10 Fastest Online Game Design Degree Bachelor’s Programs

Key Infor­ma­tion:

• Lewis Uni­ver­si­ty and Lin­den­wood Uni­ver­si­ty are two top online bach­e­lor’s in game design degrees.
• Fastest online game design bachelor’s pro­grams offer flex­i­ble sched­ules, allow­ing stu­dents to grad­u­ate quickly.
• These pro­grams focus on key areas such as game devel­op­ment, ani­ma­tion, and inter­ac­tive design. Many pro­grams pro­vide hands-on learn­ing through projects and intern­ships, enhanc­ing prac­ti­cal skills. 
• Accred­it­ed insti­tu­tions ensure the qual­i­ty of edu­ca­tion, and some pro­grams offer spe­cial­iza­tions in areas like game art, pro­gram­ming, and production. 
• Grad­u­ates are pre­pared for var­i­ous roles in the gam­ing indus­try, such as game design­ers, devel­op­ers, and ani­ma­tors.

With world­wide earn­ings of more than $100 bil­lion, video games are an indus­try in a long boom that shows no signs of stop­ping. In fact, sim­u­la­tion and gam­i­fi­ca­tion train­ing are often imple­ment­ed with­in more tra­di­tion­al fields like edu­ca­tion, busi­ness, med­i­cine, and even mil­i­tary sci­ence. Obtain­ing an online game devel­op­ment degree in the game design indus­try is ripe with oppor­tu­ni­ties for those focus­ing on e‑learning or game-based learning.

Orig­i­nal­ly pub­lished: Novem­ber 2022
Revised/Updated: Jan­u­ary 2024

Whether you’re a high school grad­u­ate plan­ning for your future, or a work­ing adult already in the video game field, a bachelor’s degree in game design or devel­op­ment could be a good invest­ment for a career beyond the entry-level.

Plen­ty of con­ven­tion­al 4‑year degree pro­grams are avail­able, but work­ing pro­fes­sion­als hop­ing to change careers or enhance their cur­rent careers with a bachelor’s degree are turn­ing more and more to online programs. 

These are busy peo­ple who prob­a­bly already have asso­ciate degrees, cer­ti­fi­ca­tions, and col­lege cours­es for trans­fer, so there’s an excel­lent chance that they can com­plete a bachelor’s degree in short order. That’s where the Bachelor’s Degree Cen­ter’s Fastest Online Game Devel­op­ment Degree rank­ing comes in.

Methodology: Ranking the Fastest Online Game Development Degree Programs

To rank the fastest accred­it­ed online bachelor’s in-game design pro­grams, Bachelor’s Degree Cen­ter edi­tors looked for ful­ly online and hybrid pro­grams that pro­vid­ed a vari­ety of ways for stu­dents to speed up their bachelor’s. Those includ­ed accel­er­at­ed cours­es, gen­er­ous trans­fer cred­its, cred­it for expe­ri­ence, place­ment exams, and more.

Speed isn’t our only cri­te­ri­on, though; after all, who’s to say a pro­gram that takes 9 months is bet­ter than one that takes 24 months? So in addi­tion to a quick com­ple­tion time, we ranked pro­grams accord­ing to five factors: 

• Cost
• Grad­u­a­tion Rate
• Job Place­ment
• Alum­ni Salary
• Rep­u­ta­tion

1. Lewis University

At Lewis Uni­ver­si­ty, the online BS in Com­put­er Sci­ence for Game and Sim­u­la­tion Pro­gram­ming is shap­ing tomor­row’s future game developers. 

The game design degree pro­grams help stu­dents with spe­cial­iza­tions in sev­en core con­cen­tra­tions. Each spe­cial­ty teach­es the stu­dent the skills and the nec­es­sary exper­tise of the com­put­er gam­ing industry. 

How­ev­er, the Game and Sim­u­la­tion pro­gram­ming con­cen­tra­tion pro­vides stu­dents with the skill to pro­gram real­is­tic sim­u­la­tions of real process­es. Stud­ies include: 

• Com­put­er Science
• Data Sci­ence
• Infor­ma­tion Security

In addi­tion, tuition costs are very afford­able for students.

The Lewis Uni­ver­si­ty cam­pus is locat­ed in Romeoville, IL. The Uni­ver­si­ty, found­ed in 1932, is a com­pre­hen­sive school with a diverse stu­dent body. The col­lege has an accel­er­at­ed degree for­mat that helps stu­dents achieve their online bach­e­lor’s in game design faster. 

