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I am a High School student in Ontario and i am trying looking for college/university programs the are specifically about game design. There are quite a few at most colleges near me, but they are all BA's and I am looking for a BSc. The only one i have been able to find is at digipen but that is across the continent and more importantly outrageously expensive. Does anyone know of and programs in Canada or the US that offer a BSc in Game design?

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Nope, I don't know any, sorry. I seriously recommend going into a regular university and getting a "core" skill like programming or 3d modelling and animation. I went into comp sci and never regereted it. – ashes999 Feb 23 '12 at 7:10
Just to make sure that you are not mixing the terms up (which is common as they mixed up quite a lot), Game Design and Game Development are not the same thing. Game Design falls under Game Development (which includes everything from programming and art to game design and production). – Samaursa Feb 23 '12 at 20:21
My bad. I guess I didn't read that properly; I thought he was interested in game design because he wants to make games. In my opinion, programming is great if you want to make games :) – ashes999 Feb 23 '12 at 21:12
I remember when I was looking at schools Carleton had some sort of game design option with their CS degree. I know Dalhousie also has a "Graphics, Gaming and Media" specialization with their CS degree – Jeff Feb 24 '12 at 16:37

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5 Answers

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UOIT has a Bachelor of Information Technology in Game Development. It's a pretty new school, but I have heard nothing but good things.

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From the link, that program requires a diploma for admission. That is not something a fresh high school graduate would have. It does look like an interesting option for later though. – Chewy Gumball Feb 23 '12 at 21:26
ah yes, it's a bridge course, so you can take computer programming, either degree or diploma, and branch it with this. Turning your dipolma into a degree, or two degrees I suppose. Something to consider – Spooks Feb 23 '12 at 22:21
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@ChewyGumball: You can convert your diploma to a degree but you can also enter directly from a high school. connect.uoit.ca/uoit/program.do?from=degree&programID=180 – Samaursa Feb 24 '12 at 4:36
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I wouldn't consider Game Design a science, much like I wouldn't consider Interior Design a science. Though interior design is certainly different from game design, I think it is an appropriate parallel to make when looking at the type of degree you will get. Is there a reason you don't want a BA?

You should figure out what you mean when you say "game design". That term is used for many different areas of making a game. If you mean programming a game then you should consider getting a degree in computer science or software engineering. From a quick search on the googles I found three computer science programs with game design minors/specializations in Ontario:

All of these universities have well respected computer science programs.

If you want to do any other part of creating a game, I highly doubt you will find a Science degree for it. That being said, you don't need a degree with "game design" in it to get into the industry. You can learn game specific knowledge on your own with help from the internet or perhaps other students with similar interests. A game specific program would probably not give you a well rounded, general education, so if your plans to get into the industry don't work out, or you change your mind, you may end up with a useless degree when looking for another type of job.

EDIT: Here are some related questions about specific disciplines:

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There is a difference between Game Design and Game Development. Although you don't need a game design degree to get into the industry, spending four years writing your own engines/code vs. spending four years learning about exception safety and theory (I realize I am biasing the argument here a bit :) will have an impact on how good a game developer you turn out to be after you are done (exceptions not-withstanding... some people always go to the top, no matter where they study [or don't for that matter]) – Samaursa Feb 23 '12 at 20:29
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+1 Good call on "A game specific program would probably not give you a well rounded, general education..." Beat me to the punch. :) – Richard Marskell - Drackir Feb 23 '12 at 20:32
@Samaursa - I would argue that you should have a good understanding of how to program (i.e. algorithms; debugging; compiler theory; memory management; and, of course, writing "good" code) before you start programming games. And, as Chewy Gumball said, having a well-rounded education covers you in case you cannot get into the industry because you haven't over specialized yourself. Not to mention the fact that, by taking a game design course, you'll be in direct competition for very specific jobs with the exact same people you studied with. – Richard Marskell - Drackir Feb 23 '12 at 20:41
@RichardMarskell-Drackir: Good point. It may be too specialized, in which case, only the student can assess himself/herself is this is what they want. – Samaursa Feb 23 '12 at 20:51
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You forgot Waterloo, it has one the best computer science program in North America, Microsoft and Google go there often to recruit. – Spooks Feb 23 '12 at 22:23
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I'm not sure if this will help you , but I'm currently enrolled in the Game Level Design course at Sheridan College in Oakville. It's the sister-program to the Game Design program they have here - we study our respective fields for a year (though there's talk about making it a 2-year program) and then we collaborate and make a game during the following half-year period. The idea is that we develop skills for a year, and then apply them practically for the remaining half-year of the course, so that we have a really solid addition to our portfolios at graduation. All of my instructors have backgrounds in game development (EA, Ubisoft, Rockstar, Bioware, Silicon Knights ((before they sucked)) etc.)

It's a great program so far(Game Level Design), and we learn a lot about becoming a Level Designer... We're covering 3D modelling in Maya, Level Design in Unity and UDK, Game History, Story/Cinematic/Character development and basic programming.

The only catch is you need a BA in a related field to be accepted because it (and the Game Designer program) are post-graduate courses.

If you haven't graduated from a University/College yet, and want to be a designer, they tell us that pursuing a BS in Computer Sciences is a good idea (or anything that focuses in C+, since it seems quite common), or if programming is the anti-Christ to you (like it is for me), then a strong background in Visual Art, Literature, Architecture, etc. is a good plan.

Here are the links to the two programs:

Game Level Design at Sheridan College

Game Design at Sheridan College

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If you are really looking in the US you could try to apply Northeastern University. It's a five year program but they will help you get two or three six month internships at real game companies. You could also try to look for schools in Redmond Washington. I'm not sure what schools are there but I know a few of them have exclusive deals with Nintendo to allow their students to work as play testers or help with content localization.

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You should look into University of Ontario Institute of technology.

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