Game Design
Experience Living In Vancouver, Canada
Culture. Creativity. Connections. Vancouver isn’t just beautiful, it’s a place that cultivates talent, friendships, and relationships within the gaming industry. From the trails of Grouse Mountain to the nightlife of Granville Street, Vancouver is the perfect canvas for game development and the ideal location to take the next step in your career.
Six Terms. One Goal.
Game Designer
Your Career In Only One Year
The intensive game design program at Vancouver Film School is structured to deliver the skills and talent you need in just one year. Learn from industry professionals, work with modernized tools, and develop projects that give you the direct production experience you need to become a game designer.
Make Great Connections For Your Future
At VFS, you get more than an education in game design, you get to be part of the VFS alumni family. You will showcase your final project to gaming industry professionals in our Pitch + Play events. You will build connections with VFS graduates in your class and beyond. The game design program will set you up for success.
Establish fundamental skills in game theory, pre-production techniques, and storytelling.
Term
1
Build on your game design foundation and start to work effectively in teams. Create your own playable 2D game in Unity.
Term
2
Shift from theory to practical work with direct production experience on detailed design documentation and front-end interfaces. Start your chosen specialization.
Term
3
Expand your role with online multiplayer design. The core part of this term is dedicated to planning and designing a major team-based final project.
Term
4
Create a video game. Conceive, plan, and execute a final project that delivers a rewarding interactive experience.
Term
5
Engage with ongoing play-testing and complete your final project. Develop your presentation skills to unveil your game design portfolio to the industry.
Industry Showcase
Near the end of your year in the game design program, you will complete your final team-based project and pitch it to an invite-only audience of professional game designers and industry recruiters from 30 to 40 companies.
Vancouver Film School alumni are some of the most successful professionals in the video games industry.
Here is a sample of their achievements:
Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Shadi Dadenji — Technical Designer
Mortal Kombat X
Melissa Borda — Associate Producer
Marvel Contest Of Champions
Waylon Snedker — Game Designer
Tim Molyneux — Game Designer
Thomas McLain — Game Designer
Shane O'Connor — Game Designer
Halo 5
20 Alumni
3D Animation & Visual Effects Sound Design for Visual Media Game Design
Company of Heroes 2
Andres Molina — Technical and Campaign Designer
Karl Buckley — Senior Surfacing Artist
Lance Mueller — Associate Designer
Maxwell Hannaman — Associate Designer
Gears of War
35 Alumni
3D Animation & Visual Effects Game Design
Foundation Visual Art & Design Sound Design for Visual Media Classical Animation
Sleeping Dogs
13 grads from Game Design worked on Sleeping Dogs.
Mass Effect Andromeda
22 Alumni
3D Animation & Visual Effects Game Design
Sound Design for Visual Media Classical Animation Foundation Visual Art & Design
FIFA 18
9 Alumni
3D Animation & Visual Effects Game Design
Sound Design for Visual Media
NHL 14
Ching-Chien (Jack) Lin — Software Engineer
Clayton Paakspuu — QA Tester
Dead Rising 4
23 Alumni
3D Animation & Visual Effects Acting for Film & Television Game Design
Sound Design for Visual Media Classical Animation
Animation Concept Art
ModNation Racers
Brennan Massicotte — Artist
Chris Savory — Dev Support
Nick Letizia — Game Designer
Mass Effect 3
Corey Gaspur — Lead Gameplay Designer
Samuel Irwin — Cinematic Designer
Luc Labelle — Designer
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine
Billy Lind — Dev. Support
Brock Robin — Game Designer
Chris Savory — Dev. Support
Clinton Ma — Development Tester
Francois Chaput — Mission Designer
Joey Song — Development Tester
Star Wars: The Old Republic
Tyler Hitchings — Associate Writer
Samuel Irwin — Cinematic Designer
Need for Speed: World
Azlan Mustapha — Game Designer
Ted Carefoot — Project Manager
Mass Effect 2
Armando Troisi — Lead Cinematic Designer
Corey Gaspur — Gameplay/Systems Designer
Guilherme Ramos — Cinematic Designer
Kenneth Banadyga — QA Tester
Dead Rising 2
Adrian Audet — Assistant Producer
Boris Wong — Assistant Producer
Jeffrey Chang — QA
League of Legends
Jimmy Steorts — Associate Game Designer
Age of Empires: Age of Kings
Armando Troisi — Design Assistant
Chris Klein — Design Assistant
Ian Becking — Design Support
Term
6
The Path To Your Career Begins Now
Experience Living In Vancouver, Canada
Establish fundamental skills in game theory, pre-production techniques, and storytelling.
Term
1
Build on your game design foundation and start to work effectively in teams. Create your own playable 2D game in Unity.
Term
2
Shift from theoretical to practical with hands-on work on detailed design documentation and front-end interfaces, and begin specializing in coding, game art or level design.
Term
3
The core part of this term is dedicated to designing and planning a major team-based final project.
Term
4
Conceive, plan, and execute a final project that delivers a rewarding interactive experience.
Term
5
Engage with ongoing play-testing and complete your final project before unveiling your work to the industry.
Term
6
Six Terms. One Goal: Game Designer
Specializations and Careers
Level designers take the individual components created by the development team and tie them together to create the encounters players experience while they play. Within the discipline, there are sub-specializations into narrative, environmental set dressing, or scripting of game content.
Careers:
- Level Designer
- Technical Designer
- Environmental Level Designer
- Narrative Designer
- Creative DirectorDesign Lead
- Production Support
Artists in the game industry are responsible for creating the assets used in game. Within the industry, artists specialize into a number of sub-fields, taking advantage of extremely powerful tools like Substance Designer, ZBrush, and Maya to do everything from hard-surface modeling to realistic or stylized characters, and procedural materials.
Careers:
- 3D Generalist
- Environmental Artist
- UI Artist
- Cinematics Artist
- 3D Animator
- VFX Artist
- Character Artist
- Pre-visualization Artist
Careers:
- Gameplay Programmer
- Network Programmer
- Audio Programmer
- Technical Director
- Software Architect
- Technical Artist
- Tools Programmer
Coders use computer languages within game engines to create or extend the features in games or to create tools for others to use to create content. Coders are the first to see things in action inside the game, and the tools they create are the foundation of the game industry.
Game Art
A VFS Game Design Education
A diploma in Game Design education
A portfolio showcasing your work
Acccess to VFS Alumni Director and Job Board
A lifetime network
Industry connections that will help guide your career
Accelerated 2 to 3-year diploma, bachelor's, and master's degree pathway options with partnered higher education institutions in Canada and abroad
Culture. Creativity. Connections.
Vancouver is a beautiful place that cultivates talent, friendships, and relationships within the entertainment arts industry. The ideal location to take the next step in your design career.
Alumni Success Stories
For the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic and until it is safe to resume in-person instruction, VFS will continue to offer its signature immersive, one-year programs online. Hybrid learning (online & on-site) and future start dates are also open for registration.
Level Design
Coding
Get Your Career Started as a Game Creator in 1 Year
You're Almost There!
If you have any questions or if you're ready to take the first step in your journey at VFS, we'll be happy to help you along the way. Simply fill out the form below and we'll be in touch.