Lewis Uni­ver­si­ty also pro­motes a “4+1 Bach­e­lors to Mas­ters pro­gram” option, mean­ing, instead of a two-year pro­gram, it will only take stu­dents one year to com­plete their master’s.

Degree: BS in Com­put­er Sci­ence — Game and Sim­u­la­tion Pro­gram­ming
For­mat: Online — accelerated

2. Lindenwood University

Lin­den­wood University’s BA in Game Design offers a chance to devel­op skills in the gam­ing indus­try. Foun­da­tion class­es include sto­ry­telling and char­ac­ter devel­op­ment, with a par­tic­u­lar focus on usabil­i­ty and aesthetics. 

The online course is 120 cred­its, with 84 being trans­ferrable cred­its. Sev­er­al cours­es include: 

• Game Devel­op­ment
• Con­cept Design
• 3D Ani­ma­tion

Many grad­u­ates of the degree go on to become game design­ers, game pro­gram­mers, or game artists with­in the com­put­er graph­ics indus­try. Tuition for the bach­e­lor’s in game design is rea­son­able for most students.

Lin­den­wood Uni­ver­si­ty, found­ed in 1827, has a low stu­dent-to-fac­ul­ty ratio of 12:1. The accel­er­at­ed degrees avail­able are sev­en under­grad­u­ates and sev­en grad­u­ate pro­grams. Known as the Lions, the col­lege has sev­er­al clubs and orga­ni­za­tions for stu­dent social involvement. 

In the com­pet­i­tive field of game design, the medi­an salary is around $149,118, mak­ing the cre­ative indus­try worth the effort.

Degree: BA in Game Design
For­mat: Online — trans­fer 84 credits

3. University of Advancing Technology

The Uni­ver­si­ty of Advanc­ing Tech­nol­o­gy online BA in Game Design pro­gram is ful­ly accred­it­ed and avail­able online. Cours­es are heav­ing on col­lab­o­ra­tion, prepar­ing stu­dents for the mod­ern video game devel­op­ment process. Cours­es include: 

• Game Script­ing for Designers
• Game Devel­op­ment
• Game Pro­duc­tiv­i­ty Studies

The game design degree pro­gram at UAT has 120 cred­its with­in its pro­gram; how­ev­er, 90 cred­its can be trans­fer cred­its. The cost of tuition is afford­able to most stu­dents. Many stu­dents who receive a bach­e­lor’s degree, go on to a dual master’s degree as well.

UAT is a pri­vate tech­nol­o­gy school with a low stu­dent-to-fac­ul­ty ratio. The Uni­ver­si­ty is locat­ed in Tempe, AZ, and is one of the top tech­nol­o­gy col­leges in the nation. The Uni­ver­si­ty of Advanc­ing Tech­nol­o­gy offers many oppor­tu­ni­ties for game design majors. Some majors that may coin­cide with the Bach­e­lor’s in Game Design degree at UAT are cyber­se­cu­ri­ty, com­put­er sci­ence, and dig­i­tal mak­ing and fab­ri­ca­tion degrees.

Degree: BA in Game Design
For­mat: Online — trans­fer 90 credits

4. Southern New Hampshire University

South­ern New Hamp­shire Uni­ver­si­ty offers two online game devel­op­ment degree programs: 

• BS in Game Pro­gram­ming & Development
• BA in Game Art & Development 

Both degrees con­sist of cours­es in 3D mod­el­ing, Dig­i­tal imag­ing or paint­ing, and Inter­ac­tive Animation. 

For stu­dents who are inter­est­ed in graph­ic arts, then the BA in Game Art and devel­op­ment is a bet­ter choice. Those who want to learn more about soft­ware appli­ca­tions, then the BS in game pro­gram­ming and devel­op­ment is the right choice. 

For an online game devel­op­ment degree, these two pro­grams will pro­vide the nec­es­sary skills to equip each stu­dent in this tech-savvy world. Skills include writ­ing, com­mu­ni­ca­tion, analy­sis, and prob­lem-solv­ing. The degree has 120 cred­its in its pro­gram, with up to 90 avail­able as trans­fer cred­its. SNHU is also a very afford­able non­prof­it university.

Found­ed in 1932 in Man­ches­ter, NH, SNHU was cre­at­ed to train book­keep­ers in the­o­ry and meth­ods of account­ing. In 1941, class­es were open to ser­vice mem­bers in the mil­i­tary. As time went on, new majors were added for stu­dents to choose and become skilled in over the next sev­er­al decades. 

