arizona) or obtain your degree on line.
8. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI - Offers a course in Computer Game Design and Development.
9. University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA - Besides having an excellent CS program in general, USC also offers a minor in Multimedia, which includes several courses directly related to game development. Game dev at USC is one of the best and customizable course that I could find. You can focus on many different aspects of game design and development. It could be an industry-oriented course or research-based. But, USC is costly as usual and again, this is a very subjective issue.
10. University of North Texas, Denton, TX - Offers a game programming course taught by Ian Parberry. Students work together to create a game in the Laboratory of Recreational Computing.
11. GuildHall at SMU - Offers a Master of Interactive Technology in Digital Game Development. Quite costly and very Microsoft centric. Cost ~ $ 57k. 21 month course.
12. University of Pennsylvania - Offers an MSE in Computer Graphics and Game Technology.
13. WPI - Offers a major in Interactive Media and Game Development, which is only for undergraduates.
14. Full Sail - Offers a competitive program in game development.
15. Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy at UCF (University of Central Florida) - A 16-month fully accredited master's degree. Students get a MS in Interactive Entertainment. The program is very industry, group and project focused and has graduates working at EA, n-Space, Disney, Neversoft, Pi Studios, Bioware, Lockheed Martin and many other places.
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
Comments