"You think I'm playing a game, but I'm actually in class!"
Recently, according to a report by the well-known game media GameRant, Carnegie Mellon University, a top CS bull school in the United States, has opened a game course related to "Genshin Impact".
The main content of the course is for students to form individual combat teams in the game "Genshin Impact", and the content of the exam is that students need to defeat a specific boss with a character of their choice within two minutes, and even this class requires a certain game foundation to sign up.
"Playing the game, you can get credits?" isn't this really some oolong news?
Doubts are doubts, this class has been officially certified by the CMU. You can find the course introduction of "Genshin Impact - Theory Production 101" on the official website, and interested students can take it in the spring semester of 24, and they can get 3 credits if they pass the exam.
As soon as this news came out, I believe many students were curious: What game-related courses or majors are offered in American universities?
Today, Palm Jun will take you to understand a major that is not only related to games, but also has a very considerable employment salary -
Major in Game Design
Game Design
Game design, as the name suggests, is a discipline that cultivates "game creators", and it is also a proper "distant cousin of CS".
It has long developed into a mature and serious profession, covering a wide range of fields, such as game scene design, game art, animation production, concept art design and other art-related courses, as well as game programming, game development and other courses that are inseparable from computer programming, are all its compulsory courses!
If you think that you play the game well, there must be no difficulty in learning the "game", then you are very wrong, in terms of the degree of brain burning, game design is no less than CS, and it is really difficult for students to hold without two "brushes"!
Students should not only learn science knowledge and practical skills such as computer science and mathematics, but also master the knowledge of arts and social sciences such as history, art, and psychology, in addition, imagination, creativity, and logical thinking skills are also essential.
After all, if a game designer wants to create a good game, he or she needs to create a character that can be experienced, a rich storyline with no logical loopholes, a clear game plot, realistic and vivid graphics, and also put the ideas in mind into the "program".
As a result, game design students tend to be "hexagonal warriors" with interdisciplinary skills!
In order to give you a more thorough understanding of the game design major, Palm Jun has compiled the latest [2024 National Best Universities for Undergraduate Game Design Rankings] released by U.S. News, interested students must not miss it!
Which schools have the strongest game design majors?
PS: Art colleges and universities do not participate in the U.S. News American University Rankings, so the universities in the list are all comprehensive universities.
Although there are not many universities that offer game design majors at the undergraduate level, "all that is condensed is the essence", and the universities on the list have full say in the field of game design!
First of all, crush a group of science and technology cow schools and win the crown of the game design row.
Secondly, the strong polytechnic schools and all of them performed well, and they were on the list together with the public big U.
Finally, 3 unknown schools in the comprehensive ranking also made the list, namely:
- Row 115
- Row 98
- 82
Without further ado, let's take a look at these strong universities.
1
University of Southern California
University of Southern California
No. 28 in the overall ranking, No. 1 in the special ranking
In addition to winning the first place in the U.S. News list, USC has also topped the list of "Princeton Review Best Colleges for Game Design" for 13 consecutive years.
USC's undergraduate game design system is very special, and the curriculum combines the characteristics of multiple disciplines such as design, art, filmmaking, engineering, etc., to provide students with the most unique teaching experience, which can be subdivided into two types:
- Offered by the School of Cinematic Arts: Game Art, Game Development and Interaction Design, which mainly emphasize the artistic expression, creativity and experimentation of games, and are suitable for students with a weak computer foundation;
- Offered by the Faculty of Engineering: CS Games Interdisciplinary Program, which focuses on programming and engineering-oriented game development, for students who want to combine programming and game design.
In addition, USC's School of Cinematic Arts offers entertainment majors in the fields of performing arts, interactive and stage design, in addition to games, which is ideal for students who want to enter the entertainment field in the future.
Thanks to its excellent geographical advantages, USC is not far from the world's largest entertainment companies, and it is also the target school of famous game companies such as Blizzard and Riot Games, and students can participate in almost most game projects. Secretly, USC also has a scholarship program sponsored by Blizzard.
In addition, there are many professional laboratories such as MFA Thesis Lab and Advanced Games Lab in the school, and the school also holds game expos, LA game conferences and other activities specially held for game design majors every year.
USC Game Expo 2023
2
Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University
No. 24 in the overall row and No. 2 in the special row
CMU's Game Design program is affiliated with the ETC Entertainment Technology Teaching Center, but unfortunately the game course program offered by the center is only open to graduate students, but if you want to get involved in the field of game design at the undergraduate level, you can also choose to minor in the game design course jointly offered by IDeATe and the ETC Center.
Although IDeATe Game Design is a minor open to all CMU undergraduates, it requires a high level of programming and requires students to take at least one computer science course.
CMU attaches great importance to this minor program, and the faculty brings together top professors in six fields: game and mechanical design, interactive storytelling and character development, visual design and sound synthesis, game programming, and interface design, to provide students with the most professional interdisciplinary teaching and guidance.
Students also had the opportunity to collaborate on projects with industry leaders such as Carl Rosendahl, author of the game design encyclopedia "The Art of Game Design" and founder of PDI, the creator of DreamWorks animations such as "Shrek" and "Madagascar".
In addition, if students want to apply for a game design major as a freshman, they can also choose the BCSA interdisciplinary program jointly created by the School of Computer Science and the School of Arts, which integrates knowledge from emerging media and art fields such as game design, computer animation, and interactive staging, and students can choose according to their interests.
3
University of Utah
University of Utah
No. 115 in the overall ranking, No. 3 in the special ranking
Although the University of Utah is outside the top 100 in the U.S. News rankings, it has a good reputation in the field of game design!
