2025 Best Online Game Design Degrees

I am a new student working through my third term, and I have nothing but great things to say about the school. I had a lot of trepidation about starting college at 32, and while I consider myself a reasonably capable person I never pushed myself to make excellent grades beyond middle school. Getting into the school was actually a breeze, and the counselors and financial aid department allayed all of the fears I had of applying in the first place. I am currently taking two courses per term (six terms... Read More per year) while working a full-time job, and there is certainly enough challenging work to keep me busy, but it isn't overwhelming. I have found that you will get back what you put into these courses. You have to be highly self-motivated and self-disciplined to get through your coursework during the week, and this is especially true if you're looking to excel. The school seems to focus far more on learning and applying concepts rather than rote memorization of facts just to pass an exam. I have been able to maintain a 4.0 GPA so far, and this is especially shocking to me because I had zero confidence in my math abilities coming into this program, but the courses are excellent. I also can't say enough good things about the professors and the technology the school uses. The professors have all been quick to respond to any concerns I have and help me through any issues, and their ability to distill a lot of core ideas into relatively short courses is impressive. They really want you to master fundamental ideas instead of memorizing as much as possible to make it by for the week. The foundation of the whole course beyond the professors is the learning environment and supporting systems, and they are top-notch. I work as a system administrator for a large hospital system, and I am extremely impressed with how well their environment works and what resources are available to me; I know how challenging deploying and maintaining a lot of these systems are. Buying books has been easy (they've all been e-books so far), they're not majorly expensive, and since most people won't be taking more than two to three courses per term you don't have to factor in a lot of extra cost all at once. Most - not all - of the negative reviews I've seen give me the impression that the person writing them was expecting to have their hand held or simply be able to purchase their degree. I won't try to dispute horror stories with financial aid or just having a bad fit with a professor, but this is the kind of school where you are given all expectations clearly and repeatedly, and if you follow them to the letter you should be able to manage a decent grade. With that said, there is a big difference between thinking you're following instructions and actually following them. They might not have understood a direction and done something wrong, they might have put in the bare minimum and been shocked when that didn't get them a good grade, or they honestly might not have the aptitude to do college-level courses at this point and need to work on some fundamental educational issues they have. You can really get a sense of when a few of your classmates are these people from their discussion posts. Some of them don't follow the prompts at all - like seriously, not even remotely related to the topic - and they will do the absolute bare minimum to get through an assignment. If you review your syllabus for a course and follow all of the rubrics for your assignments you will succeed, and some people just don't put in the effort required. I will probably write another review at the end of my degree, but.. TL;DR - Great school, check it out.

Here's a review from the perspective of a current student. I've been in the game design online program since August of 2014, and I have precisely zero complaints about the quality of education offered. They teach you both primary skills, such as moderate programming, scripting, level design, and game design theory, as well as ancillary skills like communication, leadership, psychology and more. All of these areas of study can seem disparate and somewhat disconnected from each other, but it's astounding... Read More how many of these elements come together to form a comprehensive understanding and skillset. I'm already much more confident in my ability to work in the game industry than I was when I started, and I'm only half-way done. To those who are looking around to find out what the school is actually like, I'd whole-heartedly recommend it. You see a lot of sceptics pointing fingers at elements like the school being for profit, supposedly low graduation rates, and high cost. Firsthand, having been to several schools in my academic career, especially those with traditional academic merits, I would say that this school has absolutely been the most beneficial thing to my personal development in my life. This school will pay dividends on any effort you put in, and despite this being mocked in some other reviews the fact remains: If you are lazy, you will fail, if you work hard, they will match you every step of the way.

I first arrived at FullSail University as a transfer student, from a college that had a traditional offline class attendance structure. The change to the Online format of FullSail's online courseware was a welcome, and very different change from what I was used to. It's truly no lie, FullSail's method of classes does allow you a great degree of freedom to learn at a pace that is comfortable for you, and to schedule your time for coursework appropriately, allowing you to work to any schedule. During... Read More my time with the University, FullSail was in the process of redesigning their entire courseware online, and the flow of my own degree program. This did present a lot of difficulty following the program as things were changed, giving a feeling of 'the rail being placed in front of the oncoming train.' Their improvements were relatively worth it though, it's a lot more streamlined. The only other complaint I could have with the construction of the classes themselves, was it seemed most of them still focused on being able to be in a physical location, when no one in the class was actually attending on-campus classes. This made for some awkwardness when a great degree of physical work or team interaction was required. As someone who learns at a slower pace than others, however, this program was perfect. I was able to break my study sessions evenly through the week, and being able to focus on just one class a month instead of multiple classes over 4 to 6 months made my education feel comfortable, and open to a pace that was more suited for students than professionals working in a corporation. The difficulty of the coursework was strong enough though that I felt sufficiently challenged throughout the program, and I felt like I was graded appropriately for the quality and amount of work I put into the course. The Professors helped with this by having a great degree of casual attitudes, but just as invested in my education as they might be if I were a frequent attending student in a physical class. To me, as someone who has worked with online courses with different schools in the past, FullSail provided the highest quality online degree experience I've ever encountered. If you're looking for getting a degree without wasting any time, wish to do it from anywhere in the United States, and want a quality education that'll teach you a lot about the subject matter, FullSail University is something I would strongly submit for your consideration.

This school really fit my lifestyle, while working and supporting myself it was flexible for me. I was nervous at first that it wasn't going to be recognized by people in the industry as a real degree because I took it online. I'm happy to say that this was not the case, I live in LA and I already work at a studio. The job placement was pretty helpful but you don't start off as a senior director you have to start off as an aid and assistant which I get. Overall pleased with the experience but it... Read More was a journey and there were some bumps along the way. Definitely recommend the school they aren't just in it for your money.

BEAU is a great school, it has small classes and a very friendly staff who actually seem to care. I will be graduating in December with a BFA in their Visual Design program with an emphasis in Game Art. I have already had 3 different internships including a graphic design and animation internship and a video game internship because of the skills I gained as a multi-based artists. The students are all about their work and you get nothing but support and critiques for work. I was built from very little... Read More artistic skills to being well rounded as a digital and traditional artist.

I got my degree in Digital Media: Game Design. I wanted to find this course of study in a university setting. The University of Central Florida gave me that opportunity, whereas otherwise I would have to go to a technical college. I was able to get a well-rounded education in not just the arts, but math and English as well. The course work in math helped me to better understand the numbers behind programming a game, while the English helped with my writing of game design documents. Going to a technical... Read More school would not have been as enriching an experience, as they would have expected me to already have this knowledge from high school. Taking the opportunity at UCF allowed strengthened my foundations and helped me become a better game designer.

DePaul's game program is absolutely phenomenal. You receive hands on experience creating from the moment you begin the curriculum. The faculty is there to guide you and support you every step of the way and since the program is relatively small you get that individual attention that you deserve. My degree prepared me for a job not only in games, but in the professional world in general. I did not spend my days sitting in a classroom taking tests to regurgitate information but rather worked on a variety... Read More of teams where we would solve problems, create art, manage deadlines, and network. I recommend this program through and through.