Acustom built will get you the fastest you can get, and allot cheaper then a slower preassembled one. trust me. if you need a laptop then go with asus, they make great quality and very fast gaming laptops. if you really want to blow a bunch of cash you can do alienware, but there such a huge rip its insulting. asus for laptops, custom built for desktops. the new 6 core AMD cpus and dual gpu ATI graphics cards put together with high speed ddr3 ram and a super fast motherboard and some RAIDed high speed solid state drives, dang you could be faster then anything alienware currently has to offer.

AYou would not likely have classes available in high school that would address game design specifically. A number of colleges have begun offering such programs (try www.collegeboard.com and its college search tool), but you'll have to dig a little. The names of some of these programs will not include the word "game".Also, have a backup plan. My son started out as a computer science major with an interest in game design. (He won't be finishing as one!) According to the academic advisors at his first school, about half of their freshman students come in with the idea of becoming game designers and about none of them actually do become game designers. It's a very small field and tough to break into, even if you have the persistence to finish the degree. If you live close to a university large enough to have a "real" computer science department, see if you can meet with a faculty member or advisor there to talk about the field in general and game design in particular.

ADon't study for any degree containing the words "game Design" in its title. These degrees get no respect and are only taken by students destined to live in their parents' basements until middle age.Game design/programming is rapidly going off-shore, where good designers/programmers can be hired for $3/hr.Instead of Game Design, you should get a good general (flexible) degree in Software Engineering Technology or Computer Engineering Technology.

AFinding a way to spell difficult words correctly.Learn common English terms and correct usage. Antonyms, homonyms, homographs, etc.Learning about diagraming sentences, and the rules, also parts of speech.I learned a lot from two ancient games: Original Sim City and Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?

APlease check herehttp://www.google.com/cse?cx=016390210553168334612%3Ap9nfn1ntyaq&ie=UTF-8&q=game+design+Ravindra Dastikophttp://edusense.googlepages.com

AHere is a good list of Schools.http://archives.igda.org/breakingin/resource_schools.phpa good way to break into the industry and see if you like it is Game Testing.What do you need to get a job as a game tester?For the quick straight answer about education... College classes needed... -- NONE --- !!With that said, it is good to have good communication skills, good team skills, to know about technology and how games are put together. foreign language, etc are all good education to have on your resume and you could use in a game testing position. I have personally helped over 1000 people get into the industry through becoming a video game tester. I developed training and education for people to become video game testers.It has been made into online self paced training on the PowerUp Games Website.http://powerupgames.com/videogametester.html It has a certification course for Game Testing at a lot cheaper price than a single college course. The reason people get more education is that it is becoming competitive to get a game testing position. The better your resume and cover letter and references and portfolio.... the better your chances.Now lets talk about what some people consider to be video game testing....Stay as home game testing should be considered an Urban Legend. Winning the lottery would be easier than finding this as real employment. If it was real, what percentage of the US or world population would like this as a job or career? 40% or more? How many billion people is that... Becoming a game tester is do-able but sometimes you need someone to show you the way.of the people offering help, this will help you avoid SCAMS...Here are some articleshttp://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/topic.asp?topic_id=488864 http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/topic.asp?topic_id=488665 http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/mod/journal/journal.asp?jn=250978&reply_id=3291165 http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2006/09/why_game_tester_guide_sucks_in.php http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2006/03/game_testings_incredulous_road.php http://www.affiliatebling.com/gamer-testing-ground/ ALSO:Never pay for a job or job list.Never pay for a subscription to find a game testing job. They are usually scams. To see if they are... Email them and see how long takes them to respond to a specific question.Make sure you get 2-3 phone numbers of people who have been with them for 6 months or moreand call them to see if they think it was worth it. Ask these people 2-3 specific questions about what they got for the money, how helpful was the staff, what jobs they applied for etc...Who they worked for. Has their education ever been used by some company involved in the industry?How industry connected are they?Do they have a phone number to contact them?Is there site just a bunch of hyping up game testing? Be careful...To increase your chances of getting a career game testing position...become familiar with what game testing is, terminology, etc and build out a good cover letter and resume.Get some good experience and be able to talk about what you did in with the knowledge and terminology you have learned about Game Testing.Become familiar with the basics of game testing so after you land a position, you can keep it.(there are some companies that will hire 10 game testers knowing that after 2-3 days, they will know the best of the group and will lay off the rest. It is cheaper than doing a deep interview process)Remember, there will be several hundred people applying to any game testing position and you have to get your resume to the top for a phone interview and past the face to face interview so you can get the position and show that you know what it is and that you know what you need to do to become a Game tester.Have someone in the Game Industry review your resume and cover letter. Get someone who was a game tester or even better, someone who has hired game testers.If you want help completing the above steps, please investigate our Training at http://www.powerupgames.com/video-game-tester-faqs.html-

