Program of Study: Computer Information Technology

Game Development

Today's computers—growing more powerful each year—do more than change how we shop, learn, conduct business or spend free time. In the Digital Age, computers continue to create job opportunities in the U.S., despite the trends to outsource certain jobs to other countries. From programming to PC technician to game development, you'll find many rewarding opportunities that tap your technical skills, creativity—or both.

Creating the next generation of
fun and interactive learning

In this exciting, fast-changing career, you’ll design game concepts and write codes—for computer games and for learning modules used in schools or training programs. In the planning stages, your team may come up with a short summary of the game. Then, refine those ideas and develop characters or ways to implement actions within the game. Later, create special effects, animation, video clips or other visual images to bring the game to life.

In this very team-oriented career, you make things happen! You’ll work with computer graphics artists and 3-D animators who create characters, scenery, graphics and special effects. In addition, sound-effects technicians and composers create the music and voice-overs. Finally, game testers play the game at different stages of production. They make sure that the game is free of dead spots and other "bugs," and offer recommendations to make the game more enjoyable or educational.

What are the typical job titles?

Most graduates begin as game programmers or game designers. Specialties within the field include: graphics programming, gameplay programming, sound programming, user interface programming, artificial intelligence programming, game tool programming and scripting. Game programmers take the ideas generated by the design team and translate them into code that gives the software its operating instructions. With experience, you can advance to lead game programmer or lead game designer. In addition, a graduate can find work as a video game engineer, level designer or game tester. Many become self-employed as consultants.

What kind of salary can you earn?

The annual salary ranges for software applications engineers ranged from $50,380 to $116,700, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) for the Chicago area. (The BLS does not collect salary data specifically for game developers.) As with any occupation, the salary can vary greatly by employer size, industry, employee credentials, years of experience, location and other factors.

What are the job prospects?

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment of software applications engineers is expected to increase much faster than average from 2006 to 2016.

View the game development info sheet.