Top Game Design Colleges in Florida

The Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy at the University of Central Florida offers an immersive, interactive and project-based game design program leading to a Master of Science in Interactive Entertainment.

Students work collaboratively as a team of programmers, producers and artists on real-world projects - all with the guidance of world-renowned faculty.

The Master of Science in Interactive Entertainment has three tracks:

• Producer
• Artist
• Programmer

Depending on the chosen track, courses may include game design, technical design, 3D art, animation, AI programming and graphics programming.

Each track allows students to gain hands-on experience through their capstone project.

Here at FIEA, our capstone is the creation of a full game over multiple semesters, where you will go through the entire development cycle: preproduction, production, alpha, beta. Many students decide to publish their capstone games through various avenues, such as Steam or Xbox, earning their first published title.

UCF

Graduates have worked with numerous companies, including:

• Nintendo
• Microsoft Studios
• Google
• Unity
• Pop Cap
• Sony
• Marvel
• Lockheed Martin

Full Sail University offers many game design degrees, which include an associate's program, two certificates, five bachelor's (which include bachelor's completion programs), and a master's degree.

The bachelor's degrees are in:

• Simulation & Visualization
• Game Business & Esports
• Interactive Technology – Game Design Concentration
• Visual Arts – Game Art Concentration
• Game Development

The Associate of Applied Science in Game Art is available to take on-campus or online.

It is made to be combined with their Bachelor of Science in Visual Arts - Concentration in Game Art.

This degree is a bachelor's completion program which can be completed in 29 months.

Courses include:

• Model Creation
• 3-D Foundations
• Game Characters
• Game Animation

This program includes seven Career Modules (each Module is worth one credit), that are woven into the classes, intended to help students transition from college to their career in the game design industry.

The online Bachelor of Science in Game Development focuses on four major topics:

• production methodologies
• project management
• team leadership
• game capstone project

Production methodologies teaches students concepts from computer code to color theory. Project management covers areas of software production, including asset management and quality assurance.

Full Sail also offers career development advisers to help students find employment after graduating.

Keiser University offers a Bachelor of Science in Animation and Game Design.

This program is available at these campuses: Flagship Residential Campus and the Pembroke Pines Campus.

Credits required: 120 credit hours

Courses include:

• 3D Animation Techniques
• Character Texturing
• Environmental Modeling
• Character Modeling
• Mobile Application Development

This degree is mostly suited to game designers who want to work in the artistic side of game creation - creating the characters, environments, and any other artistic aspects of the industry. Students learn programming languages, level design, animation, and storytelling.

Jacksonville University offers a Bachelor of Science in Game Design.

This degree is interdisciplinary, and involves the departments of Computer Science and Media Arts.

Students learn relevant creative and technical aspects of developing games for mobile, console, and virtual and augmented reality game creation.

Minor in Game Design

University of Miami offers a Minor in Game Design through its Department of Interactive Media.

Credits required: 15 credit hours

Courses include:

• Introduction to Game Studies
• Designing Games for Impact
• Introduction to Game Design
• Video Game Spectatorship and Esports
• Building Virtual Worlds

Students in this Game Design Minor have access to the labs:

• Emerging Media Lab - digital games
• XR Studio - virtual and augmented reality
• User Experience (UX) Lab
• The New Experience Research & Design Lab (NERDLab) - game studio for social projects

Florida Gateway College offers an on-campus College Credit Certificate in Video Game Design.

Credits required: 24 credit hours

This 24-credit hour program is designed for students who are interested in working in the game development industry. Students will learn the basic process of creating a video game from beginning to end. This includes brainstorming an idea, designing gameplay, writing a game design document, and creating animations and digital art. They will also be given the opportunity to create a small original game.

Florida Gateway College

Graduates of this certificate program have been accepted into the Game Design program at the University of Central Florida (ranked #1 on our list).