AI am not certain, but I think UNLV has both options available

AIt depends on which department you want to work in. Theres modeling it involves design and textures or you could do animation and programming. I would reccomend software like Autodesk 3dsmax or Autodesk Maya 2010. It comes with tutoriols and you can sell a well designed 3d model. Good Luck!

AProgramming skills, and graphic arts/design skills, are the two things needed for game design.Er... well... those two things, and imagination and creativity... stuff like that.That certificate you described, plus some digital graphic arts coursework, plus computer programming coursework (or a degree therein), would probably do it.A bachelors in computer science, with a minor in digital graphic arts (if there even is such a thing), plus that certificate... yep... that would do it.Or you can go to a school which offers degrees specifically in video game design. If so, then this Google search...http://www.google.com/webhp?hl=en#num=50&hl=en&newwindow=1&safe=off&q=%2B%22video+game+design%22+%2B%22bachelor+of+science%22+OR+%22bachelor+of+arts%22+site%3A.edu&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=&pbx=1&fp=a5d6a15bdb06c35b...should be useful.Just make sure that whatever US college/university you choose is ACCREDITED by an agency approved by the US Department of Education (USDE) and/or the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA). And the quickest and easiest way to verify that any school is really and truly accredited is to look it up in either or both of the USDE or CHEA databases at:USDE DATABASE - http://ope.ed.gov/accreditationCHEA DATABASE - http://www.chea.org/searchIf the school you're considering isn't in at least ONE of those databases (and do look it up in the second one if it's not in the first because there are some accreditors approved by USDE but not by CHEA and vice versa), then said school is NOT accredited... no matter WHAT it claims on its web site. And remember that bogus schools -- degree mills -- will often claim to be accredited, when they're actually not. Knowing that most degree-seekers have heard that they need to only attend an accredited school, some degree mills will go so far as to make-up a fake accreditor, and even build a fancy and impressive looking web site for it. So do not be fooled. Bottom line: If the school is not listed in either or both of the USDE or the CHEA databases, then it is not accredited. Period. And do not attend any school which is not accredited.Even if the school is actually not even a degree mill -- in other words, even if it's unaccredited, but it's actually a completely credible, legitimate, rigorous school -- it should still probably be avoided. The coursework credits from unaccredited schools -- even ones that are provably not degree mills -- are nearly never transferable into any degree program at an accredited school. Plus, unaccredited degrees are not usually acceptable to accredited schools as requisite for entry into their higher-level degree programs. Also, most employers in both the public and private sector will not accept unaccredited degrees for jobs which require a degree. State licensing agencies which issue licenses for careers that are regulated (like medicine, psychology, nursing, teaching, etc.) will nearly never accept an unaccredited degree as requisite for licensure. And, finally, there are now a few states (and their numbers are rapidly growing) which actually make it illegal -- in a few of them, a CRIMINAL offense -- to put an unaccredited degree on one's resume, or business card, or letterhead, or advertising, or a job application, etc.So, it's best -- even if the unaccredited school is provably legitimate -- to just stay away from it. The exception would be if graduating from the unaccredited school qualified you for something which you really wanted to do as a career or avocation. If your life's career or avocation needs will be satisfied by an unaccredited degree, then fine. As long as the school which grants it is not also a degree mill, then that's your decision. Just make sure your eyes are wide open about it. Know, for example, that once you have an unaccredited degree, you'll likely spend the rest of your life defending it somehow, every now and then; and there will be certain states into which you can never move and then use the unaccredited degree. It just seems silly to put yourself in that situation when there's an accredited degree out there for almost every kind of career that one can imagine. That being the case, It just seems both easier and smarter to make sure that whatever degree one gets is really and truly accredited.Hope that helps!

APhysics to understand motion vectors, which is a big part of games programming. Advanced programming of course and calculus based math to make the understanding of the physics easier.ThanksBill