It takes more than playing games well to design games. Art schools are offering many serious degrees for serious students.

Sitting at their Xbox battling to reach the next level, eighth graders Tristin and Matthew can be overheard speaking of their future as videogame designers. However for these two intrepid, and totally fictitious young people, the reality is that designing videogames is not the same as playing them.

“When I speak to high school students I try to explain that when you make games, yes you play games but that is not the focus of your work,” says Eric Kozlowsky, who has his Bachelors in game art and design from the Art Institute of Phoenix, from his New York home. “And while it is an exciting career, it is work, a discipline and with that come s a lot of responsibility which does not include a lot of game play — at least not in the office.”

Kozlowsky is a recent graduate from the Art Institute of Phoenix, where his talents as an artist where enhanced by hours of practical art, drawing, graphics and computer application and humanities course studies designed to make him an “in-demand” individual on today’s videogame job market.

The videogame industry has grown to an $11 billion a year juggernaut, eclipsing all other forms of media entertainment and creating the demand for a significantly large work force.

In 2006, while announcing their new B.S. and M.S. computer science game degrees, the University of Southern California predicted that work force is expected to double by 2007 with those positions being made up of 65% programmers, 30% artists and 5% designers.

According to USC computer science department chair Gérard Medioni of the Information Sciences Institute, “Beyond their creative element, videogames offer a major challenge in bringing together numerous core areas of advanced computer science, including artificial intelligence, graphical interfaces, modeling, algorithm design and, of course, programming,” he suggests. “These programs are good academics.”

The Bureau of Labor confirms that computer software engineers, which includes videogame developers for consoles, PC and handhelds, is one of the fastest growing occupations with “very good opportunities expected for college graduates with at least a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering or science and with practical work experience.”

Their prediction is 67.9% growth between now and 2012.

And that is the long, and short, truth to entering into the videogame industry — an industry where starting jobs have beginning salaries in the high $40-to $50k a year, in comparison to other industries where the average graduate with a bachelors of arts degree will command in the $30k.

Eric Kozlowsky tries to impress on high school students that work, discipline and responsibility are necessary to make it in the gaming design world. Necromorph © 2006 Eric Kozlowsky.

This is good news for Kozlowsky and those who are similarly motivated. However, as in any career, students must begin preparing well before college admission forms are being completed. Not everyone is equipped for the rigors of pursuing an advanced art or computer science degree.

“I knew from watching games such as Diablo, WarCraft and Final Fantasy, that if I could learn the cinematics maybe I could get into games, but still lacked some direction on how to achieve that knowledge,” adds Kozlowsky. “Then I read about the Art Institute of Phoenix and their game art and design courses, a curriculum that would allow me to learn what I needed to work in the gaming industry.”

The Art Institute of Phoenix joins hundreds of other universities and institutes in offering Bachelors and Associates in Arts Degrees in videogame design and videogame programming.

Schools range from ITT Technical Institutes and the many Art Institutes located in Chicago, Phoenix, Philadelphia and elsewhere across the U.S. and Canada. There is also the Digital Media Arts College, Boca Raton, Florida and the Minnesota School of Business. One of the first technical institutes to focus strictly on preparing students for work in interactive media is DigiPen Institute of Technology, Redmond, Washington.

DigiPen, IT offers degrees in mathematics, science and engineering, including a Bachelor of Science in Real-Time interactive simulation, Bachelor of Science in computer engineering and Master of Science in computer science. Art and animation degrees include Associate of Applied Arts in 3D computer animation and Bachelor of Fine Arts in production animation.

At Savannah College of Art and Design, the Interactive Design and Game Development degree program includes courses for a Bachelor in Fine Arts, Master of Arts and Master of Fine Arts.

All these school have one thing in common: They offer serious degrees for serious students. Their programs require students be passionate about art and/or computer science and its application in the videogame industry.