Believe it or not, there are careers in gaming. When someone today talks about “gaming”, they aren’t necessarily talking about professional chess players, or ping pong champions. 9 times out of 10 they are talking about video and PC games.

With the video game industry reaching out to all demographics including senior citizens (Wii has become very popular with the senior crowd, my grandmother even “goes bowling” using my brother’s system), almost everyone is into video games for one reason or another. Whether it is for fitness, adventure, or just plain old fun, there are a number of ways to have a career in gaming. Is it possible? Let’s take a look.

Westwood College – Game Degrees

Westwood College is one of the best online animation colleges available to students who want to earn their animation degree. This is an undergraduate program (bachelor’s degree), where students will be prepared for a career as a web animator, desktop publisher, 3D animator, or flash designer.

• Associate Degree – Graphic Design and Multimedia
• Bachelor Degree – Animation
• Bachelor Degree – Game Art
• Bachelor Degree – Game Software Development
• Bachelor Degree – Interior Design
• Bachelor Degree – Visual Communications

This degree program can also prepare you for a career in animation in as little as 3 years compared to a traditional 4-year bachelor’s degree program. Course topics include 2D animation, advanced 3D animation, advanced character animation, character development and setup, digital animation, digital image editing, and advanced digital effects. Westwood college also boasts a degree program that contains more core courses than general education or other required courses, so most of your time is spent focusing on your major.

International Academy of Design & Technology – Game Degrees

The International Academy of Design & Technology also is one of the online animation colleges that is engaging and quite thorough.

• Associate of Science in Building Information Modeling
• Associate of Science in Graphic Design
• Bachelor of Fine Arts in Advertising and Design
• Bachelor of Fine Arts in Digital Media Production
• Bachelor of Fine Arts in Game Production
• Bachelor of Fine Arts in Graphic Design
• Bachelor of Science in Web Design and Development

They offer a digital media production & animation major as a bachelor’s degree program. As a student of this program, you will learn about project management, introduction to drawing, video production, motion graphics, screenwriting and more! It truly gets you in “behind the scenes” into the animation process.

Gaming  Careers

There are numerous ways you can seek a career in gaming. One of the most lucrative but competitive ways to find a career in gaming is by becoming a professional gamer. Of course this does require thousands of hours of practice and could result in competing in several national and international events. It’s not a guaranteed way of making money, or even sustaining a true “career” in gaming, but it is one way of having a job within the gaming industry.

However, there are other ways to have a career in gaming. You may want to consider looking at the creation of the game itself. You can become a game designer and create the ideas used to start the game process moving, or a game animator, to take those ideas and make them move and come to life. Game programmers are the ones who enter the technical aspects to actually enter the data into a code that makes the game an actual game.

You could also decide to be part of marketing the game and monitor beta testing and oversee the entire project from start to finish by becoming a game developer. These are just a few of the people required to help create the videos games we play today. If you have ever taken the time to look at the booklet inserts in some of today’s more popular games, you will realize that it takes almost an entire army to put together just one video game. You too can be part of that army.

Game Degrees

For any of the career paths listed above, a great deal of training and education is required. There are specific degrees for video game design, video game programming, computer animation, and video game development. These degrees usually can be found in both undergraduate and graduate levels, and can be taken online as well as on-campus.

For those who are already computer savvy, you may want to look into online degrees to get your education and allow you to have more flexibility as to when and where you will learn. These degrees will give you the basic tools you need to do your job and provide you with more insight into the design, development, and programming of a video game.

A career in gaming – is it possible? As I said before, yes. It all depends on what type of career you seek, but you can find a fulfilled and rewarding career making, designing, or playing video games.

A game development degree will help you become a game developer, teaching you the basics and the advanced techniques in creating and developing a game for PC or gaming console. As a game developer, you would oversee all aspects of the game development from start to finish. This includes overseeing programming, design, art, sound, and even game testing.

A game development degree will focus on all aspects of game development, and should you wish to earn a graduate-level game development degree, you will have the option of focusing to one or more of the areas of study mentioned above. If you enjoy the programming aspect of game development, you can focus on programming.

