Co-op Required
Salary and Career Info
Game Design and Development BS
RIT is ranked 3rd among top universities in the world for students who want to study and create games, according to the 2023 international rankings from The Princeton Review.
Program skills
By the end of the 2nd year, students will have worked individually and collaboratively in C#, Unity, and C++, developing a portfolio of games and prototypes. Students continue in their 3rd and 4th years using and building game engines using a variety of tools and programming languages. Courses cover game physics, tools development, graphics APIs, software practices, mobile development, advanced systems concepts, console development, production, and other specialties that students can choose.
Program facilities equipment
Students can access facilities found throughout the College of Computing and the MAGIC building. These labs are equipped with a variety hardware from Alienware® to ensure a mix of several processor types, hardware configurations, the Adobe® and Autodesk® production suites, the Android Studio IDE, MacOS computer hardware, the Xcode IDE, graphics boards from competing vendors in a true development and testing environment, and other industry standard development tools.
Program job titles
Associate Front End Engineer; Associate Game Designer; Associate UI Engineer; Developer; Engineer Programmer; Game Designer; Game Developer; Junior Software Engineer; Level Designer; Mobile Developer; Programmer; Quality Assurance Engineer; Software Developer; Software Development Engineer; Software Engineer; Tech Artist; UI/UX Designer; Web Developer
Select program hiring partners
Rockstar Games; IBM; Zynga; ZKX Solutions; Wolfjaw Studios; Wizards of the Coast; Webstaurant Store; Vicarious Visions/blizzard; Vendr, LLC.; Ubisoft; TwinHats LLC; Technergetics; Tata Consultancy Services; Storm Flag Games; Solu Technology Partners; Samsung Research America, Inc.; Samsung Austin Semiconductor; Rec Room; Novus Labs; Northrop Grumman; Motion Logic Studios; MITRE; Mindex; Microsoft; MahiGaming; M&T Bank; L3Harris Technologies; IDI Billing Solutions; id Tech Camps; Hewlett Packard; Great Lakes Gaming; Forbes Media, LLC; Epic Systems Corporation; Electronic Arts; Comcast NBC Universal; Collins Aerospace; American Greetings
86.52%
Outcome Rates for Game Design and Development BS
Total percentage of graduates who have entered the workforce, enrolled in full-time graduate study, or are pursuing alternative plans (military service, volunteering, etc.).
76.07%
Knowledge Rate
Total percentage of graduates for whom RIT has verifiable data, compared to national average knowledge rate of 41% per NACE.
| Outcome | % of Students |
|---|---|
| Employed | 84.27% |
| Full-time Graduate Study | 2.25% |
| Alternative Plans | 0% |
Experiential Learning
Cooperative Education
What’s different about an RIT education? It’s the career experience you gain by completing cooperative education and internships with top companies in every single industry. You’ll earn more than a degree. You’ll gain real-world career experience that sets you apart. It’s exposure–early and often–to a variety of professional work environments, career paths, and industries.
Co-ops and internships take your knowledge and turn it into know-how. Your computing co-ops will provide hands-on experience that enables you to apply your computing knowledge in professional settings while you make valuable connections between classwork and real-world applications.
Students in the game design degree are required to complete two blocks of cooperative education experience.
Creative Industry Day
RIT’s Office of Career Services and Cooperative Education hosts Creative Industry Day, which connects students majoring in art, design, film and animation, photography, and select computing majors with companies, organizations, creative agencies, design firms, and more. You’ll be able to network with company representatives and interview directly for open co-op and permanent employment positions.