Engineering... in computer games?

<p>To answer your question, it is very easy to have a say in game design as a programmer, much more so than an artist or a sound engineer. You can basically influence game design through your programming. It’s not the most direct way to go about it, but you will have some say at least. Plus, if you end up working in a company like Valve or working independently (which is huge right now), you will have an opportunity to be directly involved in game design. Software engineering is usually more focused on architecture and the like. This is good if you want to build game engines, but to really make games, computer science is the better choice. I would say that it is better to stick to being a programmer, as this opens up your options and gives you indirect creative control in almost everything you do. Game design is very limiting, and you will be sort of stuck. that being said, UCSC has a great game design department with some big names like Brenda Brathwaite.</p>