October 30, 2018

About RIT’s School of Interactive Games and Media

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RIT’s School of Interactive Games and Media (IGM), housed within the Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences, offers one of the largest and consistently highest ranked game design and development programs in the world.

According to 2018 international rankings from The Princeton Review, RIT’s game design and development program was ranked fifth at the undergraduate level and seventh at the graduate level. RIT has been ranked among The Princeton Review’s list of top schools for video game design for more than 10 years. For more information on the Top Schools for Game Design 2018, go to princetonreview.com/college-rankings/game-design.

RIT has been a pioneer in the field of video game design and development education, as one of the first universities in the nation to begin offering academic courses in game programming in the early 2000s. Today, IGM faculty, staff and students work with the MAGIC Center to bring ideas from prototype to commercial production in the marketplace. Graduates of RIT’s game design and development programs go on to work at companies including Microsoft, Rockstar Games, Sony Interactive Entertainment, Valve Corp. and Walt Disney Interactive.

Degree programs in the school include:

  • Bachelor’s degree in game design and development — The degree provides a broad-based undergraduate education in computing while exposing students to the breadth of game design and development processes.  It is intended for students that aspire to hold careers within the professional games industry or a related field, such as simulation, edutainment or visualization.
  • Master’s degree in game design and development — The degree focuses on the technical roots in the computing and information sciences disciplines while simultaneously covering the breadth of the development landscape through involvement in topics including computer graphics, game engines, interactive narrative and game world design. The degree culminates with a capstone project in which students create their own games.
  • Bachelor’s degree in new media interactive development — The degree allows students to develop and design software for the internet, mobile devices, social networks, wearable computing and more. The major integrates strong programming skills with math, design and communication skills essential for creative, digital media development.