Game Design vs Game Development: What Each Degree Teaches

"Game design" and "game development" are often used as if they meant the same thing, and on many college websites they sit side by side in one program title. They are not interchangeable. On the degree pages we reviewed, design usually points to the rules, systems, levels, stories and player experience of a game, while development usually points to building it: engines, code, assets and production. Some schools offer one of each, some combine them, and a few use "development" as an umbrella for every discipline on a game team. This guide shows how to tell which kind of program you are looking at before you apply.

What the two words mean on official pages

Federal sources are a useful baseline. ONET OnLine describes the work of Video Game Designers* as designing "core features of video games," specifying game and role-play mechanics, story lines and character biographies, creating design documentation, and guiding production staff to produce games as designed. That is a design role: it decides what the game should be and works with the people who build it.

The U.S. Department of Education's program taxonomy, the Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP 2020), does not split the two. Code 50.0411, Game and Interactive Media Design, covers "the design, development, and programming of interactive media entertainment," and lists theory of games, visual and interactive design, story development, animation, simulation and programming. In other words, the federal classification treats design and development as one field, and colleges are free to name their majors either way. The title alone does not settle much. The course list does.

One school, two degrees: Arizona and Grand Canyon

The clearest way to see the difference is a college that offers both. Two schools in our directory do.

At the University of Arizona, the College of Information Science runs a BA in Game Design and a BS in Game Development. Both require 120 units and a minor or double major. The BA's catalog lists courses in game mechanics and systems design, interactive storytelling and world-building, and player experience, and the department says the degree is designed "without the need for extensive knowledge in computer programming." The BS sample plan includes GAME 351 Game Programming and GAME 425 Algorithms for Games, and the catalog says advanced electives allow specialization in graphics programming, network architecture, AI implementation and physics simulation.

At Grand Canyon University, the two degrees even sit in different colleges. The BA in Game Design is offered by the College of Arts and Media and includes Visual Art for Games, World Building, Introduction to Game Engines and Game Promotion and Marketing. The BS in Game Development is offered by the College of Engineering and Technology and covers game engine architecture, AI for games, real-time network programming and graphics programming, including shader programming and GPU optimization. Both share a four-course Game Creation sequence in which, in GCU's words, "design students and programming students work together."

The pattern in both schools: the design degree leans toward systems, narrative and the player, and the development degree leans toward software.

When "development" means the whole team

Not every school uses "development" to mean programming. At Champlain College, game majors are split by role: Game Design (with options to specialize in game system design, level/content design or narrative design), Game Programming, Game Art, Game Production Management (which teaches Waterfall, Scrum, Kanban and Lean), Game Sound Design and Interactive Narrative. From the second year, students from all of them take classes together in what Champlain calls the Game Studio Experience.

At the Savannah College of Art and Design, the BFA in Game Development includes core principles courses in programming and game art and a choice among game design, programming, game art and game tech courses, followed by Game Development Studio I and II. Here "development" is an umbrella for all the disciplines that make a game, including design and art.

So a "game development" degree can be a programming-heavy BS, a broad studio degree, or anything in between. Read the required courses.

"Game design and development": read the plan of study

Combined titles are common, and they vary the most. Three examples with nearly the same name:

• Rochester Institute of Technology's BS in Game Design and Development "emphasizes game programming within a core computing education." Its 121-credit plan includes Development for Real-Time Simulations and Games and electives in engines and systems and graphics programming.
• Quinnipiac University's BA in Game Design and Development has a 42-credit major with concentrations in Programming, Spatial Technology, Game Design, Art, Performance, Management/Production and Writing, and a multi-semester Game Lab sequence starting in the sophomore year.
• Kennesaw State University's BS in Computer Game Design and Development combines data structures, algorithms, computer graphics and software engineering with game design courses and a 14-credit concentration chosen from options such as Creative Content, Simulations/Informatics and Planning/Management.

The same three words describe a computing degree, a liberal-arts major with role concentrations, and a hybrid. You can browse both fields side by side on our game design and game development pages.

How to check what a program really teaches

Before you compare schools, gather these from each program's own catalog page:

1. The award. A BS, BA and BFA can carry the same title and still differ; see BA vs BS vs BFA in game design.
2. The home college or department. A program in a computing or engineering college and one in an arts or media college usually build different cores, as GCU shows.
3. Required programming courses. Count them, and check whether they are introductory scripting or engine, graphics and algorithms courses.
4. Design courses. Look for named courses in level design, systems design, narrative design, playtesting or player experience.
5. Team projects. Many programs include studio or team game courses; check whether designers, programmers and artists work together in them.
6. Concentrations. A combined degree may let you choose design, programming, art or production after the first year.
7. Admission materials. A design program may ask for a design portfolio; a programming-heavy one may not.

Which one fits you

If you are most interested in how a game plays (rules, balance, levels, story, how players feel), a game design degree is the more direct fit, and some of them, like Arizona's BA, say plainly that heavy programming is not required. If you want to build the software itself, look at game development or game programming degrees whose required courses include engines, graphics and algorithms. If you are not sure yet, a combined program with concentrations, or a school that runs several game majors with shared studio courses, lets you try more than one role before you commit.

Whatever the title, no program can promise a job in the industry. Use the course lists, not the name, to choose. Our bachelor's directory lists the undergraduate programs we have verified, each with links to its official pages.