I'm thinking of going into either Game Design or Computer Animation. Do either of those require calculus? I realize this forum specializes in the first & don't expect an answer on Computer Animation. I've just recently found out that there are pretty much two categories of game developers: programmers & designers (I guess there's more if you could management & marketing). And I know game programmers need calculus, but do game designers? Yes, I know they need to know geometry & trig, etc... but i'm talking about academic programs - do they require calc? My school doesn't have a degree in game design, so I don't know for sure. Fact is: i'm not very good at calc & algebra. I just placed into intermediate algebra & my father (who thinks you need math for everything... only problem is he doesn't even know what calculus or algebra are) is trying to talk me into taking introductory algebra. This means if I go up to calc i'll have to take the follow: intro algebra, intermediate algebra, pre-calc & calc... i'm not going to take all of these if the program I transfer into doesn't require them. So - please, if you know whether, on average, college programs require calc for game designers and/or computer animators then please let me know. Oh... and I have to know by today or else I have to keep the algebra class.

Well I already took both introductory & intermediate algebra at another college. I transfered into this college and placed into intermediate algebra. I don't have to take a math class, because i've already taken statistics. The only problem is that I keep getting told that I need to take calc. But i've just recently found out that game designers "probably" don't need calculus. The only computer related degrees my school offers are: Computer Science (requires beyond Calc III) & management of information systems (because it's in the school of business it requies either calculus I or business calculus).

Other than that I have no clue whether going into intermediate algebra, pre-calc & calc would even be beneficial or needed. I already know how to work w/ geometric forms & i'm capable of applying algebraic forumulas for various programming problems.

Not exactly answering your question, and I don't work in the industry, but reading these forums I've picked up on two things:

1) Game designers usually start as game programmers.
2) A game designer who knows a thing or two about being a game programmer will have an easier time communicating his design to the game programmers.

You can draw your own conclusions.

I dont know much about whether youre going to "need" calculus in your life...if you're not too far from the prerequisites, I would urge you as an educated adult to take a stab at it...when you get some of the unique oddness down, basic calculus helps explain a lot of things in math and science that, until you pick it up, are pretty much learned by memorization. Calculus helps you gain an appreciation of math and physics that is really beneficial, in my opinion.

"pre-calculus" is basically just making sure you've got your algebra down, and trigonometry. Trig and calculus tend to go together, but really as long as you arent being a slacker, pre-calc should be a breeze.

Well, down to the wire here, i've decided i'll consider staying in intermediate algebra. I'll take precalc either next semester or the summer. I plan to ask an academic advisor at the nearest college to offer computer animation and/or game design classes on what I should do. Unfortunately the closest college to me costs an arm & a leg for tuition.

I'll probably end up doing what Will Wright did though :-P

If you're interested in becoming a designer, take a look at these interviews at gamespot: So you wanna be: a game designer.

Thanks Will - i've saved it to favorites.

I also didn't seen to use calculus or math in game programming, algorithmization a lot, however not math. Programming is most often about discrete math, and possibly about error handling, and about using brain and solving problems. So called calculus is unneeded. On the other hand title is often needed, and universities are believing that math is somewhat correlated with successful university student, and are pressing it heavily. Math and programming has if any just a lose correlation. A lot of excelent mathemathicians are loosy programmers. While it might have something with theirs approach, and love for programming, there are also excelent programmers that are bad in math.

That said, there is no position anyone could be hired as game designer. It would be bit silly to hire someone that didn't prove himself he could design something realizable, playable, and nice enough. Often people at position called game designer are people like aritist, leading programmer, or someone from trustable programmers that are known for being able to create something aritistic, and realizable until deadline.