Learn to make games: 390 U.S. colleges now offer gaming design courses and degrees

High school seniors considering a career making games have more options than ever before when it comes to college.

The number of universities and other academic institutions offering game design and development courses in the United States has reached 390, according to the Entertainment Software Association. That’s up 50 percent since 2009 when only 254 schools featured such programs. Game production is a multi-billion-dollar industry that often pays designers and coders well while also enabling creative expression. That combination of competitive pay with the promise to create something original and entertaining might explain the national growth of these design programs.