Best Game Design & Development Schools & Colleges in the World 2022

Since 2011, The Rookies has been supplying reliable performance information about colleges and universities to students, their families, academics, university leaders, governments, and business. The results for 2022 are based on a staggering 58,443 portfolio reviews, completed by a team of over 150+ industry professionals.

The Rookies World School Rankings® are not like other education based ranking systems. They are driven and judged by industry professionals without the interference of paid advertising dollars that cloud the judgement of other ranking sites. • Scott Thompson, founder of Think Tank Training Centre.

We feel that traditional school rankings – that include peer and employer reviews, faculty-to-student ratio, citations and other data – are not adequate when ranking creative schools. This might work in industries with more traditional career paths, but when it comes to technical and creative roles things are much more complicated, and we need to take a different approach.

Our answer to this is quite arduous, but very accurate. The process involves reviewing thousands of digital portfolios from graduating students. These portfolios are the equivalent of a final exam for traditional industries, and provide an incredibly accurate dataset of how well the university or college has prepared their students for industry level skills.

Learn more about how we rank schools.

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Rank	School	Location	Score
1	Think Tank Training Centre	Canada, Online	83.38
2	Howest University of Applied Sciences - Digital Arts and Entertainment	Belgium	79.67
3	New3dge	France	79.12
4	Gnomon	Online, United States	72.84
5	Artside School	France	72.09
6	3dsense Media School	Singapore	70.31
7	Futuregames	Sweden	63.03
8	Breda University of Applied Sciences	Netherlands	61.94
9	Escape Studios	United Kingdom, Online	58.05
10	The Game Assembly	Sweden	57.79
11	Game Academy	France	57.42
12	Florida Universitària	Spain	57.41
13	Animum Creativity Advanced School	Spain	57.39
14	SAE Creative Media Institute	Multiple Locations	53.32
15	PlaygroundSquad	Sweden	50.17
16	Voxel School	Spain	47.76
17	Ringling College of Art and Design	United States	46.30
18	University of Hertfordshire	United Kingdom, Online	40.44
19	Staffordshire University	United Kingdom	39.87
20	Games Academy Falmouth University	United Kingdom	36.19

Detailed information about the top schools and colleges for Game Development

The following schools are the top Game Development educational facilities for 2022 and offer great courses and curriculum that produces students that are ready for the challenges faced by professional artists working in Game Development. Follow the links below to find out more about these schools, their facilities, team, success stories, student artwork and more.

1. Think Tank Training Centre

Think Tank Training Centre was born out of a passion for sharing industry knowledge with the next generation of artists creating assets, animation, or VFX for the top Film, Television, and Game companies across the globe. Think Tank has ranked in the top 3 creative entertainment schools in the world by the prestigious Rookies online community the past three years in a row. The school is known for its intimate, personalized support for each student during and beyond the programs. Our training ...

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2. Howest University of Applied Sciences - Digital Arts and Entertainment

Digital Arts & Entertainment (DAE) is a state-of-the-art, yet accessible, English-taught Bachelor’s degree. Fully accredited, 3 years, amounting to 180 ECTS credits. DAE is taught at Howest, a modern and unconventional university of applied sciences, situated in a small but beautiful historic city in Flanders, Belgium, in the heart of Western Europe. At DAE you can choose between 4 study majors: Game Development, Game Graphics Production, Independent Game Production or 3D Production & VFX. It...

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3. New3dge

New3dge, located in Paris, is a private school of higher education specialized in the fields of Game Art, 3D Animation&VFX and Concept Art. We have tailored our student program and our teaching methods alongside some of the major players in these fields. We recruit our educators from our network of respected professionals around the globe. At New3gde, we give our students the opportunity to learn skills and work with cutting edge technology in an ever-evolving environment, guaranteeing their...

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4. Gnomon

For over twenty years, Gnomon has educated many of the world’s best digital artists. Called “the MIT of visual effects” by Fast Company magazine, Gnomon offers a variety of educational options to help students reach their goals in the entertainment industry, with both degree and vocational certificate programs, specialized courses for high school students and over 100 individual courses for professional enrichment. Visual effects artists launched Gnomon with the support of the entertainment indu...

