Champlain College Named a Top Game Design School by The Princeton Review
Champlain College has earned a spot on The Princeton Review’s Top 50 Undergraduate Schools for Game Design for the fourteenth consecutive year. In the 2026 rankings, our game design degree landed at #11 — reinforcing Champlain’s reputation as one of the best game design schools in the country.
This Is What a Top-Ranked Game Design Degree Looks Like
At Champlain, game design education is built to reflect professional studios. From your first semester, you’ll develop the skills employers actually want: real collaboration with industry professionals, a growing portfolio, and 30 flexible elective credits to shape your game design degree around your strengths — whether that’s art, programming, production, or storytelling.
The Game Studio experience puts that into practice. Modeled after real-world game industry studios, it brings together students from all seven of Champlain’s game-related majors to collaborate on projects they’re genuinely excited about. Multiple studio-based courses throughout each year keep that collaboration at the center of your education, emphasizing iteration and teamwork at every stage. By the time you reach your senior year, you’ll have several polished, portfolio-ready projects to show recruiters.
Game Careers Start Here
Champlain offers focused game design degrees so you can specialize in what drives you:
Game Art
Game Business & Publishing
Game Design
Game Production Management
Game Programming
Game Sound Design
Interactive Narrative for Games & Digital Media
Hands-On Experience That Stands Out to Recruiters
Students in our game design programs learn by making real games from day one, using industry-standard tools including Unity, Unreal Engine, Autodesk Maya, and Adobe Creative Cloud. You’ll graduate ready to step into professional roles.
On-campus career fairs regularly draw studios like Wolfjaw Studios and Schell Games, putting you face-to-face with developers and hiring managers without leaving campus. The Career Collaborative supports your portfolio, resume, and interview prep so you can pursue internships and full-time positions with confidence.
Learning extends beyond the classroom, too. Champlain-hosted game jams let you rapidly prototype with a team, often with prizes and public showcases. Students also get early access to emerging technology—including OVR Technology’s scent-enabled device Omara, which Champlain students were among the first to test.
The Game Senior Show: From Concept to Published Game
In their final two semesters, students form indie-style teams and take original game ideas from concept to launch. At the end of fall semester, teams pitch to a panel of industry judges in our Greenlight process—eight games are selected to move forward, with the full cohort rallying behind the chosen projects.
Students retain full ownership and can publish on platforms like itch.io and Steam. Finished games are presented to industry professionals and recruiters via Twitch livestreams and events like the Game Developers Conference. By graduation, you won’t just have a game design degree—you’ll have a published game and a portfolio that proves what you can do.
Press Play at Champlain College
Ready to pursue a game design degree at one of the best game design colleges in the country? Learn more about Champlain’s Game Studio programs and see what it’s like to study game design in Burlington, Vermont.
Check out some of our student games from previous years:
Triage
Triage is a first-person narrative experience where you are a doctor. You’ve been called upon to help a desolate, isolated town, where an otherworldly illness has been mutating residents.
Dual Shadows
The city of Pulsanh holds an ancient magic deep within. While technology has surpassed this magic, humans have yet to control this natural power.
Shutterbuds
Collaborate with friends to take photos of creatures while you explore a national park in shutterbuds, a 1st person multiplayer photography game focused on surprises, delights, and problem-solving.
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