By 2002, 40 per­cent of all online enrollees were mil­i­tary stu­dents. Today there are over 300 pro­grams avail­able online and on-cam­pus. (snhu.edu)

Degree: BS in Game Pro­gram­ming & Devel­op­ment or BA in Game Art & Devel­op­ment
For­mat: Online — trans­fer 90 credits

5. Liberty University

Lib­er­ty Uni­ver­si­ty’s BS in Infor­ma­tion Tech­nol­o­gy Gam­ing Design con­cen­tra­tion applies a stu­den­t’s pas­sion for gam­ing to a sat­is­fy­ing career. 

The game design degree pro­grams offer com­put­er tech­nol­o­gy appli­ca­tions, graph­ic design, and pro­gram­ming skills that help each stu­dent suc­ceed in the world of tech­nol­o­gy by pro­vid­ing real-world expe­ri­ence in game design. The degree is a 120-cred­it pro­gram with sev­en­ty-five cred­its avail­able as transfers. 

The online game devel­op­ment degree at Lib­er­ty cre­ates strong career paths for stu­dents inter­est­ed in sev­er­al super­vi­so­ry posi­tions. For example: 

• Video Game Designer
• Cre­ative Director
• Graph­ics Director
• Mobile User Inter­face Designer
• Soft­ware Programmer

Tuition costs at Lib­er­ty are rea­son­ably priced for most stu­dents. How­ev­er, mil­i­tary ser­vice­men and women are eli­gi­ble for a tuition dis­count. Lib­er­ty Uni­ver­si­ty, found­ed in 1971 by Rev. Jer­ry Fal­well, is an accred­it­ed evan­gel­i­cal lib­er­al arts insti­tu­tion. It has six­teen col­leges and schools, with over 550 pro­grams avail­able to stu­dents. Their mot­to: Train­ing Cham­pi­ons for Christ.

Degree: BS in Infor­ma­tion Tech­nol­o­gy — Gam­ing Design
For­mat: Online — trans­fer 75 credits

6. Franklin University

The Franklin Uni­ver­si­ty BS in Inter­ac­tive Media Design pro­motes an online game devel­op­ment degree with a project-based cur­ricu­lum. The pro­gram trains each stu­dent with gen­er­al stud­ies of spread­sheets and data­bas­es at first. 

As time moves for­ward, knowl­edge in web design, research writ­ing, and flash ani­ma­tion is intro­duced. By the end of the course, the stu­dent will be pro­fi­cient in inter­ac­tive media, dig­i­tal media, adver­tis­ing, and com­mu­ni­ca­tions. The degree is a 120-cred­it pro­gram with 36 cred­its in the Game design specialty.

Franklin Uni­ver­si­ty is an afford­able col­lege that is about fifty-three per­cent cheap­er than the aver­age nation­al, pri­vate four-year col­lege. The school also offers a mil­i­tary dis­count to all ser­vice mem­bers of the armed forces. Found­ed over 115 years ago, the col­lege is locat­ed in Colum­bus, Ohio, and is known as one of the largest pri­vate uni­ver­si­ties in the State. 

Franklin also part­ners with over 230 com­mu­ni­ty and tech­ni­cal col­leges through­out the nation to increase grad­u­a­tion rates, invest in com­mu­ni­ties, and deliv­er pro­fes­sion­al devel­op­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties to the fac­ul­ty and staff.

Degree: BS in Inter­ac­tive Media Design
For­mat: Online — transfer

7. Full Sail University

For those who have a pas­sion for becom­ing the next best game devel­op­er, then Full Sail Uni­ver­si­ty’s BS in Game Design is the right choice. 

The online game devel­op­ment degree will pro­vide each stu­dent with game design fun­da­men­tals and intro­duce key indus­try con­cepts on sys­tems and lev­el designs that pre­pare stu­dents with pro­to­typ­ing and game balancing. 

The degree is avail­able on-cam­pus and online. This is also an accel­er­at­ed BS degree, tak­ing the aver­age stu­dent only 29 months to complete.

Full Sail is locat­ed con­ve­nient­ly just min­utes from Walt Dis­ney World and Uni­ver­sal Stu­dios, mak­ing this a great place for learn­ing about game design and devel­op­ment. Full Sail is an accred­it­ed uni­ver­si­ty, com­mis­sioned by the Depart­ment of Edu­ca­tion. It pro­vides real-world expe­ri­ences to stu­dents in prepar­ing them for a career path designed in media, arts, tech­nol­o­gy, and entertainment.

