Video Game Design is a major, rapidly growing industry.

The game design industry actually exceeds Hollywood and the film industry in terms of job openings and revenue. As of 2009, the entertainment software industry employed over 250,000 people. That is only counting the video game industry. Many other industries are starting to utilize Game thinking and game mechanics in a non-game context in order to engage users and solve problems. This concept is known as “Gamification” and it has opened the door to a world of possibilities for people looking to find work with a Game Design background.  Gamification has been used to recruit  employees, to train employees and much more. It has been used to create more compelling classroom environments and to assist the healthcare industry. "In the health care arena, there's a lot of discussion around patient activation, meaning getting people going [with games] and looking at the change in their engagement levels." ~Bonnie Henry is CEO of GameMetrix Solutions. It seems like this concept has a lot of potential across various industries.

Best Game Design Schools

As a result of all this, video game designing is a sought after skill set that is reeling in a lot of money. Businesses who provide these services are expanding and so are the career opportunities. So how do you get in on it? Educating yourself is a good start.  To help you on your educational journey, we have compiled a list of the top 50 game designer schools for game design as rated by the Princeton Review, which can be viewed here.

Game Development Software

If you prefer to learn on your own, there are still a number of ways to explore education. A number of great video game and interactive design software companies offer edu software to students and faculty who are interested in learning their software. Unity Technologies for instance offers educational discounts on Unity 4 Pro and student discount on Unity commercial products. The Unity community also offers free tutorials and documentation to help you learn and discover cool shortcuts and optimizations. Unity requires minimal programming knowledge.

If you are seeking a "no coding required" video game design solution to get your feet wet, GameSalad Creator might be a better platform for you to consider. With GameSalad anyone can become a game designer and bring their ideas to life.