The multi-billion-dollar video game industry is the fastest-growing segment of the entertainment market. Now is a great time to begin your game software development training.

By Jessica Santina
RWM Columnist
February 20, 2007

It may just be your favorite hobby, but video games are a $27.5 billion industry, and the fastest-growing sector of the entertainment industry. The International Game Developers Association (IGDA) says that revenues from video games should actually exceed movie box office revenues in just a couple of years.

As it turns out, your hobby might just hold a profitable and secure career for you. Approximately 145 million Americans play video games, and their appetites will only be satisfied by more, and better, game technology. That's where you come in.

Why Game Software Development Training
A bachelor's degree program in game software development provides you with the engineering fundamentals of the gaming industry. A bachelor's in game software development emphasizes design, helping you to create 2D or 3D applications that bring stories and characters to life, as well as development and testing of game software.

Upon completion of this technical school program, you could go on to work as a game and interactive software tester, testing and "de-bugging" software to ensure the intended outcomes. As a game programmer, you would write the code that brings game designs to life on a computer. As a game support specialist, you can work with customers to provide technical assistance during game use. As a systems programmer, you might create programs that maintain and control computer systems software.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics indicates that employment in the software publishing industry should increase by 68 percent by 2014. That makes this industry the third fastest-growing in the country, and job prospects within the industry should be excellent. Production and non-supervisory workers in the industry earned an average of $1,342 per week in 2004, which is more than twice the average for all other industries.

Most computer programmers and software engineers have bachelor's degrees. A degree in game software development will give you an edge in this highly competitive field.

It's Your Move - Make It Illinois Earning your degree at one of Illinois' technical schools is a wise move for several reasons. First, the state features one of the nation's most technologically advanced infrastructures in the world. In fact, Illinois was the birthplace of the nation's first electronic switching system, and of the first commercial installation of an Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN). Hundreds of thousands of miles of fiber optics have been laid throughout Illinois, demonstrating the state's commitment to a thriving high-tech sector.