While there are lots of cool high-tech careers, video game design holds a distinct allure that falls somewhere between Hollywood and Silicon Valley. I started thinking about the topic of video game design (again) when Chris interviewed animator and 3D artist Danny Ngan last week. Today’s kids don’t want to head off to Tinseltown to make movies … they want to head out to the hot spots so they can hole up and design video games …

Today’s video game design world is all about 3D … if you’re into the design end of the business, you best have some serious chops in some serious software like Alias Maya or Autodesk 3ds Max. You’ll need some heavy-duty computing power to make it happen … not to mention the faculty to help you absorb all that crunchy software goodness. (And you’ll probably want to have the basic things like Photoshop training under your belt.)

From the handful of folks I’ve known in the animation and video game design industries over the years, one thing is clear. If you want to learn 3D software, you need to fully immerse yourself in the medium.You’ve got to live and breathe it.

While there are companies that will tell you that you can learn it all at home, in your spare time, an online degree in video game design sure seems like pipe dream. Unfortunately, many institutions that offer video game design degrees fail to provide course listings and real world details without first requiring the prospective student to surrender their personal information.

Full Sail is a happy exception. Through an ambitious Flash-interface website (and yes, they offer a HTML version, too), the Orlando school provides a substantial overview of the courses in their Game Design and Development Bachelor of Science degree program. The courses include: 3D Content Creation, Advanced Tools Programming, Artificial Intelligence, Asset Production, Behavioral Science, Business Communications, Calculus and Trigonometry, Console Development, Data Structures, DirectX, Entertainment Business and Law, Ethics and Psychology, Game Networking, Game Preproduction, Game Project, General Design Fundamentals 1 and 2, Historical Archetypes and Mythology, Linear Algebra, Machine Architecture, Media and Society, OpenGL, Optimization, Physics, Programming I and II, Real Time 3D Programming, Rules of the Game, Software Architecture, and Structures of Game Design.

Phew! And you thought that this was all about playing games? No such luck … video game design is serious business.

Now if I had the chance to do it all over again … cut!

[tag]video game design[/tag]