Degree: BS in Game Design
For­mat: On-cam­pus or online — 29 months

8. Davenport University

Dav­en­port Uni­ver­si­ty offers a BS in Com­put­er Sci­ence with a con­cen­tra­tion in Gam­ing and Sim­u­la­tion. The degree’s mot­to is “Cap­i­tal­ize on your tech­nol­o­gy skills.” 

For stu­dents who are com­put­er gurus, then a bach­e­lor’s degree in game design may be just the right choice. The degree is avail­able online and on cam­pus. Stu­dents can earn cred­it for cer­ti­fi­ca­tions through this pro­gram as well. Cours­es include: 

• Advances in Biometrics
• Arti­fi­cial Intelligence
• Soft­ware Engineering 

The degree is a 120-cred­it course, with 42 cred­its in the gam­ing con­cen­tra­tion. For stu­dents on active duty or retired from the mil­i­tary, a twen­ty per­cent dis­count is available.

Dav­en­port Uni­ver­si­ty has opened its doors and taught stu­dents for the past 150 years. Grand Rapids, MI is where it all start­ed; how­ev­er, it has cam­pus­es through­out the Mid­west. Tuition at Dav­en­port is mod­er­ate­ly afford­able, and the school offers schol­ar­ships to those who are eli­gi­ble.

Degree: BS in Com­put­er Sci­ence — Gam­ing and Sim­u­la­tion
For­mat: Online — cred­it for cer­ti­fi­ca­tions, mil­i­tary service

9. Middle Georgia State University

The BS in Infor­ma­tion Tech­nol­o­gy at Mid­dle Geor­gia State Uni­ver­si­ty comes with sev­en con­cen­tra­tions, Inte­grat­ed Dig­i­tal Media and Gam­ing Design is one of these spe­cial­ties designed for the online game devel­op­ment degree programs. 

Tak­ing the CLEP or DSST exams, which are equiv­a­lent to forty cred­it hours, allows the stu­dent to fin­ish school faster as well. The over­all tuition costs are afford­able and some schol­ar­ships are avail­able to eli­gi­ble stu­dents. The col­lege also offers cred­it for pri­or learning.

The col­lege was named one of the most afford­able col­leges in the nation as well. For­mal­ly called Macon State Uni­ver­si­ty, MGSU is now one of Geor­gia’s newest and old­est col­leges. Their four core val­ues are Stew­ard­ship, Engage­ment, Adap­tiv­i­ty, and Learning.

Degree: BS in Infor­ma­tion Tech­nol­o­gy — Inte­grat­ed Dig­i­tal Media and Gam­ing Design
For­mat: Online — trans­fer, test out, pri­or learn­ing credits

10. Rasmussen College

Ras­mussen Col­lege has a BA in Graph­ic Design that puts cre­ativ­i­ty and inspi­ra­tion to the test. The graph­ic design degree at Ras­mussen is one that stu­dents should not pass up. The pro­gram offers each stu­dent two spe­cial­iza­tions that may be valu­able to game designers: 

• Ani­ma­tion and Motion Graphics
• Web and Inter­ac­tive Design

The online degree also is accom­plished with­in thir­ty-six months through the Flex­choice option, a way to com­bine tra­di­tion­al class­es and self-direct­ed assign­ments as one. Cours­es in the cur­ricu­lum include: 

• 2D and 3D Modeling
• Motion Graph­ics
• Dig­i­tal Spe­cial Effects
• Char­ac­ter Modeling

Tuition at Ras­mussen Col­lege is very afford­able, and schol­ar­ships are avail­able as well. The col­lege is locat­ed in Still­wa­ter, MI. The Uni­ver­si­ty offers sev­en schools. It is also a region­al­ly accred­it­ed insti­tu­tion. As part of the tech­ni­cal school, the graph­ics design degree is ful­ly avail­able online.

Degree: BA in Graph­ic Design — Ani­ma­tion and Motion Graph­ics
For­mat: Online — 36 months

Is an Online Game Development Degree or Local Game Design Program Better?

For some­one inter­est­ed in get­ting a degree in Game Design, there are two choic­es: apply­ing to an online school or tak­ing class­es at an on-cam­pus uni­ver­si­ty. Each choice has pros and cons. For an online game design degree, there are sev­er­al advantages. 

Many stu­dents choose online because of the flex­i­bil­i­ty to learn at their own pace, log in and out any­time they want and have either a part-time or full-time course load. All from the com­fort of home. 

Online learn­ing can also be very con­ve­nient, espe­cial­ly for the stu­dent who needs to work a full-time job while going to school. Many schools may also pro­vide online men­tor­ing. How­ev­er, the hours avail­able may not coin­cide with your time schedule.