The Department of Games at the University of Utah combines arts, humanities, social sciences, and computer studies with deep knowledge of all aspects of game creation, and the teaching model is based on the operation model of independent game teams, integrating teaching with studio practice to create a unique game development learning experience for students.
Its game design students are exposed to the most cutting-edge game production and production technologies, while fully experiencing the unique charm of game development and design.
The school attaches great importance to practice and output, requiring each undergraduate student to complete their own game works before graduation, thanks to this, students have accumulated a lot of "practical experience" before entering the industry, and therefore, the students here are recognized by industry leaders such as Blizzard, Epic Games, Netflix, 2K, Disney, etc.!
It's worth mentioning that the University of Utah also has an esports varsity team, which is its strong point in both game production and esports!
4
Georgia Institute of Technology
Georgia Institute of Technology
No. 33 in the overall ranking, No. 4 in the special ranking
Georgia Polytechnic is one of the "Big Three of American Institute of Technology", which can be said to be a school that is far ahead of its name!
Offered by the School of Computer Science, the School of Music, and the School of Letters, Media and Communication (LMC), the Game Design program provides students with an in-depth understanding of visual design, music technology, and media history while gaining computer theory and practice.
In order to ensure that students master the basic abilities of digital media, software design, visual interaction design, digital arts, etc., students are required to take at least 36 credits of computer science courses and 30 credits of music technology or LMC courses.
After completing the required credits, students can choose their main areas of study from the three major directions of intelligence-game, media-game, and character-game according to their own interests.
Most of the graduates are working in interactive game design, special effects, digital media research and other fields, and can also continue their postgraduate studies in CS, digital art, human-machine interface and other fields, and the prospects are very good!
The strength of MIT, Stanford, and Cornell is obvious to all, so I won't go into too much detail here, and the remaining 3 schools in the list are also very recommendable:
Rochester Institute of Technology, game design not only has high-quality faculty, but also enviable Co-Op internship programs and supporting facilities, students can go to Blizzard, Epic, EA, Twitch and other well-known game companies paid internships, but also enjoy the MAGIC Spell studio provides an area of 7,000 square feet of movie sound field and panoramic theater, and cast their original games on the 4K Dolby screen, which is not too cool!
The University of California, Santa Cruz, Game Design, focuses on the construction and design of computer interactive games, and has been named the best game design project in a public university in the United States by the Wall Street Journal. Its curriculum emphasizes the combination of technology, narrative and art, and requires students to master the knowledge of programming, mathematics, interactive storytelling, etc., and graduates are popular with well-known game manufacturers.
The University of California, Irvine, the world's first university to offer a major in "e-sports management" and set up related scholarships, also has a professional team standard college e-sports club, its game design attaches great importance to students' practical ability, will spend two years to train students to build a game world, design and development, coding and other practical operations, students in the industry first-class reputation.
In addition, UCI's esports team enjoys the enrollment quota of sports students, so if the applicant is playing particularly well in the game, he or she can consider contacting the school and taking the sports student enrollment path.
After learning about the introduction of game design majors and strong universities, let's talk about the issues that families are most concerned about -
What are the prospects for the gaming profession?
Although the game design major has been recognized by many prestigious schools, it is still misunderstood by some people, and some parents think that games are "spiritual opium" and worry that their children will "lose their minds" when they learn games.
But in fact, with the blessing of today's trillion-scale game market, the "game" major has long been more than a simple entertainment pastime.
First of all, the popularity of the game profession remains high
In the list of "Most Popular Majors in the Future" released by Best Degree Programs, a well-known educational website in the United States, game design ranked 4th, catching up with artificial intelligence (8th) and becoming one of the most popular top majors.
Secondly, the development prospects are very good
According to PwC's 2023 Global Entertainment & Media Outlook report, the total revenue of the esports and gaming market is expected to reach US$115.5 billion in 2027.
With the vigorous development of game e-sports, the game group is becoming more and more diversified, and the game field has also changed from a "non-business" to a brand competition place today, from players to players, from design to planning, all of which have attracted the attention of famous companies in the industry.
Gaming-related jobs have also become a hot spot in the job market, with the average game designer earning an average of $149,118 per year, according to ZipRecruiter!
Finally, the interdisciplinary competence that is cultivated
It is common in all walks of life
The game design major not only includes the scientific knowledge of computer science and mathematics, but also the logical thinking of psychology and art and other liberal arts and social sciences, and the students cultivated are almost all "π talents" with multi-field development, and have high flexibility in the future job market.
In addition, the significance of the existence of game design is not only the major itself, if it is used as a "supplementary skill" for applying to university, it can also be used as a help for families who go on to higher education to realize their dreams of a dream school!
From "Player" to "Designer"
"Internet addicted teenagers" can also be admitted to prestigious schools!
With the vigorous development of the Internet and game industries, more and more prospective international students have joined the ranks of game production. Palm also has many outstanding students every year, and they win the favor of the dream school with their enthusiasm for games. Like what:
@脆录NYU的Z同学
With his passion for game design, he wrote scripts, made games, taught himself Photoshop and programming in his spare time, and joined the school's Game Development Club to try his hand at developing his own games.
(Recommended reading:Crisp record NYU's top 3 majors in the United States, get a 100,000 scholarship in the Northeast!Why is this "game girl"?
@脆录埃默里的L同学
One of the activities that highlighted social responsibility and leadership was to tutor a junior high school student who played games and help him get into the high school of his choice, which helped student L successfully gain admission to Emory University, the "Harvard of the South", majoring in engineering science.
@脆录UCB的C同学
Because of his love of playing games, he came up with the idea of making his own games, so he taught himself to program, used computer algorithms to make picture books for children with cleft lip and palate in high school, participated in the NYU Tisch game design summer school, founded the school science club, etc., and finally won admission to the UCB CS major.