Game Design vs Game Programming: Roles, Degrees and Prerequisites

A game designer decides how a game should work: its rules, systems, levels and the experience a player has. A game programmer makes it work: the engine, graphics, physics, AI and networking code that runs on the player's machine. The two roles collaborate every day, and many programs put them on the same student teams, but the degrees that prepare for them look different. This guide compares their curricula, explains the difference between a dedicated game programming degree and a computer science degree with a game concentration, and shows what schools actually publish as math and programming prerequisites.

Two roles on the same team

ONET OnLine's profile of Video Game Designers* describes designing "core features of video games," specifying mechanics, story lines and character biographies, maintaining design documentation, and guiding production staff to produce games as designed. Programming sits elsewhere in the federal data. The Bureau of Labor Statistics groups it under Software developers, quality assurance analysts, and testers, noting that applications software developers "design computer applications, such as games, for consumers."

The federal program taxonomy (CIP 2020) also separates the two. Code 11.0204, Computer Game Programming, prepares students "to apply the knowledge and skills of design and computer programming to the development of computer games," including computer graphics, game physics and human-computer interaction. Code 11.0701, Computer Science, focuses on "computer theory, computing problems and solutions, and the design of computer systems."

What the curricula look like side by side

DePaul University offers both degrees in the same college, which makes a fair comparison. Both are 192 quarter hours, and both can end in the same two-course game development capstone.

The game design degree still teaches scripting, because designers often build prototypes and gameplay logic themselves. The game programming degree goes into the systems underneath: optimized C++, rendering and engine architecture.

Dedicated game programming degrees

Several schools award a degree with "game programming" or a similar engineering title:

• Champlain College's BS in Game Programming covers AI behaviors, game physics, game architecture and 2D/3D rendering, including a course that takes "a shaders-first dive into modern computer graphics programming." Students work with other game disciplines in a studio environment.
• Shawnee State University's BS in Game Programming, in the Department of Engineering Technology, requires 14 credit hours of mathematics and 33 of Simulation and Gaming Engineering beyond general education; students "build engines and operating-system level components."
• DigiPen Institute of Technology's BS in Computer Science in Real-Time Interactive Simulation (134 credits) starts with C and C++ and has students build a custom game engine from scratch in the second year.

These degrees name games in the title and organize most of the major around them. You can see more on our game programming field page.

Computer science degrees with a game concentration

Another route is a standard computer science degree with a named game track. The diploma says computer science, not game design or game programming, and the game courses are a slice of a larger CS major. Examples from our research:

• DePaul's BS in Computer Science, Game Systems Concentration, adds real-time networking, rendering and two game engine programming courses to the CS core.
• Indiana University Bloomington's BS in Computer Science, Game Development Specialization, requires Introduction to Game Programming and Game Development in computer science plus Introduction to Games, Game Production I and Game Design I from the Media School, and a two-semester senior project.
• University of Utah's BS in Computer Science with the Entertainment Arts and Engineering emphasis adds Intro to Game Design, Asset Pipeline and two game development courses to the full CS core.
• Brigham Young University's Computer Science (BS) Animation and Games Emphasis is limited-enrollment; students collaborate each year with Animation BFA students on an animated film and a game.

Some schools blur the line with dedicated degrees that carry a CS award. USC's Bachelor of Science in Computer Science (Games) is a 128-unit program in the Viterbi School of Engineering that adds a 16-unit game development core, taught with the School of Cinematic Arts, to the CS core. UC Santa Cruz's BS in Computer Science: Computer Game Design combines a CS and computer engineering core with game design courses and a two-quarter Rapid Prototyping and Game Design Studio sequence.

Which is better depends on what you want the degree to say. A CS award signals a broad computing education; a game programming award signals focus. For the broader occupation, the BLS notes that software developers "typically need a bachelor's degree in computer and information technology or a related field."

Math and programming prerequisites as published

Programming-side programs are more likely to publish math and GPA gates. What we found on official pages:

• Utah (CS, EAE emphasis): pre-major courses CS 1400, CS 1410 and CS 2420 (minimum B-) and Calculus I, and a minimum 3.0 GPA overall and in major prerequisites to apply for full major status.
• UC Santa Cruz: a 2.8 GPA in the foundation courses to qualify for the major; transfer students must complete calculus, discrete mathematics and programming screening courses.
• USC: university and Viterbi requirements that include 3 to 5 units of mathematics and one unit of science.
• BYU: prerequisite courses including Intro to Computer Science and Data Structures, then admission to the program, which involves a portfolio review.
• Champlain: no portfolio for Game Programming; the college suggests high-level math such as calculus and languages such as Python and Java, while noting some students "may start with no programming experience."
• DigiPen: its computer science bachelor's degrees "do not require a portfolio or additional requirements."

Design degrees vary more. DigiPen's BA in Game Design requires an introductory programming course (CS 116 or CS 120), while the University of Arizona says its BA in Game Design is built "without the need for extensive knowledge in computer programming." For a fuller survey, see do you need coding skills for game design?

Careers and pay: read the numbers carefully

There is no BLS occupation called "game programmer" or "game designer." The closest match for programming is Software developers, quality assurance analysts, and testers, whose 2025 median pay the Occupational Outlook Handbook lists as $134,040 per year, with employment projected to grow 10% from 2025 to 2035. Those figures cover the entire occupation, including developers of every kind of software. They are not what game programming graduates earn, and they are not a promised outcome of any degree.

How to choose

Pick a game design program if you want to spend most of your time on mechanics, levels, narrative and playtesting, and are comfortable doing some scripting. Pick a game programming degree if engines, graphics and performance interest you most and you are ready for a math-heavy sequence. Pick a CS degree with a game concentration if you want game coursework without narrowing the diploma. If you are still deciding, start with game design vs game development, then browse the bachelor's directory.