The cons of online learn­ing are few, although impor­tant. Some instruc­tors have an avail­abil­i­ty issue of when they can assist stu­dents online. For instance, If you email a ques­tion about a project or assign­ment to the teacher, you may not get a response for a num­ber of hours, some­times not till the next day. This can be an ugly incon­ve­nience if the stu­dent has a due date for the project you need help with.

Just like the online option, the on-cam­pus choice also has both advan­tages and dis­ad­van­tages. The pros to a local school or uni­ver­si­ty are sim­ple: face-to-face com­mu­ni­ca­tion, on-cam­pus com­put­er labs, tutoring/mentoring options, and close dis­cus­sions with the teacher up front. 

How­ev­er, there are some cons to being on cam­pus. For one, the cost of tuition. Unless liv­ing with par­ents is still an option, room and board can be very expen­sive for a col­lege stu­dent. In addi­tion, some com­put­er labs only have a cer­tain num­ber of com­put­ers to use, so there is a chance of wait­ing your turn to get in/on.

What If I Don’t Want a Full Degree?

There is a chance to advance in a career in game design with­out receiv­ing a degree. By earn­ing a cer­tifi­cate in game design or game devel­op­ment, the stu­dent will learn the basic foun­da­tions of the field, includ­ing com­put­er graph­ics. Stu­dents will need to have basic com­put­er knowl­edge, under­stand algo­rithms, and com­pre­hend dif­fer­ent forms of math­e­mat­ics; for instance, alge­bra, trigonom­e­try, and calculus.

Many required cours­es include game research meth­ods, ani­ma­tion, com­put­er sci­ence, and Java pro­gram­ming tech­nolo­gies. 2D and 3D graph­ics imag­ing also is part of the cur­ricu­lum. Oth­er course­work may include:

• Soft­ware Development
• Pro­gram­ming Languages
• Mul­ti­me­dia
• Com­put­er Programming
• Project Man­age­ment
• User Expe­ri­ence

Game design schools have boomed for online stu­dents, espe­cial­ly as mobile game soft­ware has changed the play­ing field. Learn­ing to devel­op apps for mobile devices pro­vides learn­ers with anoth­er way to enter the video game industry.

Cer­tifi­cates are also trans­ferrable to degrees like a Bach­e­lor of Fine Arts or a Bach­e­lor of Sci­ence. This means if a stu­dent choos­es to go for a graph­ic design degree after receiv­ing a cer­tifi­cate, then the cred­its earned will be added to the cho­sen degree pro­gram. Each cer­tifi­cate is usu­al­ly 15–18 cred­its long and takes approx­i­mate­ly eight to twelve months to complete.

Anoth­er ben­e­fit of choos­ing a cer­tifi­cate is the cost. You can still obtain finan­cial aid but have much less to pay back with­out need­ing gen­er­al edu­ca­tion cours­es and unnec­es­sary elec­tives. Just make sure your cer­tifi­cate pro­gram has accreditation.

Can I Become a Video Game Developer Without a Degree?

A game design/game devel­op­ment cer­tifi­cate alone can give a stu­dent a start­ing point in the right direc­tion. Those with a cer­tifi­cate in game design do have the chance to become video game devel­op­ers at an entry-lev­el position. 

Some busi­ness­es may hire can­di­dates with just a cer­tifi­cate, although there is not much room for pro­mo­tions with­out a four-year degree. Some appli­cants for game design or game devel­op­er jobs decide to acquire sev­er­al cer­tifi­cates with­in the gam­ing indus­try. For instance, receiv­ing a cer­tifi­cate for web design, dig­i­tal design, or com­put­er science. 

Each of the cer­tifi­cates pro­vides a spe­cif­ic con­cen­tra­tion to the game design indus­try. Hav­ing sev­er­al types of game design cer­tifi­cates does add to your busi­ness port­fo­lio. How­ev­er, cer­tifi­cates are also used to ben­e­fit the degree pro­gram as well. It can also pro­vide more oppor­tu­ni­ties for high­er learn­ing, as well as, pos­si­bil­i­ties for man­age­r­i­al or super­vi­so­ry positions.

• Relat­ed Rankings:
• 25 Best Bach­e­lor’s in Game Design Degree Programs
• 15 Best Online Game Design Degree Bach­e­lor’s Programs
• 10 Most Afford­able Game Design Degree Bach­e­lor Programs
• 15 Best Online Train­ing and Devel­op­ment Programs