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5. Artside School

ARTSIDE is a private higher education institution founded by Digital Art professionals, with a strong desire to offer innovative training that meets the expectations of International studios.More of 70 teachers come from the largest international studios and share this desire to train future talents. They offer with Artside a professional education and share their workflow and tools used in production and offer our students a complete professional network. Our students develop an in-d...

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6. 3dsense Media School

3dsense Media School is a leading digital arts school in Asia, preparing students for careers in the creative entertainment industry since 2003. We focus on providing industry-based training for Visual Effects, Animation, Game Art, Motion Design, Concept Art, Illustration and Toy Production. Since 2015, 3dsense has been consistently ranked amongst the Top 10 Art Schools globally by “The Rookies World School Rankings”, the world’s most respected ranking system for creative media schools. Bes...

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7. Futuregames

With schools in Sweden in Stockholm, Boden, Skellefteå and Karlstad; in Norway in Nordreisa; and soon in New Zealand in Dunedin, Futuregames offers a whole range of different types of education and at many different levels, from short courses for experienced professionals to full time programs for future game developers just getting started in the industry. With almost 20 years of experience Futuregames has consistently ranked as one of the best game educations in the world and our form...

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8. Breda University of Applied Sciences

Nearly every course/project is team-based where individual contributions are assessed and used to develop a games industry professional that is ready to be effective from the 1st day of internship or graduate job. We want students to start with a foundation in either art, programming or design and then develop production abilities to participate in cross-discipline game development teams that emulate industry.Year 1 is focused on small teams (3-5) and comprises of 3 discipline f...

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9. Escape Studios

At Escape Studios, we offer undergraduate, postgraduate and short courses in Visual Effects (VFX), Game Art, Animation and Motion Graphics. We work with an impressive list of industry partners to design and deliver our courses, from MPC, DNEG, Framestore and The Mill, through to Jellyfish Pictures, Milk and BlueBolt, to name just a few! We’re leaders in digital arts, ranked 5th in the world by the Rookies, a Rookies Certified School, a Houdini Certified School, and the only Unreal Engin...

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10. The Game Assembly

For nearly 15 years, we have educated highly skilled game developers for the games industry all over the world. Based in Malmö and Stockholm, Sweden, we educate Game Artists, Game Programmers, Level Designers, Game Animators and Technical Artists. Every education is 1,5-2,5 years and one third of the education is an internship at a game company. We have well experienced staff working full time within the educations.Half of the students’ time at The Game Assembly consists of...

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11. Game Academy

Game academy is a French school located in Avignon, in Vaucluse, which trains game developers and game artists. Created in 2016 by Mr. Kevin Vivier, Game Academy aims to meet a growing demand for high-performance and modern elements in the video game and serious gaming market.Today, the school is composed of 6 trainers who each had a unique professional background. Game Academy prepares more than 80 students to work in the video game industry with technologies such as Unreal Engine, Z...

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12. Florida Universitària

FLORIDA is a Valencian worker co-operative created in 1977 working in the field of education. It has a wide experience in education and training in several education levels: Higher education (university degrees, postgraduate courses and Master degrees), Vocational Education and Training (higher and lower levels), continuous training and Secondary and Primary Education.The University qualifications provided by Florida Universitaria are officially recognised by the University of Valenci...

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13. Animum Creativity Advanced School

We constantly network and advise with Industry Stakeholders and academic partners globally to ensure we are constantly industry relevant. We network with Epic Games, Unity 3D, Rokoko, Reallusion, GSU, NYU, Southern Institute of Technology, Ara Institute, Yoobee Colleges, and more.Students are regularly hired by Epic Games, Weta Group, Eleven FX, Graphic Monk, Geo AR....

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14. SAE Creative Media Institute

Creative Media Institute is the world’s leading education provider in creative media industries with over 50 campuses globally. SAE offers degree, diploma and certificate courses across the six disciplines of: Animation, Audio, Design, Film, Games as well as Interactive Technologies.For over 30 years, SAE Institute has maintained a strong commitment to providing high-quality practical education in creative media technologies, producing graduates with industry skills to fill integral professi...