Also, part of being in a game development team is then moving the game to the next level in terms of locating a publisher and getting the game out to the masses. Again, the higher the game development degree you achieve, the more knowledge you’ll have of the development process. Also, these degrees are found in an on-campus and an online format in colleges and universities across the country!

If this sounds exciting to you, consider earning a game development degree.

• Art
• Animation
• Programming
• Sound
• Music
• Prop design
• Production
• Direction

If you are interested in studying any one of these aspects of a video game, consider earning a video game degree.

As a student of a video game degree program, you will find that there are degrees in all levels, from associates to masters, and possibly even a PhD. All video game design degree programs include the basics of the following areas of study:

There are also video game artists, animation specialists, and other people who may study video game-related degree programs, but not necessarily design itself.

Video game degrees can be taken on-campus or online, depending on what suits your schedule and your needs. If you want to be an online student, make sure you have the proper technical requirements before enrolling. Many online schools will be happy to provide you with that information either online, by e-mail, or on the phone with an admissions representative.

The field of video game design is an exciting and innovative industry, and is continuing to grow each year. Jump on the bandwagon and join in the fun with a video game degree!

How Do I Get Involved in the Video Game Industry?

When it comes to creating video games it is all about training in their design. This will allow you to be involved from the first concept designs, to the final edits that will tie the whole plot together. With a video game designer degree, you will be able to learn first hand how to become an asset in the creation of games that will sell in the millions.

What is a Video Game Designer Degree?

This is a degree that teaches you all the elements you need to begin creating your own video games for companies like EA, Blizzard, or Playstation. They will touch on a number of needs, such as the development of concepts for games, the animation needed to bring them to life, software and programming, and other classes within the degree as a whole.

How Much Can I Make With a Video Game Designer Degree?

This will depend on who you work for, and how popular of a seller the games you develop are. However, the average median salary for a person with this degree is $72,000 a year. This increases with the design and sale of more demanded games. For example, games within the Grand Theft Auto series sell in the hundreds of millions of copies.

If you are looking to get involved in this exciting industry, you don’t have to wait. You can get enrolled in an online video game designer degree program now, and start living your dreams.

For any career as a video game designer, you would need to earn a game degree which would take you from two to four years to complete.  Before you take up game degree program, you would be better off learning the basics of video game design. ITT technical institute, for one, offers video design programs which prepare you with the skills required for a career as a video game designer. After having gone through the basic schooling, you may consider gaining some experience in the field. While you work as a video game designer, you may go for a higher qualification in earning a game degree from the accredited colleges and universities offering online degree programs.

Online game degree programs help you to study and work at the same time. It is always an advantage to gain more and more experience in the practical game designing field so that, after you have earned your game degree you get a better opportunity in advancing your career. There are several career opportunities which require extensive experience the industry. In order to find the right direction to your career, you would need to be familiar with the various game design companies, and you should have the knowledge of what they do.

A Bachelor’s degree in video game design from a university offering accredited online degree programs will help you get established and take part in the explosive growth of the video game industry. Earning a degree online in video game design would mean that you have qualified yourself for a career in the relevant field, and not only that, you have also gained practical experience in the field while earning your degree. Prior experience is of immense value to any career advancement.

Source: Online Degree Universities

There are several colleges and universities in the United States which offer on-site and online game design degree covering several aspects in game design and development. What you will need to do is to look for the top ten listings for video game design degrees related to different game industries.

As a first step in going for a game degree, you would need to look at the game industry business scene which will help you to choose the right game degree for the career you are looking for. If you search the Internet you would find several of video game business analysis reports which would provide you with a good idea of the types of jobs available in the industry, and what skills the industries are looking for.

ITT International offers Bachelor’s degree in visual entertainment and game design, while the Westwood College focuses on software development with special emphasis on design and development, covering different aspects of video game development like 3-D and web game programming. The college offers online game degree programs for those who are working, and also on campus study at 17 campuses in 6 states. The online degree program is uniquely career-focused as you earn your Bachelor’s degree in game design in a span of three years.

