Located in Winter Park, Florida, Full Sail is a prominent technical and entertainment-focused university. Founded in 1979, Full Sail's curricula combine elements of creativity, art, business and technical skills. All programs center on immerse, project-based curricula to provide students with hands-on experience and focus on connectivity with current video game industry trends. A Bachelor of Science degree in Game Development provides budding technical directors with foundations in computer programming, game engines, artificial intelligence and the development of complete games. Future technical directors might pursue a Masters in Game Design, which focuses on team leadership, project development, collaborative design and final integration of assets. In addition to traditional degrees, intensive accelerated degree programs promise students an education in half the time of traditional schools. Full Sail grads have gone on to work at such video game companies as Rockstar Games, Electronic Arts, Nintendo and Blizzard Entertainment. Interested students apply on-line.
Full Sail University
3300 University Blvd.
Winter Park, FL 32792
800-226-7625
fullsail.edu
Situated near Nintendo and Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Washington, (and in fact sharing floor space with Nintendo) DigiPen has been educating video game professionals since 1988. The first university to offer video game centric education, DigiPen programs "fuse academic rigor, industry experience and team-based projects to provide a conservatory approach to education" (according to its website). Of note to students vying for technical director positions, the institute offers a Bachelor of the Arts in Game Design, a Bachelor of Science in Real-Time Interactive Simulation and a Bachelor of Science in Game Design. Prospective students apply online or mail paper applications.
DigiPen Institute of Technology
5001 150th Ave. NE
Suite #210
Redmond, WA 98052
866-478-5236
Vancouver Film School in British Columbia presents one-year programs of highly concentrated production work combined with industry-specific theory, offering students lectures, tutorials, productions, collaborations and mentorships. For students interested in game development and technical directing, VFS offers a one-year game design program focusing on designing, producing and presenting fully playable games. This intensive program covers technological, storytelling, level design, game art, scripting, cinematic and business aspects as they apply to game development--all of which are areas taken into account by technical directors. Prospective students apply online.
Vancouver Film School
198 W. Hastings St.
Vancouver, BC
Canada V6B 1H2
604-685-5808
vfs.edu