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Computer Science or Computer Game Development?

Emerson1997

Ive been looking all over the internet for the answer to my question, I do want to go into game development but a lot of people are actually against the whole idea of the degree, but the forums I have looked at are about four years old and was wondering if anyone now would have any different views about these two degrees and which one would actually be better to go into for game development as a game programmer.

And also if Liverpool John Moores is a good enough University for their computing courses.

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 1

George_m97

I have applied for computer science because I think that getting a degree in CS would be more beneficial. I have seen that at city university year 1 of both courses are the same, and after that it then branches off. I think having a degree in CS is more broad and covers more areas, to which you could then specialize in game programming rather than being quite restricted with only a degree in game development. But i'm not too sure myself would like to hear from someone who is currently doing it.

Reply 2

username2130115

Original post by Emerson1997

The difference depends on the university that offers the courses; I'm going to assume you're talking about the courses at LJMU. The main difference between straight computer science and games development is that you study more specialist modules instead of generalist modules. For example, if you opted to do games development, you'd study games design and 2D computer graphics in the first year instead of discrete mathematics and an optional module outside of the department. The courses do have some modules in common but in games development they seem specialized for games specifically, e.g. on the computer science course they have a module called 'programming' but on the games development course it's called 'programming for games'. You have to ask yourself if you want a general background in computer science theory or if you want to spend 3 years mainly focusing on computer science theory that's mainly related to games. Bare in mind some software engineering companies will prefer someone who has a general background in computer science over someone who is heavily specialized at bachelors level since most people specialize when they do their masters degree. This is advantageous if you decide after three years of study you don't want to be a games developer after all!

Sources:
https://www.ljmu.ac.uk/study/courses/undergraduates/2016/computer-games-development
https://www.ljmu.ac.uk/study/courses/undergraduates/2016/computer-science-bsc

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 3

Emerson1997

Thank you for your inputs and yea I think computer science is probably the best way in case things go wrong