<p>I’m a student in game design. I don’t think UCI has picked up a game design program yettt but I know they’re trying to.</p>
<p>Anyhow, difference between CS:GD and CS vanilla. The capstone project is a major difference. In GD you take a set three-quarter sequence your senior year and make a game (in groups) that is polished enough to be published. For CS, you take a capstone course. Single quarter, usually.</p>
<p>In CS, you’re very concentrated on engineering classes. In GD, you get to spread out a little bit into art/music/film/econ/theater depending on which you choose. In GD you have fewer solid upper div requirements. More electives to choose from, basically.</p>
<p>What Kender says is somewhat true. We have some people in here that absolutely rock at programming, but have little knack for art/music/design. This is not a problem if you are a programmer, as artists can often be recruited from outside of class. You’re HIGHLY valuable if you are good at both art and programming. However, do not expect to survive in the major if you don’t at least enjoy programming. Most of the people I have seen drop out of game design have been in that position. They didn’t like programming, and just wanted the design/art role. </p>
<p>We get a lot of companies recruiting on campus to try to get our GD students before they graduate. Blizzard, EA, and Zynga to name some big ones. Also many local studios. Regular software companies are just as common on that front.</p>