If you want to take a career in video game programming, a Bachelor’s degree in Game and Simulation Programming is a course that will prepare you for that career path. While the course will equip you with the skills required to join the public and private sector of the game software Industry as a Video Game Developer, you can also assume other roles such as software engineer, video programming and project coordinator.

The cutting-edge, applications-focused curriculum will equip you with video game programming fundamentals, game designing and modifications and 2D and 2D graphics programming. Well, upon graduation as a fully fledged video game developer, one will be responsible (as a business entity or an individual) for developing software that will be used to create video games.

A video Game Developer can develop games for various systems such as PCs, or specialize in a particular video game console like Nintendo’s Wii, Microsoft’s Xbox 360, or Sony’s PlayStation 3. Some other Video Game Developers can opt to specialize in particular types of games like first-person shooters, or computer role-playing games.

Other roles of a video Game Developer include transporting games from a particular system to another or game translation from one language to another. There are three main categories that a Video Game Developer will fall into: in house developer, third-party developer or independent developer.

Required Courses:

• Software Design
• Data Structures
• Programming Languages
• Programming Writing
• Operation Systems
• Computer Networks
• Systems Analysis
• Program Customization
• Testing and Troubleshooting

Interested in a Game and Simulation degree? Compare programs now:

To be able to qualify and become a video game designer is first, the love of playing video games and second is to be able to acquire an Associate degree or even a Bachelor’s degree. But the main importance in this profession is how to gain technical experience with the technology used in creating video game animation and making your own portfolio of your original creations to show your future employers.

The salary of video game developers vary since the market is constantly evolving but some developers can even earn as much as $300,000 a year but some may earn as low as $10,000. Schools that offer Online Gaming Degree are ITT Technical Institute and Westwood College – Online Campus

• Full Sail College founded in 1979
• Premiere music, entertainment and media arts university
• Full Sail is located in Orlando, FL
• Full Sail College is accredited by the Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges of Technology
• Full Sail College is recognized for innovative programs by Rolling Stone, Shift Magazine, Electronic Gaming Monthly
• Named “School/College of the Year” by the Florida Association of Post-secondary Schools & Colleges

Full Sail College began 30 years ago and has garnered a reputation as one of the premier media arts schools in the world. Full Sail College offers many degree programs if you want to pursue a career in music, film, video games, design, animation and entertainment business. Throughout the entertainment industry. Full Sail College is located in Orlando, Florida. The school serves more than 6,000 students from all over the world and students come to the U.S. campus from many countries such as Brazil, Kenya, Canada, Japan and India. Full Sail graduates have found rewarding careers in film, acclaimed video games and design projects, live productions and many more exciting positions in the entertainment industry.

Full Sail College Online Degree Programs

Students can choose from 13 Master’s, Bachelor’s and Associate’s degrees through Full Sail’s campus and online programs. Full Sail offers degrees in Computer Animation, Digital Arts and Design, Game Art, Game Development, Web Design and many others. Full Sail College Online will help students build a portfolio to help them launch their career. Students can enroll in courses anytime and a typical degree takes less than 2 years to complete.

If you’re interested in creating video games for a living, Full Sail can get you started with innovative courses. Many Full Sail graduates have gone on to help make some of the most popular and top selling video games such as Madden NFL, NASCAR, The Godfather, Quake IV, Call of Duty, Rainbow Six: Lockdown, and Tiger Woods PGA Tour. Full Sail also lets you come back and take any course within your degree for free if you need to brush up on your skills.

Full Sail College Online Degrees

Master’s Degree

• Education Media Design & Technology
• Entertainment Business
• Internet Marketing

Bachelor Degrees

• Entertainment Business
• Internet Marketing
• Computer Animation
• Digital Arts & Design
• Education Media Design & Technology
• Internet Marketing
• Game Art
• Game Design
• Game Development
• Graphic Design & Development
• Graphic Design
• Media Design
• Web Design & Development