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15. PlaygroundSquad

PlaygroundSquad is a higher vocational education in game development, stationed in Falun, Sweden. PlaygroundSquad is a polytechnic where students quickly enter the job market towards the gaming industry. We train our students in game development for two years to get them into work as quickly as possible.We have three disciplines of study; programming, game design and game art.The education consists of four semesters over a two year period time....

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16. Voxel School

The Voxel School Professional School of Digital Arts emerges as a transversal model of communication between areas of vital importance for the Digital Economy sector: The video game sector , animation , digital special effects , architectural visualization and design , all of them in its different aspects. The center is managed by professionals from the animation, video game, film, special effects and new technologies industry strongly linked to university management and teaching for more tha...

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17. Ringling College of Art and Design

Since 1931, Ringling College of Art and Design has cultivated the creative spirit in students from around the globe. The private, not-for-profit, fully accredited college offers the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in eleven disciplines and the Bachelor of Arts in two. The College’s rigorous curriculum employs the studio model of teaching and immediately engages students through a comprehensive program that is both specific to the major of study and focused on the liberal arts. The Ringling College ...

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18. University of Hertfordshire

The School of Creative Arts is the oldest part of the University of Hertfordshire, and its roots date back to 1890 with the formation of St Albans School of Art that later merged with the University in the 20th century. The School prides itself on its devotion to teaching creativity and the skills required to enable students to reach the goals they want from a degree and future career. It combines a wealth of physical resources that cover all aspects of creative arts production from animation...

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19. Staffordshire University

We are the Connected University. We’re connected to the needs of our students, to business and to society. Our city campus in Stoke-on-Trent is the University’s nerve centre. We deliver world class healthcare education at our specialist Centres of Excellence in Stafford and Shrewsbury. And a global network of more than 20,000 people study our degrees internationally.Our industry connections and emphasis on experience make our graduates among the most employable in the UK. A leading universit...

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20. Games Academy Falmouth University

Games and creative computing are transforming how we experience the world and are driving the development of new technologies. Join us at the Games Academy to become part of this journey, learn from industry leaders and develop real products....

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How we calculate global school rankings

Data is based on the quality and performance of student work that is submitted to our judging panel for the Rookie Awards.

The Judging Process

Each entrant is reviewed by members of the official Judging Panel which includes over 150+ highly influential and respected industry veterans. The Judges were asked to score entries based on criteria including — creative skills, technical skills, presentation, variety of skills, complexity, raw talent, and employment potential.

School Calculations

Based on the results of student submissions we received this year we have released the following in-depth breakdowns about the best schools.

Each school is awarded a final score based on the performance of each student representing their academic facility.

When analysing the average scores of each student per school there are three possible data formulas available to use: mean, median and mode.

The Rookies uses median. The median is the middle point of a number set, in which half the numbers are above the median and half are below. A median is intrinsically understandable. It is the middle number when the values are put in order.

• Schools with < 14 student entries are excluded from ranking.
• Incomplete student entries are removed from calculations. No penalties.
• Each student receives a performance score. Max 100 points.
• Median students score calculated per school. Max 100 points.
• Each category finalist receives 2 bonus points toward School Score.
• Each category highly commended receives 4 bonus points toward School Score.
• Each category runner up receives 6 bonus points toward School Score.
• Each category winner receives 10 bonus points toward School Score.

Having the ‘employability of the Artist’ as a judging criteria is key, for in the creative fields you can be free of constraint and let the ideas flow but getting and building a career requires an additional ability to be practical and having ideas that can be executed and maintained. • Darryn Melrose, former Chief Executive of Media Design School.

Do you feel your school should be listed here?

Over 500 international schools submitted their student work to the Rookie Awards 2022 and were reviewed by industry professionals. To make sure your school is considered for next year's rankings please use the live-chat system located at the bottom-right of this page, or email our team at [email protected].